"A late period hard-rock, proto-punk entry in Zambian guitarist and bandleader Paul Ngozi's extensive catalog. LP includes oversized eight-page booklet detailing Ngozi's arc, rare photographs, discography and annotations. Zamrock was a bona-fide rock scene: on the African continent, only Nigeria can claim one so comprehensive, and Nigeria's was largely catalyzed and funded by subsidiaries of the European major labels. Zamrock was as independent as the newly-named country, formerly known as Northern Rhodesia. Zamrock is starting in its completeness, especially for a scene that emerged, unfurled and disappeared so quickly. From Musi-O-Tunya's fusion of Fela's Afro-beat, Hendrix's rock, South African jazz and traditional Zambian melodies and rhythms to Salty Dog's acid folk/rock, Zambia's rock scene contained all of rock's subgenres. Zamrock was much more than an imitation of American and European rock music: it quickly became a uniquely Zambian movement, befitting of its name. WITCH, Paul Ngozi, and Amanaz sound nothing like other rock music from the African continent -- or elsewhere. Zamrock came from a nation's youth carrying forth the momentum of a political and social revolution with a musical revolution that maintained the fiery power of early rock -- in the mid-to late-'70s. From that era, Zamrock's energy is matched only by the punk and hip-hop scenes of England and America."

LP version. Limited blue crystal clear color vinyl. Gatefold sleeve. Includes four-page booklet. For years, Manu Chao has been travelling the world to meet his fans in unusual venues, villages and small festivals. Elusive, but always accessible to those who cross his path, Manu now presents his new studio album Viva Tu, a collection of songs written at the heart of daily lives and struggles, and a fresh take on the state of the world, singing sunny, universal songs in Spanish, French, English and Portuguese, painting an unforgiving picture of social imbalances. The lead song "Viva Tu," a heartfelt rumba dedicated to the daily life heroes, has already made its mark. The second single, "São Paulo Motoboy," is a colorful, sunny ode to the two-wheeled delivery people venturing the Latin American metropoles every day. The album also features some memorable collaborations, including "Heaven's Bad Day" with country legend Willie Nelson and "Tu Te Vas" with rising French rapper Laeti. Also available as CD (BEC 5613918), black color vinyl (BEC 5613919), and picture disc vinyl (BEC 5613921).

"Smoky hustler music by North Memphis's Skinny Pimp, a former member of Three 6 Mafia recorded in 1993 and originally released on cassette. This is part of Now Again Records multiple LP series on the history of Memphis rap, which attempts to capture Memphis and its underground rap scene as it began to produce some of the most distinctive music of the '90s. This was a unique hip-hop strain -- visceral and often vicious. It was a local, low-fi, cassette-tape based movement -- yet it went on to change the course of rap music. These albums have never been pressed on vinyl - until now. From Skinny Pimp and Carmike to Gangsta Blac and Shawty Pimp, these albums have been relegated to the proverbial bins of history and bootlegged, with unofficial copies still fetching top dollar on the secondary market. These albums were all licensed directly from their original creators, and come on limited edition colored vinyl with artist-approved imagery for their first LP iterations. You can read the story of the Memphis rap scene in a 12-page, oversized booklet with notes by Torii MacAdams. It captures the story of Memphis rap starting with the city's founding and ending with an auto supply shop that sold these albums over the counter, with all points in between. Pressed on galaxy ice-colored vinyl with a 12-page booklet."

"The music of New York trio Weak Signal (Mike Bones, guitar and voice; Sasha Vine, electric bass, violin, and voice; Tran, drums and voice) is a masterclass in simplicity and economy but these aspects aren't present for their own didactic sake. Rather, their art is world-building in the most essential of ways, subtly spinning out in an enveloping, rich haze from a clear, architectural core. There are sections of knife-like collective squall and dialogic drift that glance at improvised music; while not strictly pop, the tunes are incredibly catchy with wry, keenly memorable lyrics that easily stick in one's craw. With associations including Endless Boogie, Sian Alice Group, and Soldiers of Fortune, Weak Signal formed in 2017. They waxed two full lengths in the period leading up to the pandemic, and during that unsettling year -- plus without many gigs to speak of, the trio kept busy and unleashed a handful of choice digital EPs and a couple of split 7" singles. Fine is their fourth full-length to date, its tight ten-song program fleshed out with sonic icing from keyboardist Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip) and guitarists Doug Shaw (Gang Gang Dance; White Magic) and Cass McCombs. Fine is an unhurried jewel in the trio's discography, partly the result of the time it took to write. Even if the vibe and structure is familiar -- and one can easily pick out their stripped-down jangle, like the lovechild of the Rain Parade and Lungfish -- there's a clear evolution over the course of their records, each one more finely-tuned and comfortable. Fine was recorded by Jon Erickson and mixed by Rupert Clervaux, whose expertise has been called in for records by Spiritualized and pianist Matthew Shipp, among others, keeping just enough of the SoundCloud lo-fi aesthetic to ensure it's a proper Weak Signal record."

World-renowned drummer-composer Valentina Magaletti teams up with music producer and multi-instrumentalist Zongamin in their East London studio to create an album of dub/post-punk influenced material, featuring Vanishing Twin's Cathy Lucas, Coby Sey, and Venus Ex Machina. Dub postcards, east London boats, reflections in the eye of a cat, swallowing your tarot card, spitting echo from calming substances, yellow paint on the shut-down local brunch spot, post-punk golden rules, shaking metal memories in a glass jar. Absence of sound shaped in summertime 2022.

