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Recent Best Sellers
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3LP
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KOM 370-1LP
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Zauberberg -- Wolfgang Voigt's most fundamental (and foreboding) release under his alias GAS and perhaps of all in his untold discography -- finally stands alone once again and is released in the way its original splendor. Originally released in 1997 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint Mille Plateaux, and then reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS Box (KOM 370LP, 2016), Zauberberg is now released on his own label, Kompakt. Though this narcotic symphony is not the first release under the GAS moniker, Zauberberg is the first to disclose the true nature of Wolfgang Voigt's unified sound and ideology as GAS. Layers of ominous intensity supported by muffled kick drums as classical music loops incessantly swirl with no direction, Zauberberg is the definitive GAS album and a perfect starting point for those not familiar with his music. 180 gram vinyl.
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LP
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LVY 527LP
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Before there was Joy Division, there was Warsaw. The group was founded after a 1976 Sex Pistols gig, and the late great Ian Curtis joined the group soon after. By their first official gig, in 1977, they were already the talk of NME and a rush to sign and record led the group to RCA. Recording in Manchester's Arrow Studios in May 1978 brought a full album's worth of songs but the band ultimately didn't like the direction of the production and asked to be released from their contract. Here is that mythical unreleased album along with the earliest demos from the group, recorded in 1977. Essential stuff for any fan of UK post-punk.
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2LP
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PAN 097LP
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Double LP version. Objekt has continued to challenge conventions with his club output (Objekt #4 (2017) and Kern Vol. 3 (KERN 003CD, 2016)), while maintaining his reputation as a DJ who deploys impeccable technical finesse in crafting elaborate narratives from a diverse and challenging palette of electronic music. Written between 2014 and 2018 in Berlin and on the road, Cocoon Crush once again sees Objekt jettisoning the functional requirements of the dancefloor. Marking a further evolution from the youthful exuberance of Flatland (PAN 060CD/LP, 2014), Cocoon Crush explores a more introspective side, with themes of human interaction resonating throughout the record as it ruminates on a spectrum of complex moods rooted in four years of sometimes turbulent personal experience. Cocoon Crush represents an aesthetic departure from Flatland's largely synthetic tonality, drawing from organic source material and natural textures to illustrate perplexing and unfamiliar sceneries in photorealistic detail. On Cocoon Crush, Objekt diverges further still from his musical influences to craft the purest manifestation of his own musical personality to date: an intriguing and enigmatic album whose reference points are hard to pin down, in which ghostly synth passages weave through mind-bending, weighty drums, and ASMR-triggering Foley collages scrape and sparkle. Through meticulous sculpting, Objekt traces a rich and impressionistic journey through claustrophobia, hope, guilt, anxiety and joy, nested in layers of sonic detail which reward with every listen. Mastered by Rashad Becker, photography by Kasia Zacharko, and layout by Bill Kouligas.
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LP
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AADE 010LP
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In 1972, Orchestre Abass released two incredible singles on Polydor. These records -- featuring "Samarin Banza", "Haka Dunia", and other Afro-funk masterpieces -- were powerful enough to knock any music head out, but it wasn't until the discovery of some unreleased material by the band that the seeds for this project were planted. It all happened in 2008 in Ghana. Analog Africa head Samy Ben Redjeb was going through some tapes that had previously been the property of Polygram, one of the major record companies based in west Africa. In the late '80s political instability and curfews had paralyzed the music industry forcing Polygram to close their Ghanaian subsidiaries leaving all of their recordings behind. These recordings had been packed in boxes and left vegetating in an Accra warehouse for three decades. All of the tapes looked unharmed and the Orchestre Abass tape was in excellent condition. Samy began fiddling around with the idea of releasing an album of the band and that plan got an additional boost with le "coup de grace" which had landed in the form of an ultra-rare tune called "Honam" discovered in Sotoboua, a small northern Togolese town. Samy had previously discovered some similar music in Northern Benin and in Nigeria and pictured an area that spread all the way from Northern Ghana to Northern Cameroon, an area he dubbed "The Islamic funk belt" due to the fact that Super Borgou de Parakou, Napo De Mi Amor, Uppers International, and Hamad Kalkaba, just to name a few, were from that "belt" and made up of musicians with an Islamic background. This can be felt and heard in the music and particularly in the singing, since many of the musicians had attended koranic schools and the languages used in the songs often had Arabic elements fused in. Orchestra Abass' recordings, with their heavy, organ-led sound, combined with the deftest of musical touches, were the work of a rhythmic powerhouse, deeming them one of Togo's funkiest bands. Unfortunately, Malam Issa Abass, the founder, guitarist, and organ player of the band, was killed in 1993 by a grenade thrown into his bedroom. Samy tracked down Thon Komla, one of the band´s songwriters, and Abderaman Issa, the guitar player of the band, to help him reconstruct the biography of the band. All the music was licensed directly from the various composers of these songs. 180 gram, virgin vinyl; gatefold sleeve with previously unseen pictures and a detailed biography of Orchestre Abass.