LP version. "Parisian-by-choice Detlef Weinrich aka Tolouse Low Trax turns the page again. Always willing for a new episode, notion, impulse, idea, ideal. Searching for some light out there. Now Kiosque Versions, a compilation compiled by himself, featuring seven edits by friends and treasured artists. They renew some rare TLT tunes, as well as hits, that never took the charts by storm. There is French legend and Tigersushi boss Joakim, edging the TLT winner Rushing Into Water from 2016. A guarded stepper, dancy, trippy, with an enchantress on his shoulder, that haunts your body and soul. The 2020 TLT tune "Dawn Is Temporal," taken from his album Jumping Dead Leafs, comes as an old school hip hop leaning track, re-fashioned by New York's Beat Detectives, including Amen-Break and nod-your-head vibes. Producer Ido Plumes from Bristol took "Tristeros Empire" home and worked it club-wise. A nervous beating modification, Detroit machines, motorway funk, cosmic gasps - pure driller killer. Glasgow's Dip Friso stays tense too. Echoes, tribal bounce, manic loops. Another driller in dub heaven. Like Paris based digi-dub explorers Froid Dub, who bring a great wave of warm grooves, making baroque-esk dub friends with "Make Friends," a TLT track from his legendary three-volume strong 2016 Antinote sampler compendium. Their fellow countryman Simo Cell nervously metamorphoses "A Song and a Photo Novella," a TLT soundtrack for a film by artist Nicolàs Guagnini. His version has all that bass, vibrates on an experimental subconsciousness, and aims the dancefloor with a stirring bouquet of rhythmic ideas. The dot on the I comes from TLT himself, remixing his very own music, translating the Gamelan melancholy of "Subghosts," a tune from his 2010 debut album Mask Talk, into today, refined with dubby upsetting notes, a speed lift, and a very playful TLT groove. Let's turn the page." --Michael Leuffen

Epic, grooving, dazzlingly creative, perfectly attuned blends of complex mbalax drumming, field recordings, thumping kick-drum, and cosmic, bubbling, jamming synths and electronics. The opening is suitably liminal, haunted by a diachronic sense of times past, present, and to come: ancestral ghosts, scratched playback, scraps of old recordings, voices strangulated or just out of range; puttering drums; futuristic, kosmische keys. Part II picks up the pace; III gives the drummers some, and heightens the atmosphere of enchantment. Jon Hassell's Fourth World music courses through a kind of Dream Theory In Dakar. "Toco SOS," the second side, is a thumping, throbbing, mesmeric future-classic. Expert hand percussion, call-and-response singing, bin-trembling foot-drum, spaceways keys. Sleekly funky as prime Popol Vuh. Both sides range expansively by way of Berlin, where Lamin resided for a few years. Half an hour of stunning music; in a beautiful sleeve, with mirror lettering, and an intricate spot-gloss rendition of salt crystals, laid over a photograph of the salt mines at Lac Rose, outside Dakar.

"Sublime ethereal minimalism from Hiroyuki Onogawa on this retrospective compilation album for Mana, the first dedicated release and remaster of his soundtrack compositions. The album August in the Water: Music for Film 1995-2005 plots a decade of Onogawa's compositions for films by the renowned filmmaker Gakuryū Ishii (formally known as Sogo Ishii). This retrospective publication, sequenced into an album by Onogawa himself, spans a fertile period of collaboration with Ishii, through soundtracks for three remarkable films: August in the Water (1995), Labyrinth of Dreams (1997), and Mirrored Mind (2005). Each feels texturally and sensually linked with the spiritual, ambient, dreamlike quality that lingers in Onogawa's music. The sound Onogawa conjures for these films is elegant and patient, often minimal or essential in form, but saturated in a poetic emotion and atmosphere that feels strange and otherworldly, touched by the metaphysical in subtle ways. Boundaries are crossed between New Age and science fiction, locating a blissfulness, melancholy and paranoia within the same spectrum, and moving toward an enchanting sense of mood and color. New listeners might hear links to Mark Snow's compositional work for the X-Files and Millennium, or other celebrated future-facing and future-fearing Japanese anime or cyberpunk. Onogawa's music adds great depth and tenor to the sensory experience of the films themselves, but it stands just as strongly as a listening experience on its own terms, a virtuosic example of ambient that changes in hue when turned in the light. Remarkably, and in similar circumstances to Ishii, Onogawa's work has never been widely available outside of (always highly enthusiastic) underground fan posts, usually sourced from extremely limited and private CDs limited to Japan. This retrospective seeks to remedy that, and hopes to achieve recognition for Onogawa as one of the great composers of the last three decades. Onogawa continues to work in film, both in the creation of soundtracks, and now as a producer and director. He composed the music for Koji Fukada's Harmonium (2016), which won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as for Fukada's A Girl Missing (2019)."

Monolake: "My studio is my shelter, I feel comfortable there, surrounded by wonderful inspiring machines. A small cozy room where ideas emerge, mature, morph, and solidify into their final shape. Studio is the result of spending time in that space. The album's intention is simple: Presenting a beautiful personal musical journey. The creative process in itself matters to me, the interaction with my instruments, the accidental discoveries, the successful execution of a vision and anything in between. Most of the tracks on this album got revised countless times, and then even more, once I knew in which context and order I wanted to arrange them. I have been living with my music for months now, listening, thinking, changing, diving deeper and deeper into each piece. I love albums, they are a beautiful long-form format where each part has its place, a journey from the start till the end. Each piece has its own story, its own flavor and history. Some of them have been with me since a while already. There is material which I created years ago for installations and music derived from previous audiovisual works, all completely ripped apart and rearranged multiple times. During their creation my pieces often turn into something completely different, they repeatedly shift from one state to another until they become solid. What I consider a core element at the beginning might be later discarded completely, and a little detail in the background might become the essence. Many explorations ended in the trash bin before the results had a chance to be part of Studio. Things did not fall into place, did not feel right. Other compositions had to fill the void instead, some created quickly in a rush of inspiration, some slowly, shy, questioning their significance. This album did not come into existence in a hurry, it took as long as it needed. I used the time to walk around my creations, to listen to them from the distance, physically, mentally, with friends, in all kinds of different contexts. I tried to understand what I just did. I started to see patterns, hidden motifs, things that were buried in between too many layers of sound. What is essential? What is ornament? I reduced, rearranged, added again. The closer I got to the final state of Studio the more clarity I found..." Composed, mixed and produced by Robert Henke, 2024.