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IMPREC 464LP
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Eliane Radigue's Geelriandre / Arthesis is named for the pieces that fill its two sides. Geelriandre, realized on an ARP 2500 synthesizer in 1972, features Gérard Fremy on prepared piano. Arthesis, realized using the University of Iowa's Moog in 1973, comprises the full duration of side B. Eliane Radigue has received much deserved praise for her transcendent composiitions for tape, synthesizers, and acoustic instruments. Her work is deep, slowly changing, and timelessly resonant with slowly shifting timbres so dense that they seem infinite. Acute physicality, overtones, and psychoacoustic activity fills your space, follows you, grounds you, pulls you in or lets you go. It's all here/hear. Pressed at RTI; first edition of 1000.
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LP
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MNQ 103LP
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Mannequin Records starts a series of re-presses dedicated to the legendary Nocturnal Emissions, one of the best kept secrets of the industrial genre since the 1970s. Led by Nigel Ayers and Caroline K, the band was one of the first to use tape cutting, avant-garde art, and underground video works to create a stage experience that was being cultivated by like-minded artists like Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and Cabaret Voltaire. Originally self-released in 1988 on Earthly Delights, Spiritflesh is a masterpiece and a major reference for the early drone/dark ambient minds. By the time the album came out, Nocturnal Emissions had already produced several albums of electronic music which varied from noisy to funky. Displaying his usual perversity, Nigel chose to ditch electronic dance music immediately before the acid house revolution and produce a series of utterly compelling atmospheric albums which are often referred to these days as being "ambient industrial". Spiritflesh was the first offering by the new shape of Nocturnal Emissions. The record "came out of a long, hard thinking, a personal examination of my own motives for working within music." Nigel Ayers played church harmonium, chime, and music box on the record, and used samples of chimpanzees, cattle, and African and European wild birds. While generally ambient, the music is not like Brian Eno's work; it is atmospheric, but impossible to relegate to the background. "There's always a dangerous intrusion of the real world into our music," Ayers said. "We're looking into the relationship between people and the environment, the kind of feedback which happens between people and locations. Underneath it all, this planet has got its own message."
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2LP
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IMPREC 470LP
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In 2012 Important Records released Reverberations: Tape & Electronic Music 1961-1970 (IMPREC 352CD), a historic 12-CD box set compiling much of Pauline Oliveros' early and unreleased electronic work. Reverberations 1 is the first release in an ongoing series dedicated to releasing the entire 12-CD box set on vinyl. Organized chronologically by studio, the complete Reverberations not only documents Pauline's earliest electronic music but it also functions as an early history of electronic music itself. Pauline Oliveros -- composer, performer and humanitarian -- was an important pioneer in American music. Acclaimed internationally, for four decades she explored found, forging new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation she has created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly effects those who experience it and it eludes many who try to write about it. In partnership with the Pauline Oliveros Trust, Imprec will be releasing essential titles from Pauline Oliveros' catalog on vinyl including the complete Reverberations box set, Tara's Room, Sounding/Way (with Guy Klucevsek), and many more.
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LP
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LSD 69001LP
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This collection brings together rarities from well-known artists like Abstract Truth, Suck, Otis Waygood, Freedom's Children, John & Philipa Cooper, McCully Workshop and Hawk, as well as lesser known acts like Buzzard, The Fireflies, The Idiots, Tidal Wave, and The Invaders. Although the South African rock movement of the late sixties and early seventies was not a major commercial success, its participants heralded an exciting new age in South African rock and started a movement aimed at changing the musical tastes of fans in a spectacular way. Stadium concerts became the vehicle for feeding the youth with heavier rock sounds, and behind studio glass were producers like Clive Calder, Billy Forrest, Graham Beggs and Selwyn Miller who acted as change agents to transform conventional pop into heavier four to five minute songs. The movement's struggle for recognition through airplay remained unanswered and only the true fans of rock knew about their existence. Licensed by the Fresh Music label in South Africa and available on vinyl for the first time, complete with insert and liner notes.
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2LP
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HAFTW 028LP
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2019 repress. The Caretaker slips beyond recognition in the first "post awareness" stage of Everywhere At The End Of Time. The ability to recall singular memories gives way to confusions and horror. It's the beginning of an eventual process where all memories begin to become more fluid through entanglements, repetition, and rupture. Though the metaphoric device of worn-down ballroom 78s and Jack Nicholson's descent into madness in The Shining (1980), The Caretaker connotes the transitory cognitive breakdown of moderate into severe late stage dementia. Memories of the good times are recollected in glitching pyknoleptic flashes as the music struggles to follow consistent lines of thought, instead fluctuating between a fractured mosaic of ideas and elusive emotive gestures, but still occasionally able to gather coherent thoughts. In aesthetic, the sieve-like mind state of Stage 4 vacillates a serene sort of psychedelia with utterly paranoid and petrifying mental subsidence. Smudged traces of sublimated musical hall memories give way to shocking tracts of atonality and discord with runaway rhythmic logic, perpetually tumbling farther into states of mind perhaps best compared with K-Hole-like dimensions or the babble of after-hours psychonautic journeys. The concision of previous stages is here replaced with wandering, side-long tracts. Three of those are titled "Post Awareness Confusions" and correspondingly explore and reflect agitated, irritable mindsets as they navigate an ephemeral, confusing complexity of structures. The other piece is called "Temporary Bliss State" and starkly contrasts the other parts in a coherently lush traverse of ambient crackle and glittering melody... Artwork by Ivan Seal. Mastered and cut by Lupo. Double-LP comes in gatefold sleeve.
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2LP
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SUBL 127LP
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Double LP version. A brand-new studio album from Träden ("The Trees"), formerly known as Träd, Gräs och Stenar ("Trees Grass and Stones") in different incarnations, but often just called Träden for short. Through long, crescendoing improvisations, Träden has found their own unique path in the music world for decades, creating a music with room for everyone. Many younger musicians and friends of minimalist, experimental music have been inspired and followed, astonished that a bunch of Swedish hippies made the planet's most hypnotic, moss-fragrant psychedelic trance rock. Today, Träden consists of Hanna Östergren (Hills), Sigge Krantz (Archimedes Badkar), Reine Fiske (Dungen, The Amazing), and originator Jakob Sjöholm. Nisse Törnquist (Amason) also plays on three of the songs. In this latest, celebrated edition, the band has played for sold-out houses all over Sweden and other parts of the globe. "When we decided to record and release a new album it's the people who are now in the group that plays on it. We have become a band again in the way that we can once again get out and gig more regularly. The name change is a way of freeing ourselves from the old band and its idiom, thus opening our minds to let the music find new ways, simply giving us more artistic freedom," explains Jakob Sjöholm. The new album was recorded at Träden's countryside music workshop and in good old TGS tradition, much of the material emerged by jamming. Then there are some songs that demanded some toil and despair. It has been a process where everyone in the band has been deeply involved throughout the course of work, in all stages of the production; from the first musical notes to the last choice of colors and images for the album sleeve. The music on the new album makes one to let go and be swept along in a soaring, endearing ecstasy, and be thrown into a wild but safe forest. Even though the band constellation has changed successively, the majestic roar continues. Sometimes the loudness is lifted out to the big, eccentric carpentry and chopped down to a nice "tree porridge". Or on contemplatively growing songs, where the guitars' winding and whirling calls to the very highest air bearings. Many fans describe Träden's rough-cut music in almost spiritual terms. Träden answers with some mighty songs where the band reaches the mind-expanding oscillation that seems to only occur in their music.