2024 repress; LP version. Five years in, with two acclaimed albums and dozens of international performances, Mark Ernestus' Ndagga Rhythm Force announces Yermande, a new phase for this Dakar‐Berlin collaboration. "This time around I was better able to specify what I wanted right from the initial recording sessions in Dakar," says Ernestus, "... I took more freedom in reducing and editing audio tracks, changing MIDI data, replacing synth sounds and introducing electronic drum samples." Rather than submitting to the routine, discrete gradations of recording, producing and mixing, the music is tangibly permeated with deadly intent from the start. Lethally it plays a clipped, percussive venom and thumping bass against the soaring, open-throated spirituality of Mbene Seck's singing. The drumming is unpredictable, exclamatory, zinging with life. Likewise the production: intuitive and fresh but utterly attentive, limber but hefty. Six chunks of next­level mbalax - funky as anything. "Lamb Ji" is traditional wrestling, the most popular sport in Senegal, always introduced by hours of drumming, gris-gris magic and dancing (led by the fighters themselves). Born into the Momori griot clan in Tivaouane, Mbene moved to Pikine on the outskirts of Dakar, where Ndongo Lo was first to invite her to sing at lamb events. Here she pays homage to all the popular fighters of recent times. Evoking the ancient legacy of the griots, "Walo Walo" is also the name of the sabar rhythm underlying this track, which features Ibou Mbaye's percussive synth­work, Mangone Ndiaye Dieng's kit-drumming, and Bada Seck's jolts of lower-pitched thiol drum. "Simb" ("Lion") refers to traditional drumming and dancing events, at which a cavorting "faux lion" frightens the audience members. "Jigeen" means "Woman": "Man should know every woman is your mother. Cherish a woman. Respect a woman's dignity. Look after the people who were there when you had nothing." A tribute to the Baye Fall leader, "Ndiguel" is the most traditional cut, showcasing Assane Ndoye Cisse's insinuating guitar lines, Laye Lo's super‐elasticated snare‐drumming, and Bada Seck playing the khine drums associated with the Baye Fall. "Yermande" takes a former associate to task: "Stop prompting the witchdoctor to curse us. Leave people alone and let them go their own way. Take yours; leave ours to us" Like "Lamb Ji" and "Simb", featuring all four sabar players: Bada Seck, Serigne Mamoune Seck, Abou Salla Seck and Alioune Seck.

LP version. Wewantsounds presents the release of BAG's first album since 1973, For Peace and Liberty, recorded in Paris in Dec. 1972 when the musicians had recently arrived from St Louis. BAG only released one album during their existence. This long-lost performance, recorded at Maison de l'ORTF in optimal conditions just a few months previously, was thought lost until recently unearthed from the vaults of INA (Institut National de l'Audiovisuel). Here the group unleashes an incandescent 35-minute set mixing free improvisation and spiritual jazz with funk grooves. Released in partnership with the band and INA, the album features sound remastered from the original tapes, plus a 20-page booklet featuring words by Oliver Lake, Joseph Bowie, and Baikida Carroll plus Bobo Shaw's and Floyd LeFlore's daughters as well as extensive liner notes by BAG scholar Benjamin Looker and previously unseen photos by cult French photographer Philippe Gras. The Black Artist Group (BAG) was founded in St Louis, USA, in 1968 to promote local artists from the burgeoning Black Arts movement, including musicians, playwrights, dancers and poets. The BAG quintet heard here pulled together key musicians from the larger organization, including Oliver Lake on sax, Baikida Carroll, and Floyd LeFlore on trumpet, Joseph Bowie on trombone and Charles 'Bobo' Shaw on drums. The musicians emerged from the organization to become a vital force within the late '60s free jazz revolution. Modelled on the AACM and the Art Ensemble of Chicago with whom they had close ties, this subset of BAG musicians followed in the footsteps of their Chicago colleagues, relocating to Paris in the early '70s on the recommendation of Lester Bowie, Joseph's older brother. Arriving in the French capital in Oct. 1972 the group made an instant impact on its underground music scene. In December of that year, Andre Francis, ORTF's jazz supremo invited them onto his "Jazz sur Scene" radio show, which showcased four groups live over two hours. Arriving onto the stage of the prestigious Studio 104 auditorium of the Maison de la Radio, the group delivered a jaw-dropping 35-minute set that left the audience mesmerized. Only thanks to a chance listening of another concert -- where the BAG live set was buried within -- was the recording unearthed making this historic release possible fifty years on. The release counts as an invaluable document, shedding fresh light on one of the most fascinating groups in modern jazz history.

WRWTFWW Records furthers its collaboration with Japanese electronic/ambient group Interior by releasing their never-heard-before soundtrack for environmental artist NILS-UDO's 1987 Laserdisc Sculpture of Time (Apocalypse). The intriguing sound design/kankyō ongaku/new age album is available as a limited-edition LP housed in a heavyweight 350gsm sleeve and comes with a obi strip. In 1987, Intermission published a Japan-only Laserdisc showcasing one hour of works created by renowned German environmental artist NILS-UDO. To accompany the visuals, they commissioned electronic music group Interior, fresh off their Haroumi Hosono-produced self-titled debut (also available on WRWTFWW Records) and their Windham Hill Records-released sophomore album Design. For the first time ever, the soundtrack is now available in full HD glory, demonstrating Daisuke Hinata, Eiki Nonaka, Mitsuru Sawamura, and Tsukasa Betto's precise, subtle, and spellbinding approach to ambient sound design. Calming nature sounds, ritualistic synths, meditative atmospheres, and eruptive forays into darker territories mesh superbly in a four-part soundscape that flirts with oeuvres such Midori Takada's Through The Looking Glass and Hiroshi Yoshimura's Green, making Sculpture of Time one of one of the best kept secrets of kankyō ongaku -- a must have for mystery hunters and levitating music lovers.

2024 restock. This is one from the heart. The unique pre-war music of the Cajun bayous, the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine and Poland, and the American rural countryside has been collected to narrate the human odyssey of love gained and love lost. Early songs of unbridled anticipation and desperate longing color the canvas of love, courtship, dejection and marriage... a never-ending cycle. The accompanying 16-page booklet features many rare, previously unpublished images and comprehensive lyrical translations. Three original artworks by Robert Crumb provide a backdrop for these sublime songs of passion and despair. Respectfully crafted by Christopher King and Susan Archie for Angry Mom Records.