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2LP
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BNSD 029LP
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"This work, a masterpiece of restraint, reflects the musical imagination of someone who has spent long periods in the quiet recesses of the mind." --Terry Riley
Beacon Sound present a reissue of Hans Otte's The Book Of Sounds (Das Buch Der Klänge) originally released in 1984. Hans Otte (1926-2007) was a multifaceted artist, poet, pianist, composer, and promoter who synthesized the strands of minimalism, Eastern spirituality, and radical art into his own unique and protean vision. In his younger years he studied under the composer Paul Hindemith and the pianist Walter Gieseking. From 1959 to 1984 he was the director of Radio Bremen and was instrumental in introducing artists such as John Cage, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich to European audiences. Although the compositions and recordings that Otte made over the course of his long career are wideranging, The Book Of Sounds is considered to be his masterwork. A solo piano piece, it was written between 1979 and 1982 after a major survey of his previous artistic output and should be viewed through the prism of his own self-development: both as a return to his roots and as a new beginning. It is a cyclical collection of 12 "chapters" that are inspired partly by John Cage's desire to get to the root of sound itself, to liberate it from the weight of expectation and tradition and to view all sound as a manifestation of nature. In a 1979 interview, Otte answered a question about whether his work had a "common core" by saying, "I would say that behind my artistic work, as an aim or hope, is the need to find myself. In other words: despite all the separating structures, the division of all the work, the ideologies, fixed ideas, systems, despite the state and everything that ceaselessly tries to separate and divide us, I fundamentally want to be complete." It might be tempting to assign The Book Of Sounds to the aesthetic of minimalism; however, it is a deceptively sophisticated collection of pieces that unfolds slowly over repeated listens with shifting harmonics and unusual structural touches that keep it firmly on the side of "avant-garde". Includes booklet with contemporary liner note contributions by Terry Riley, Inga Ahmels, and Dustin O'Halloran as well as a reprint of a 1982 Village Voice live review by Tom Johnson and photos taken by his daughter Silvia. First edition of 500.
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LP
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LR 135C-LP
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Lilith present a reissue of Caetano Veloso's Caetano Veloso (A Little More Blue), originally issued in 1971. Often referred to as "Brazil's unofficial poet laureate" and the "Bob Dylan of Brazil", this heavyweight of Brazilian music was also a young revolutionary who used his music to protest against Brazil's oppressive military regime. This protest music, which became known as tropicalia, first earned Veloso a stint in jail, but by the time this dour album was released in 1971, it had placed him in exile in the UK. Veloso's extreme bitterness and melancholy can be heard on every groove of this album, but don't let the album's gloomy atmosphere stop you from buying it; it is dripping with some of the best moments of saudade in the history of Brazilian music. Color vinyl.
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2LP
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DPROM 141LP
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"The Sadness Of Things" was originally released as side one of Steven Stapleton and David Tibet's The Sadness Of Things (1991). "The Dead Side Of The Moon" and "BubbleHead" were, respectively, sides one and two of Stapleton and Tibet's Musicalische Kürbs Hütte (1996). "DreamBreath" is a previously unreleased outtake from Musical Pumpkin Cottage (1996). Gatefold sleeve; Includes insert with lyrics and credits.
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LP
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V 25AH426
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Victory present a reissue of Pacific, originally released in 1978. Reuniting the best session musicians Japan had to offer to make an album that would evoke the atmospheres of the South Pacific islands, the kind of places Japanese people spend their vacations. Pacific is a treat to the ears; its theme of the southern Pacific ocean and its warm cerulean waters relax its listeners with a fusion of city pop, soft jazz, and that good old 1970s funk while remaining surprisingly fully instrumental throughout all contributions from artists Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, and Tatsuro Yamashita. A true cult LP and an inspiration for a lot of so called "vaporware" music. LP includes insert.
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2LP
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DDS 035LP
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2019 black vinyl repress. Heat is a surprise new double album from Shinichi Atobe for Demdike Stare. It follows on from 2017's From The Heart, It's A Start, A Work Of Art (DDS 023LP) and continues a run of highly enigmatic, acclaimed and completely unparalleled productions that follow their own timeless logic. There's no sonic fiction involved; this material really does just turn up on a CD sent by air mail from Japan to Manchester, sparse info, no messing, pure gold. What's that cover art about? It's probaby something to do with the balmy, slightly fucked, sun-stroked material within. "So Good, So Right", the ten-minute opener, will force you to forget about all the shit around you for a while. There are also several tracks called "Heat"; they're all killer. This music takes you elsewhere almost immediately; that fan on your desk is basically a summer breeze. In fact, this whole album is absurd, completely effortless, and a total classic. Find a more life-affirming electronic album in 2018, and there's an ice cream in the offing. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton, cover by Mat Thornton.
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LP
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CTLP 1045LP
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LP version. "Once again Clocktower bring you the massive and powerful tracks, such as 'Cloak & Dagger' DJ style led by King Tubby and Lee Perry. And they've also included the slow style of 'Cloak & Dagger' which you will never stop listening for generations to come, young and old. Then the following tracks of 'Blackboard Jungle' with two incomparable versions that will open up your ears to the greatest musicians on bass and drums, etc. We from Clocktower say listen, enjoy, party, and dance to all the fine production. We have compiled this for all who loves reggae music production beyond compare. Music of life." --Alfred Newman Not a reissue, a new compilation of early Lee Scratch Perry material, not previously issued in this form. With tracks recorded from the early '70s with material from Clocktower 7" only releases, etc.