2024 repress. Be With Records present the first ever official reissue of Kimiko Kasai with Herbie Hancock's Butterfly, originally released in 1979. The positively sublime and very rare Butterfly LP, recorded in Tokyo in 1979 by Japanese songstress Kimiko Kasai and jazz legend Herbie Hancock. Due to its super-rare status as a Japan-only release, this exquisite collection of covers never got the recognition it deserved at the time, despite incredibly inspired performances from Kimiko, Herbie, and the supremely talented musicians assembled for the project. From heavenly drummer Alphonse Mouzon and renowned organist Webster Lewis to bassist Paul Jackson, reedman Bennie Maupin, and the master percussionist Bill Summers, the legendary performers crafted amazingly good vocal versions of Herbie/Headhunters jazz-funk. Unsurprisingly, it has been heavily in demand for many years. The LP opens with Kimiko's highly desirable version of "I Thought It Was You", an elegant take on Herbie's own anthem. Other superb re-workings include the delicately soulful "Butterfly", jazzy groover "Sunlight", the smooth and sexy "Tell Me A Bedtime Story", and the beautiful ballads "Maiden Voyage" and "Harvest Time". A wonderful example of perfectly understated and masterful jazz-funk soul fusion that shouldn't be missed, the set closes with a jaw-dropping version of Stevie Wonder's "As". This lovingly curated reissue enables a long overdue reappraisal of this hitherto unavailable masterpiece. The stunning artwork which adorned the original jacket -- complete with obi strip and sumptuous four-page folded insert -- has been faithfully restored. Mastered by Simon Francis, and pressed on 180 gram vinyl.

2024 repress; LP version. 140 gram vinyl; gatefold sleeve; includes 16-page insert with photos and liner notes. For the first time since its inception in 1983, Steve Hiett's elusive Down On The Road By The Beach is finally made available outside of Japan. Most recognized in the fashion sphere as an English photographer and graphic designer, Hiett's transportive audio portraits amplify his serpentine guitar to the infinite blue, recorded across Paris, Tokyo and New York. A career devotee of Brian Wilson's groundbreaking harmonies, Hiett shot The Beach Boys for Rolling Stone -- as well as The Doors, Miles Davis, and Jimi Hendrix -- while establishing himself as a fashion photographer. Decamping to Paris in 1972, he began what would become 20-year collaborations with Vogue Paris and Marie Claire. In 1982, representatives from Tokyo's Galerie Watari visited him to propose a solo exhibition. Asking if he could insert a 7" of original music into the back of the exhibition catalogue, Hiett laid down "Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach" in a Parisian radio station, playing all of the instruments himself, and two more cuts in New York with Yoko Ono, The Doobie Brothers, and Steely Dan hired-gun, Elliot Randall. Once dispatched, there were requests for him to fly to Tokyo to record; it wasn't until he arrived that he discovered CBS/Sony had facilitated an entire album. Heitt hastily gripped some petty cash, bought a guitar, and retreated to his hotel room to start writing. Entering the studio the following day, he was further surprised by a waiting room of session players known as Moonriders -- one of Japan's most acclaimed rock bands of the 1980s. Intimidated by their indecipherable sheet music, Hiett suggested Randall join them and with money being no object for major labels at the time, his wingman was on the next plane out of New York. Near-ambient arrangements that float in a space between The Durutti Column, Steve Cropper, and Ashra, Down On The Road By The Beach also crowns Hiett the master of recontextualization with his zero-gravity blues visions of "Roll Over Beethoven", Santo & Johnny's "Sleep Walk" and the 1967 Eddie Floyd soul hit, "Never Found A Girl". Produced in coordination between Be With Records, Efficient Space and the artist, this definitive reissue is restored from original masters; extensive liner notes penned by Mikey IQ Jones.

2024 restock, last copies. Frozen Reeds presents the only recorded duo playing of two legendary musical figures. Derek Bailey and Paul Motian -- two longstanding pioneers of distinct strains of improvised music -- came together for a brief period of collaboration in the early 1990s. Tapes of their two known live performances (one at Groningen's JazzMarathon festival in the Netherlands, the other a year later at New Music Cafe, NYC) were recently unearthed in the Incus archives, and their contents will surprise and delight fans of both supremely idiosyncratic musicians. The Groningen concert (1990) is released on vinyl, while the New York date (1991) is included with the digital download, which is included free of charge for all purchasers. A conversation between Bill Frisell and Henry Kaiser on Bailey, Motian, their intertwined backgrounds, and the significance of these recordings is included as sleeve-note insert. Each player bringing decades of crucial experience to their encounters -- with histories taking in vast swathes of the development of jazz and free improvisation -- these fleeting shared moments provide some of the most riveting playing in the career of either. There is precious little recorded evidence of Motian as a free improviser, but his mastery is beyond any doubt in these recordings. From knife-edge precision to textural haze, Motian's palette is astounding, but perhaps even more impressive is his confidence in the non-idiomatic conversation itself. Pushing far beyond the established vocabulary of free percussion, his playing allows a measured degree of repetition to take form, giving rise to almost song-like structures. In turn, Bailey allows some of his most unashamedly melodic passages to unfold without a mote of his trademark contrariness or antagonism. Patterns that would be acerbically disrupted elsewhere are allowed to settle, with variations of note and timbre introduced more gradually than is typical of his playing. When forceful changes in dynamics or tone do arrive, they do so in such close tandem with Motian's rhythmic and textural transitions as to beggar belief. The guitarist's duos with percussionists (Jamie Muir, Han Bennink, John Stevens) arguably provide some of the highlights of his discography. Duo in Concert represents a strong addition to the list. An elegant sense of construction pervades the sets, as the duo ably fulfil the promise of free improvisation: carving out hugely compelling, expertly balanced, and thrillingly paced music as if from thin air.

2024 restock; double LP version. Pioneers in their own musical approaches, Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto, began their exploration of sound in the evocatively titled V.I.R.U.S series in 2002. After more than a decade from the release of the collection's final installment with summvs in 2011, NOTON reissues all the five albums between June and October 2022. With its impressionistic atmosphere, in this collaborative project two generations met and shared the idea of electronic music as an inspiration source for new musical structures. Over a series of five albums, Vrioon (2002), Insen (2005), Revep (2006), utp_ (2008), and summvs (2011), the duo has explored blending electronic and acoustic sounds into a meditative whole that is at once expressive, breathing and precision-engineered. Remastered in collaboration with Calyx Mastering, the recordings are made available under the title Remaster, accompanied by exclusive, unreleased compositions and housed in a beautifully designed sleeve with original cover art by Carsten Nicolai. In November 2022, a dedicated, limited edition cardboard slipcase will be available as a separate item from the V.I.R.U.S.

2024 restock. Daphne Oram is best-known for the design of her Oramics system, and also for co-founding the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1957, but until the release of this material, the only easily-available piece of music by her on CD was the 8-minute long "Four Aspects." There was also a 7" EP from 1962 on HMV, released as part of the Listen, Move and Dance series that was specifically designed to help children dance. Although the short pieces on this record are very basic, it could be argued that this is the first-ever electronic dance record! This is a survey of nearly all the major pieces that she produced since her departure from the BBC in January 1959 until her final tape piece in 1977. During this time, she worked independently in her home studio, and thanks to a grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation in 1962, she was able to pursue her interests. In Britain there were no state-funded studios other than the Radiophonic Workshop, which mainly existed at the behest of the drama studio and was not generally seen as a place to develop personal artistic ideas. There were also no university studios at this time, so it was necessary for British electronic composers to be self-funded. Throughout this period, she devoted her attention to developing her Oramics "drawn sound" system, which consisted of a large machine that enabled drawn patterns to be converted into sound. This system was eventually fully realized in the late '60s and several pieces here incorporate its use. The two and-a-half hours of music on this 2CD set covers the whole range of Oram's post-BBC output. All of the music is electronic with some occasional use of real instruments, especially small percussion and piano frame. There is also some use of musique concrète techniques. The works fall roughly into the following categories: works for TV and cinema advertising, film soundtracks, music for theater productions, installations and exhibitions as well as concert pieces and several studio experiments. There are also a few short pieces that resulted from an experimental music course given by Oram at a high school in Yorkshire in 1967.

The Tumbling Psychic Joy of Now is a ritualistic and expanding collaborative album between Holy Tongue and Shackleton. Holy Tongue are a trio composed of Valentina Magaletti, Al Wootton, and Susumu Mukai. Accomplished musicians in their own right, they combined to create psychedelic, free-form, high energy, spiritual dub-dance music across a trilogy of critically acclaimed EPs and their debut album Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare. Their high energy live performances invoke the experimental dub of On-U-Sound, the frenetic rhythms of 23 Skidoo, Liquid Liquid, and ESG, and the spiritual energy of free jazz. The trio's dynamic collaboration extends in their meeting with Shackleton, one of the most original and critically lauded voices in electronic music. Shackleton has moved from the depths of the early 2000s dubstep underground to a diverse range of international collaborations and commissions over the last two decades. After honing his hypnotic beats on the cult UK record label Skull Disco, his unique rhythmic touch is now heard on some of the most adventurous and progressive projects that have emerged from the European dance scene in recent years. Shackleton's work explores conceptual and spiritual themes with an emotional depth beyond most artists working in European dance music today, and his visions of inner space, apocalypse and dread are more-timely than ever before. This record was conceived after Holy Tongue and Shackleton shared a festival line up in Sweden. Holy Tongue were initially keen to get Shackleton to remix one of their existing tracks but they soon decided to have a project together and work on some fresh new music, allowing Shackleton to do something more creative with it in the studio. Thus, Holy Tongue recorded a collection of raw material in the studio and sent it to Shackleton. The result is far more than the sum of its parts. A psychedelic, ritualistic, dub trip, oscillating between the maximal and the minimal, the internal and the external, the micro and the macro, ecstasy and agony, all The Tumbling Psychic Joy Of Now.

2024 repress; 2017 release. Two seminal 12" mixes of a pair of Michael Wycoff heavy hitters from 1982. One a two-step favorite and one a loft classic, these sought-after versions have never been paired on the same record. Side A features the smooth-gliding anthem "Looking Up To You" whilst Side B houses the legendary Tee Scott dub mix of uplifting boogie gem "Diamond Real".

2024 restock; double LP version. "A great live recording on Vinyl & CD on Jazzline! This release in a series of live recordings of concerts from the 'Fabrik' in Hamburg-Altona, one of those hidden treasures from the archive of the NDR, was intended to bring back the memory of changes and revolutions in the world of jazz of more than four decades ago. It has now turned into an obituary -- at the end of September 2022 the tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders passed away at the age of 81. This recording of the Sanders Quartet from 6 June 1980 is so far the oldest from the 'Fabrik', predating the great jazz-epoch of the venue. An era, which even today Thomas Engel, the first program planner of the 'Fabrik', describes as a very special period for popular and not-so-popular culture in Hamburg and far beyond. Furthermore, this concert formed part of the then fifth edition of what was still called the 'New Jazz Festival', a summit of German, European and US-American musicians. Only thanks to the NDR Bigband, top-class jazz was performed at the old industrial site on Barnerstrasse in Altona at all. In the mid-1970s, the band was brave enough to leave its familiar recording studio and perform rousing concerts at the 'Fabrik'. Since 1976, the 'New Jazz Festival' organized by Wolfgang Kunert, the program planner of the big band, institutionalized jazz music at this exceptional location."

"Few bands are as primed to capture their ecstatic live energy in masterful sonic detail like Terry Gross. Composed of three renowned engineer/producers (recording artists like Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo, Earthless, Big Business, and more) whose studio doubles as their jam spot and communal gathering place, the trio's penchant for longform psychedelic escapades is able to be recorded with granular precision. The potency of the fellowship formed by drummer Phil Becker (Lower Forty-Eight, Peace Creeps, Pins of Light), bassist Donny Newenhouse, and guitarist Phil Manley (Trans Am, Oneida, Life Coach) lies in their ability to utilize their prowess as both players and record engineers to translate feeling with immaculate clarity. On Huge Improvement, Terry Gross embody a complex web of emotion with songs as ferocious and precise as they are agile and care-free, delighting in the catharsis of excising tension alongside one's most trusted peers. Huge Improvement's tongue-in-cheek title is rightfully earned. Like their debut Soft Opening, the pieces on Huge Improvement began as improvised studio jam sessions without expectations. The trio's ability to plug in, play and have each experiment thoroughly documented opens up unparalleled avenues for further exploration and honing. The four mammoth slabs that make up Huge Improvement are driving, unrelenting excursions into the unknown. Whether burning white-hot or smoldering in plumes of smoke, the pieces stretch as much inwardly as they do cosmically, embracing every surprising turn. Terry Gross's Huge Improvement morphs the trio's search for communal connection and reprieve into a transcendent respite, a burst of focused energy to be enveloped in while facing the senselessness around us with a smile."