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LP
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PAL 053LP
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Brace Up! is the first ever studio release from the duo of Chris Corsano (drums) and Bill Orcutt (guitar). Recorded in Brussels at Les Ateliers Claus by Christophe Albertijn on March 19th and 20th, 2018. Stage dive photograph by Jason Penner. "Over the past six years or so, drummer Chris Corsano has proven to be one of Bill Orcutt's most reliably flexible collusionists. Regardless of whether Bill is cluster-busting electric guitar strings, weaseling around with cracked electronics, or playing relatively spacious free-rock, Corsano is able to provide the proper base for his aural sculpting. A lot of Orcutt's instrumental work has traditionally felt hermetic even though he's exploring caverns of explosive ecstasy. One often got the impression Bill was operating in the way John Travolta did in the classic 1976 ABC television drama, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. Orcutt's actual interaction with collaborators emerged not from communication so much as pure observation. While he was fully cognizant of his musical surroundings, his reactions to it were walled off. This approach did not encourage sonic dialogue so much as parallel streams of discourse. These streams could interact with each other, but not in particularly standard ways. On Brace Up! , their first ever studio release, this precept has changed considerably. Whether it's a function of emotional familiarity or an intellectual choice I dunno, but there's a whole new kind of duo exchange going down on this record. Bill and Chris are clearly playing off each other's moves throughout the album. And it really raises the level of the music to an all-time high. From the cop car see-saw of 'Poundland Frenzy' to the mutual pummeling of 'Paranoid Time' (possibly a Minutemen tribute?) to the lazychicken- gets-stung-prog of 'She Punched a Hole in the Moon for Me,' the sounds on Brace Up! display a constant flow of ideas and instantaneous conjugation of newly forged verbs. As great as Bill and Chris's previous duo records have been, this one's greater." -- Byron Coley
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2LP
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OP 048LP
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2018 repress. Nicolas Jaar shows he is paying attention to the masses by issuing a widely called for vinyl press of his A.A.L. (Against All Logic) album 2012-2017. Originally issued as a digital-only release back in February of 2018, it's slowly grown to become one of the most cherished releases in the entire Other People discography. Much like Kerrier District did to disco, A.A.L. (Against All Logic) borrows heavily from the samples and sounds ingrained deep within Jaar's listening habits and evidently a record collection packed to the brim with classic soul, house, and most importantly, funk hooks. Keenly twisting these sounds and filtering them through a studio set up that's leaning heavily on the beefed-up kick drums and reverb units to make a well-executed homage to these sounds, pieced together with the inherent idea of making the listener unable to resist the urge to move, be it in a bedroom, basement, or just sat in work staring at a computer screen. A.A.L. (Against All Logic) is both a well-executed homage to all of the above references, yet also just a really strong and enjoyable record from Nicolas Jaar. Its undeniable popularity digitally is sure to see the vinyl evaporate in no time at all.
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LP
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FTR 236LP
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2018 repress with gold foil cover. Gary Wilson's monumental 1977 LP reissued with a glamorously shiny foil cover bearing the original cover art (care of Owen Maercks's well-loved copy), delicately laid out by Scott Allison. Which makes it, perhaps, the last copy you'll ever need. You Think You Really Know Me (also the title of Michael Wolk's 2005 documentary about Wilson) was Wilson's second LP, but the first he recorded as a vocalist, hewing to his own bizarre vision -- a syncretic collision of romance, new wave cocktail jazz, heartbreak, disco porn-soundtrack music, and experimental tape manipulation. Home-recorded in Endicott, NY, the album found a few fans when released, but subsequently became the exclusive purview of record collectors and the women who tolerate them. Beck namechecked Wilson in 1996, which made a few new people scratch their heads. And the album was reissued in 2002. Rediscovery followed, and records, the documentary, and some odd live shows. Most of Wilson's moves are stamped with his unique aesthetic, and are also documented on other three recommended Feeding Tube LPs -- Lisa Wants to Talk to You (FTR 081LP), Forgotten Lovers (FTR 065LP), and Music for Piano (FTR 192LP). But as bodacious as these three albums are, the real root of Wilson's muse is most obvious on You Think You Really Know Me. It is the sound of a 23-year old oddball from upstate New York wrestling with his demons and actually winning. There's nothing quite like it. And it offers a story of hope to every weirdo who hears it. Hallelujah!
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TW 1034LP
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1990, Storrs, CT. Twisted Village heads Wayne and Kate are DJs at the local college station with Tom Leonard, guitarist in a local up-and-coming outfit called St Johnny. One day Tom slips Kate a cassette curiously titled Luxurious Bags Of Vomit, containing the first recordings of his basement one-man band. The tape turned out to be a glorious noise and scuzz rock racket falling somewhere between Chrome and early Pussy Galore. The TV heads flipped over it, and immediately offered to put out an LP. Tom thinks they are joking. Eventually he is convinced they are serious, and that cassette forms the basis of the 1991 debut LP from Luxurious Bags, From Heaven To My Head. This was followed by 1992's Voluntary Lifelong Quarantine as well as a CD combining both LPs. All sold briskly, as Tom's one-man act gained momentum. Also gaining momentum was his other outlet St Johnny. After a couple of singles and a UK album on Rough Trade, they were signed by Thurston Moore to DGC in the post-Nirvana rush. Tom stayed for the recording of their 1994 DGC debut Speed Is Dreaming, but soon found the band's new life as a major label act not to his liking. Tom was gone by the time the album hit the racks, and retreated to the basement to work full-time on Luxurious Bags' magnum opus. Recordings already started on 4-track cassette were transferred to 8-track reel-to-reel, and reworked endlessly. In early 1995, Tom declared the record finished, and delivered Frayed Knots as the third (and, as it turned out, final) album. While retaining much of the lo-fi noisiness of his earlier work, Frayed Knots had a wider range of influences shining through. Much of Frayed Knots had a strong melodic basis, showing echoes of Dinosaur Jr and My Bloody Valentine, while the final 10+ minute cut dissolves into Terry Riley-esque soundscapes. So satisfied was Tom with Frayed Knots that he called time on Luxurious Bags upon the album's release in 1995, becoming perhaps the only one-man band to ever break up with itself. He then joined Major Stars, where he remains to this day. Frayed Knots earned glowing reviews in the 'zines of the day, and legions of fans have long waited in vain for a follow-up. Many have also waited for a vinyl issue of the album (this being the mid-90s, Frayed Knots had come out only on CD). Twisted Village therefore present the first vinyl version of Frayed Knots, a mere 23 years after its first release. Housed in a full-size version of the original artwork is a glorious black vinyl slab, from which these timeless melodies will ooze out of your speakers with more mystery than ever. Right freaking on.
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DO XYZ004LP
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LP version, 2018 repress. Dark, hypnotic, tripping nyabinghi from 1974. Led by Jamaican Rastafarian singing hand-drummer Ras Michael over four extended excursions, the music is organic, sublime and expansive, grounation drums and bass-heavy (with no rhythm guitar; rather, Willie Lindo brilliantly improvising a kind of dazed blues). Lloyd Charmers and Federal Studios engineer George Raymond stayed up all night after the session to mix the recording, opening out the enraptured mood into echoing space, adding sparse, startling effects to the keyboards. At no cost to its deep spirituality, this is the closest reggae comes to psychedelia. Previously squandered in an incongruous 2-for-1 reissue, now lovingly returned to its original, singular glory at Abbey Road. Pressed on super-fly vinyl and housed in new standard-printed sleeves.
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SF 114LP
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Senyawa are a contemporary duo originating from Jogjakarta, Indonesia. Rully Shabara (extreme vocals) coupled with Wukir Suryadi's deft instrumentals (and homemade instruments) produce one of the most profound examples of experimental via traditional music happening anywhere today. By weaving Indonesian folkloric moods with various shades of modern genre hybrids, Senyawa has been navigating unexplored musical terrain for more than a decade. Sujud, their premier release on the Sublime Frequencies label, is the latest chapter of this very special and singular sound of the past, present, and future. The basic theme of the record can be summed up with one extremely powerful Bahasa Indonesian word, "tanah", which translates to "soil-ground-land-earth". Shabara's vocals are an expressive force, conjuring spirits from the soil with a deep humility and respect for the land and their existence in the universe. Suryadi has built a new guitar for these tracks and pushes the Senyawa sound into new territory, utilizing delay, loops, and other effects creating grounded backdrops of folk metal, punk attitudinal, and droning earthscapes - providing Shabara the perfect context to explore his whispering poetry and jagged, sharp-as-a-kris animistic powers. There is simply no other sound like it and Sublime Frequencies is thrilled to present this new direction in their discography. Limited LP with two-sided insert featuring lyrics in Bahasa Indonesian.