"...this isn't tribute-band trash; part of Manley's skill is in hauling new feeling out of well-trodden ideas." --Pitchfork

2024 restock. Wewantsounds announces the reissue of Fumio Itabashi's highly sought-after album Watarase, hailed as one of the great Japanese jazz albums and featuring Itabashi on solo piano playing an inspired mix of standards and originals. Recorded in 1981 for Denon and released in Japan the following year, the album has since reached cult status among international jazz connoisseurs, thanks to Itabashi's inventive piano playing and to its cult title track, a superb lyrical spiritual composition. Newly remastered by Nippon Columbia using their ORT mastering technology, the album reissue features original artwork including a two-page insert with a new introduction by Paul Bowler. Born in 1949 in Tochigi, Fumio Itabashi studied piano at the renowned Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo, where Joe Hisaishi also studied. After finishing his studies, he quickly began recording as a session player for Japanese heavyweights such as Sadao Watanabe (making his recording debut on Watanabe's 1972 self-titled album), Terumasa Hino, and Kohsuke Mine before recording his first album as a leader -- accompanied by his trio -- with the album Toh released by Frasco Record in 1976. In October 1981, Itabashi entered Nippon Columbia's Studio 1 to digitally record a new album using Denon's PCM digital recorder as a follow up to Nature. The album, called Watarase was cut in just two days and feature Itabashi on solo piano, playing a couple of standards ("Someday My Prince Will Come" and "I Can't Get Started") and four originals plus "Msunduza," a Dollar Brand composition from 1975. The album highlights the pianist's dazzling technique oscillating between energetic passages as on "Msunduza" and more serene ones as heard on "Someday My Prince Will Come." The high point of the album is undoubtedly its title track, "Watarase" which has become a favorite on the international jazz scene over the years. Paul Bowler, in the liner notes, draws comparisons between Itabashi's and Pharoah Sanders' playing, noting that they both "possess a similar open-hearted blend of spiritualism, passionate intensity and melodic beauty." Watarase was never widely available outside of Japan (with only a limited edition in 2018). Wewantsounds is therefore delighted to bring this classic back in circulation, newly remastered in Tokyo by Nippon Columbia for all Japanese jazz lovers to enjoy.

Double LP version.Monolake: "My studio is my shelter, I feel comfortable there, surrounded by wonderful inspiring machines. A small cozy room where ideas emerge, mature, morph, and solidify into their final shape. Studio is the result of spending time in that space. The album's intention is simple: Presenting a beautiful personal musical journey. The creative process in itself matters to me, the interaction with my instruments, the accidental discoveries, the successful execution of a vision and anything in between. Most of the tracks on this album got revised countless times, and then even more, once I knew in which context and order I wanted to arrange them. I have been living with my music for months now, listening, thinking, changing, diving deeper and deeper into each piece. I love albums, they are a beautiful long-form format where each part has its place, a journey from the start till the end. Each piece has its own story, its own flavor and history. Some of them have been with me since a while already. There is material which I created years ago for installations and music derived from previous audiovisual works, all completely ripped apart and rearranged multiple times. During their creation my pieces often turn into something completely different, they repeatedly shift from one state to another until they become solid. What I consider a core element at the beginning might be later discarded completely, and a little detail in the background might become the essence. Many explorations ended in the trash bin before the results had a chance to be part of Studio. Things did not fall into place, did not feel right. Other compositions had to fill the void instead, some created quickly in a rush of inspiration, some slowly, shy, questioning their significance. This album did not come into existence in a hurry, it took as long as it needed. I used the time to walk around my creations, to listen to them from the distance, physically, mentally, with friends, in all kinds of different contexts. I tried to understand what I just did. I started to see patterns, hidden motifs, things that were buried in between too many layers of sound. What is essential? What is ornament? I reduced, rearranged, added again. The closer I got to the final state of Studio the more clarity I found..." Composed, mixed and produced by Robert Henke, 2024.

Meaning shifts throughout Martha Skye Murphy's debut album Um with songs that meld moments of baroque beauty with crashes of electronic noise, employing textures that are by turns organic and artificial, hi-fi and lo-fi. Collaborations with the likes of Claire Rousay and Roy Montgomery are finely intertwined with the fruits of rigorous studio sessions with producer Ethan P. Flynn. Lyrically Martha conjures images inspired by everything from Ancient Roman hand-binding torture to a Fred and Ginger tap routine. The listener is catapulted across landscapes and left disoriented. "First Day" consists of individual notes recorded remotely on different instruments across Texas, New Zealand and London, coalescing into one hovering chord around a field recording Murphy took while wandering New York. It's telling that when Marta Salogni, who mixed the album, first heard Um, she commented that it was like experiencing a memory of an experience that hadn't yet happened. As a vocalist Murphy has a rare talent for transformation, from her intimate, cracked whispers over the hypnotic drift of "Theme Parks," to her piercing disembodied wails as "Kind" implodes into a cataclysm of electronic noise. Elsewhere, she offers little more than a distracted hum. In the studio, she and co-producer Ethan P. Flynn focused on maximizing those vocal capabilities by teasing out different personas. On the crystalline "Pick Yourself Up," part of which she wanted to sound like a lullaby, she cradled objects as she sang in order to draw out the maternal. It would be an oversimplification to say that Murphy inhabits different characters on the record. Rather, she extracts different characters from the depths of her own psyche who gesture towards the fact that "the self" is ultimately a vague and impermanent thing. She can be both exorcist and orator.