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LP
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OME 1017LP
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Fantome Phonôgraphique presents a reissue of eden ahbez's Eden's Island: The Music Of An Enchanted Isle, originally issued in 1960. Though he was originally from Brooklyn and raised by adoptive parents in rural Kansas, George Alexander Aberle, aka eden ahbez, is about as California as they come. He was discovered in the 1940s while working in one of Los Angeles' earliest raw vegetarian restaurants and was known throughout the '50s and '60s for being spotted on the streets of L.A. in full white robe, sandals, and beard, and legendarily camping underneath the first L in the Hollywood sign. After writing numerous hits for jazz and pop singers, including the iconic "Nature Boy" made famous by Nat King Cole in 1948, ahbez (who spelled his name with lower case lettering because he deemed only God and Infinity worthy of capitalization) recorded his only long playing record, Eden's Island: The Music Of An Enchanted Isle in 1960. A combination of exotica arrangements and beat era poetry, the album sold poorly at the time but has since become regarded as an exotica classic that transcends the trappings of the genre. Absolutely essential L.A. weirdness from one of the original L.A. weirdos.
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LP
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WRJ 004LTD-LP
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LP version; 180 gram vinyl, mastered at half speed; heavy cardboard old Stoughton tip-on sleeve with obi, sticker, and liner notes. We Release Jazz presents its fourth release, the first ever official reissue of 1974's Stuff Combe 5 + Percussion, a hard-to-find soul jazz jewel from a cast of illustrious jazzmen led by glorious Swiss drummer, Stuff Combe. The release follows reissues Ryo Fukui's Scenery (WRJ 001CD/LTD-LP) and Mellow Dream (WRJ 002CD/LTD-LP), and Le Cercle Rouge's soundtrack by Eric Demarsan (WRJ 003LTD-LP). Recorded in Geneva, Stuff Combe 5 + Percussion finds Stuff Combe conducting an all-star ensemble consisting of Bob Jacquillard on bass, Francy Boland (The Chet Baker Quintet, arranger for Count Basie, Benny Goodman, the list goes on...) on piano and electric piano, bebop and hard-bop legend Benny Bailey on trumpet, and Tony D'Adario on saxophone. The sessions ooze with funk, spaced-out sounds, breathtaking solos, and moments of absolute collective wizardry. It's soul jazz at its best with sci-fi and bossa excursions. Born in Bern in 1924, Etienne Stephen Jean Gustave "Stuff" Combe had a wonderfully prolific career, playing all over Europe and the US and working with Buck Clayton, Bill Coleman, Stan Getz, Kenny Clarke, Oscar Pettiford, Art Taylor, Dizzy Reece, and Lucky Thompson, just to name a few. He passed away in 1986, leaving behind a legacy that cemented him as one of the most important musicians in the history of Swiss jazz. Includes liner notes by Alain Morisod.
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LP
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Y 014LP
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Ted Lucas, the sole published album by singer-songwriter and master guitarist Ted Lucas has achieved an almost mystical reputation amongst aficionados and collectors. Ted Lucas is a seamless marriage of moody odes and raga-style instrumentals regarded by many to be, simply put, the greatest private press folk/psych album ever recorded. Lucas was a fixture in the Detroit rock scene of the sixties and seventies. His first band, The Spike Drivers, relocated to San Francisco to become one of the very first true psych bands, the Motor City's answer to Jefferson Airplane and The Byrds. Following that band's collapse, Lucas returned to Detroit and paid bills doing session work with Motown. And there he recorded, in 1972, the demo for Warner Brothers which would become Ted Lucas, released in two private editions in 1975 and known informally to friends and family as "The OM Album", after Lucas' own label. The album was released with artwork by the legendary Stanley Mouse originally created for Jimi Hendrix. A troubled figure whose lack of commercial capitalization and general disgust with the music business fueled a tragic narrative of self-destruction and an untimely death at 53, Lucas nevertheless reflects a regal confidence on this album, both in terms of his Sandy Bull-level guitar workouts and his masterful songwriting, as reflected in covers by the Blind Boys of Alabama, Richard Buckner, Phil Cook, and Father John Misty. As singular as Skip Spence's Oar (1969), as liminal and uncanny as David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971), Ted Lucas is a collection of elevated and elegiac cosmic folk music, presented here in a newly re-mastered edition from the original tapes with high-quality tip-on sleeves and the original back cover art.