LP version. After dipping into the archive to deliver a series of essential reissues, Bureau B continue to encourage the chaotic brilliance of Faust with an LP of brand-new music curated by originator Zappi Diermaier and a band of musical friends, including fellow founder Gunther Wüsthoff. Over the years Faust has become many things, each as separate as the fingers, but as together as the hand which makes up their eponymous fist. From 1971 to 1974 the Hamburg band blazed a bold sonic trail, helping to create the distinct and delirious strand of German music we've come to know as Krautrock. Uncompromising, innovative and experimental, their releases in that period, and the stories accompanying their creation, are nothing short of legendary, and the fact that after a hiatus, the band returned and remained active in a variety of separate and simultaneous incarnations is entirely fitting for these musical revolutionaries. On Blickwinkel, Diermaier's incarnation embrace synchronicity and chance in order to capture the moment in a six-track snapshot of industrial churn, unsettling ambience and psychedelic motorik. Sonically and politically, Blickwinkel is a profoundly Faustian venture, a communal project based on democratic ideals which eschews external influences to create something entirely out on its own. As with the previous LP, Daumenbruch, the journey started with Zappi behind a drum kit at the home studio of his neighbor Dirk Dresselhaus AKA Schneider TM (bass), alongside electronics whizz Elke Drapatz (drum effects). The trio embarked on a session of instant composition, playing wordlessly with a deep empathy to each other as well as the energy in the room. While the Daumenbruch session, which took place in the midst of lockdown, delivered three long-form pieces, this two=hour spell served up six diverse tracks, an audio analogue for the speed of life post-lockdown. Drones, delays, clatter and clang came from all corners -- in fact, only Uwe Bastiansen (Stadtfisch) added melodies, lending long distance support to Dirk Dresselhaus' insistent bass sequences, and channeling the magic of their moment into potent pagan tonalities. The stylistic definitions are constantly disrupted by unexpected guests -- baroque strings, impish horns, found sound breakdowns, or else mind melting phasing and flanging -- each offering a new combination on this radical and forward-facing record.

LP version. Orange color vinyl. Three Quarter Skies -- the new band formed by Simon Scott from Slowdive -- present their debut album Fade In. It was recorded by Simon and mixed with the help of elusive Flying Saucer Attack mainman Dave Pearce. The eight-track album includes the singles "Crows" and "Leave A Light On," a Nick Drake cover and brand-new versions of "Holy Water" and "Pieces Of Roslin," which was originally released on 2023's introductory EP, Universal Flames. While that grew out of a semi-improvised live recording, the new album is as focused as it is ferocious; a cohesive body of work that came together after a fertile creative period following the death of Simon's mother earlier this year. "My creative well was already beginning to overflow and losing my mum pushed me over the edge," says Simon. "I didn't want to write pretty tunes, or sentimental and saccharine music about love or pretend how happy and healthy the world is. Three Quarter Skies' songs are angry, noisy, turbulent, stubborn and petulant." As a result, Fade In is a heavy listen -- opener "Slight Betrayal" has a nagging sense of motion sickness before the fuzzy hopefulness of "Leave A Light On;" there's the post-new normal rumble of "Superwoman," the feedback folk of "In The Night" and "Crows," with its "vivid and surreal" attempts to process grief.

2024 limited restock. Pioneering Latino punk band The Plugz formed in Los Angeles in 1977 with frontman Tito Larriva, drummer Chalo Quintana and bassist Barry McBride. After debut album Electrify Me, sophomore set Better Luck saw McBride replaced by John Curry of The Flyboys; now with better mastery of their instruments, Larriva and Chalo steered the sound into new wave stylings, aided and abetted by guest horns, harmonica, and keyboards. Yet, the band was still a critical force pushing against societal inequalities, as heard on the caustic "American," and "El Clavo Y La Cruz" reminded that the core of the group was 100% Latino. A great LP!

"The Trilogy Tapes presents Ich Sehe Vasen from MM/KM"

2024 repress. "After producing two albums celebrated by a thirsty underground network of fans, Galaxie 500 released what turned out to be their unexpected swansong, This Is Our Music. The title is an intentionally declarative statement. After being labeled masters of the disengaged and forlorn, Damon Krukowski, Dean Wareham, and Naomi Yang delivered a full-length comprised of their most stately material. Here, one can hear potential realized, as well as changes afoot. For the first time since its original pressing, This Is Our Music is available again on vinyl. Cut by vinyl ace Kevin Gray from a remaster by Kramer and Alan Douches, the album sounds more vibrant than ever, and Galaxie 500 exists again as one of the most enrapturing and glorious bands to emerge from the underground in the past 25 years."

LP version. Citron Citron is back! The ethereal sister-and-brother duo has worked hard over the past two years on their new album Maréeternelle. Maintaining their majestic compositions, dual lead vocals, and home-made organic sound machinery, Citron Citron delves deeper into their sonic universe, singing about daily life, death, and love with the same poetic and personal vibe. Recorded in their home studio, and with a rare '70s EMS synth handed down from their respected avant-garde artist grandfather Rainer Boesch also making an appearance, Citron Citron's light touch is an analogue charm, measuring up to the giants of the genre's history. Its title, Maréeternelle, is a compound word coined by the duo and translating as "eternal tide." It references the continuous cyclical flow of existence -- day and night; life and death -- and how they, you and I structure our lives around this.

"Dark Entries picks up Severed Heads yet again for Ear Bitten, a double LP reissue of some of the band's earliest material. As originary Aussie industrial legends -- although founder Tom Ellard would balk at being branded as such -- Severed Heads shaped the continental subcultural sound with their kitchen electronics, chaotic tape loops, and quietly infectious nursery-rhyme-esque melodies. In 1979 Ellard, Richard Fielding, and Andrew Wright abandoned the moniker Mr. and Mrs. No Smoking Sign and adopted the edgier name Severed Heads 'to pretend to be an industrial band such as Surgical Penis Klinik & Throbbing Gristle.' Noise-rockers Rhythmx Chymx had placed an advertisement in a local shop looking for a band to share the costs of pressing an LP. The Heads set about recording a Dadaist racket on a pair of open reel dictaphones and a cassette deck using a TRS-80 computer, Kawai Synthesizer 100F and Korg Mini Pops drum machine. Ear Bitten was released in 1980; original copies now fetch obscene sums, in part due to most of Severed Heads' copies perishing in a fire at Richard's home. The band's next endeavor was a cassette titled Side 2, a collection of free-form experiments fashioned as Ear Bitten's second side. For this reissue, Dark Entries has collected both Ear Bitten and Side 2 on the first disc, presenting the album in its full form. Disc two includes the original first version of Ear Bitten, which was only unreleased because it was recorded in a format not suitable for pressing. The album comes in a gatefold sleeve designed by Eloise Leigh and includes photos, liner notes, and reproductions of the original Xerox inserts from the 1980 issue. Ear Bitten delivers 22 tracks of pain you can dance to!"

LP version. In 2024, fans were treated to the first new music from Trentemøller since 2022. A new single, "A Different Light," showcased a stunning blend of prismatic space rock and folk. For anyone wondering if it foreshadowed the release of a full-length, In My Room now presents Dreamweaver. Featuring ten tracks that traverse Trentemøller's many musical strengths, Dreamweaver also represents an obvious artistic leap, treading new ground while retaining the overall plot. Tracks featuring vocals come courtesy of Iceland's Disa, who has been in Trentemøller's fold since the Memoria tour. Dreamweaver's nylon string-led opening track, and first single from the album, "A Different Light," contains many of Trentemøller's trademarks: exploring dichotomies, musical shadowplay, Nordic frigidity, and warm waves. It opens the door for the steady, hypnotic "Nightfall," with its tetherless vocal, wistful guitars, and early morning desert chill. Ostensibly keeping a ruminative pace with the previous two tracks, the song and, by extension, album soon opens up as the rest of the elements drop into place with a grand, luxurious burst. With the hatch blown off of the portal, the noisy "I Give My Tears,' driven by its glissed and fuzzy bass line, pours into the void. It's followed by its sibling, the most chaotic track on Dreamweaver, "Behind My Eyes." Arriving as a piece of noise rock pandemonium, "Behind My Eyes," can't be contained in its plush vault. A whip-crack snare and convulsing guitars smash against each other in the song's verse chamber. The tension builds, as the particles collide, pushing past the point of critical mass, kicking off the chain reaction which is the chorus. At times it harkens back to the proto-gaze tracks that gave birth to dream pop, at others it newly defines what that is. There's no time to contemplate it, though, as the song disintegrates in a microphonic feedback instant. A respite follows with the somnambulistic pair of "Hollow" and "Empty Beaches." Then, a moment of intensity returns as the soaring textures and tribal drum bursts of "In A Storm" take control, before being taken out with the ambient slo-core of "Winter's Ghost" and "Closure."

"Khôra is the medium Matthew Ramolo uses to delve deeply into initiatory world-building by way of sound, image, and lyrical prose. Figuring wholly realized art-myths which distill and rouse the numinous while provoking the visceral and cathartic, Khôra intricately collages studio documents of ritualized instrumental performances, introducing overdubs by transient, heteronymic personae which dismantle stable points of reference in the music and open uncommon planes of consciousness. Gestures of Perception is Khôra's first double album with a supporting artbook and features a fascinating array of sources subjected to patterned assembly, poetic layering, and the elevations of the heart. Deft handling of modular synthesis is palpably central, while feedback, erhu, keys, flute, contact electronics, guitar, field sounds, and various percussion objects (rattle and frame drums, seed pod sticks, random metal objects, meditation bowls, kalimbas, bells) all serve to provide breathing structures and energetic contours that guide and scaffold inner and outer journeys into the far-near. Prominent across the record's span is a home-built, solenoid drum machine, responsible for the alive and askew techno-archaic flows and conceived as the album's 'rhythm seed'. The music on Gestures is teeming with organic and alien textures, soaring drones, inter-dimensional noises, and emotionally resonant melodies; balanced on the fringes of exotica and meditative trance, with capacities that untether the listener from the ballast of limited reality. Operating hermetically in the penumbra of Toronto's cultural scene for well over a decade, Khôra has been invested in self-publishing handcrafted editions of spiritually driven recordings which led to the LP/CD reissue of inaugural album Silent Your Body Is Endless by Constellation. Khôra has toured extensively in North America and Europe both solo and in collaboration with Picastro, Nick Kuepfer, and Brandon Valdivia (Mas Aya, Lido Pimienta), generated over a hundred hours of unreleased, bewildering drone through durational performance with experimental outfit Nidus (Marc Couroux, Jason Doell), composed for live dance and independent film, been commissioned by MaerzMusik, and seeded and co-run the now defunct music and art venue Ratio in Toronto. Features a limited edition 42-page work of researched, poetic mythography rich with galvanizing text and images that shed light on some of the mandalic imaginings and esoteric threads informing Ramolo's inner worlds as Khôra. Made with struggle and love in close collaboration with Marionette."

De La Catessen offers the first re-release in over 40 years of the long-lost soundscape composition Sounds Like Work, initially privately released on cassette in 1978, by South Australian composer and scholar, Chester Schultz. Drawing from material recorded in late 1976 in the workplaces of members of the Maylands Church of Christ congregation, subsequently edited at the electronic music studio of Adelaide University in early 1978, Sounds Like Work has an oddly contemporary cast, given both the sophistication and intelligence of its composition, and the ever-relevant address of the meanings of the "working environment" that Schultz explores here. Doing this via sound, however, reveals plenty of previously unnoticed, or under-recognized, things about peoples' lives at work. Schultz's composition is refreshingly free of direct polemical or political intervention, though there is a subtle undercurrent of critique of the way the workplace makes us both suffer, and conform to expectation. Schultz's questions about the workplace -- what it does to the worker; the ways the worker tries to wrest control of the working day; work's alignment, or not, with our inner private lives and beliefs -- are poetically explored through lyrical editing, curious juxtaposition, and an unerring ability to know when to 'leave things be.' There's also an understanding here that the socio-cultural context of sound has both its specificities and its generalities. The voices heard here could be from nowhere other than Australia, yet what they speak of, and the everyday sounds they're surrounded by, could come from most anywhere. Schultz's approach to the use and understanding of sound via the soundscape came predominantly from reading and listening to R. Murray Schafer, and you can certainly hear the implications of Schafer's thinking in Sounds Like Work. It also recalls other, loosely analogous compositions, like Luc Ferrari's acousmatic tour de force, Presque Rien. Most of all, though, Sounds Like Work is a startling composition, one which subtly redraws the histories listeners long been told about Antipodean avant-garde sound.