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3CD/DVD/Book
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DTD 053CD
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Reprinted, new lower price. This watershed release represents the life's work of William Ferris, an audio recordist, filmmaker, folklorist, and teacher with an unwavering commitment to establish and to expand the study of the American South. William Ferris was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1942. Growing up on a working farm, Ferris began at a young age documenting the artwork, music, and lives of the people on the farm and in his local community. The archive of recordings that he created and the documentary films that he had a hand in producing have served as powerful tools in institutions of higher learning for decades. Dust-to-Digital present these films and recordings. The label's hope is that the enjoyment and educational value that has been received by Ferris's students over the years will be transmitted to listeners around the world and further the understanding of Southern culture. Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris includes: a 120-page hardcover book in full color edited by William Ferris Writings by Scott Barretta, David Evans, and Tom Rankin; three CDs -- two of the CDs feature blues and gospel recordings (1966-1978), and the final CD features interviews and storytelling (1968-1994); and one DVD featuring documentary films (1972-1980). Transcriptions and annotations are provided for each track. Comes in a cigar box.
In addition to being a groundbreaking documentarian of the American South, William Ferris is Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ferris co-edited the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (1989) and is the author of multiple books. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine named him among the top ten professors in the United States.
The recordings feature James "Son Ford" Thomas, Lovey Williams, Wallace "Pine-Top" Johnson, Maudie Shirley, and Jasper Love, Scott Dunbar, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Louis Dotson, Sonny Boy Watson, Sam Myers, Tom Dumas, Unidentified Musician with Mississippi Fred McDowell, Walter Lee Hood, Wash Heron and "Big" Jack Johnson, James Hughes, Leland Musician, Inmates at Parchman Farm, George Lee "Sun Bud" Spears, James "Son Ford" Thomas with Sonny Boy Watson, Mary and Amanda Gordon, The Southland Hummingbirds, Lovey Williams, Reverend Smith and Family, Liddle Hines, Providence Missionary Baptist Church, Church of God in Christ, Fannie Bell Chapman, Mary Alice and Alan Mcgowan, Reverend Ott and Family, Rose Hill Church, Lovey Williams and Family, Fannie Bell Chapman and Family, Reverend Isaac Thomas and Rose Hill Church, Barry Hannah, Alice Walker, Alex Haley, Ray Lum, Bobby Rush, Joe "Skeet" Skillet, Joe Cooper, Shelby "Poppa Jazz" Brown, B.B. King, Allen Ginsberg, James "Son Ford" Thomas, and Bill Ferris, Robert Penn Warren, Pecolia Warner, Victor Bobb, and Pete Seeger.
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LR 142C-LP
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Lilith Records present a reissue of Caetano Veloso's Caetano Veloso (Araçá Azul), originally issued in 1972. Apparently when this album was originally released in 1972, confused and bewildered fans, expecting more of the same found on Transa, released earlier that year, returned the album to the shop, demanding a refund. Meanwhile, critics raved, and many now consider Araçá Azul to be one of his great creative moments. To be fair to his many fans, it was a stark departure from his previous releases, which were decidedly more pop, but Veloso had been through a lot recently, having just returned from political exile in the UK, so it is no wonder that the artist was feeling a bit like he needed to fly in the face of conformity. In Veloso's own words, "I made this album without thinking, without taking the time to stop to think." He refers to the album's "insolent experimentalism" and calls it a kind of "last stand." Clear vinyl.
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LP
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WWSLP 016LP
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LP version. Obi strip; Includes two-page insert. Wewantsounds present a reissue of Akiko Yano's Tadaima., originally released in 1981. The first release Wewantsounds' ambitious program to release Akiko Yano's albums outside of Japan Tadaima. ("I'm home" in Japanese) is Yano's fifth studio album and a synth-pop masterpiece, co-produced by her then husband Ryuichi Sakamoto and featuring all the musicians from Yellow Magic Orchestra (Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Sakamoto), the group she was touring with at the time. Japan's best kept secret, Akiko Yano is one of the most ground-breaking artists to come out of the '70s Japanese music scene along with Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto. A piano child prodigy, Yano started her solo recording career in 1976 at just 21, recording her debut album Japanese Girl with no less than Little Feat as the backing band. This album created a stir on the Japanese scene and Yano was on the map. She went on to record a series of superb albums mixing funk, electro, and city pop featuring the cream of Japanese (and sometimes American and English) musicians; The fact she was producing, writing and composing herself made her a true maverick in a very male-dominated industry. These albums, incredibly, have never been released outside of Japan to this day. Tadaima. is Yano's first attempt to leave the acoustic piano aside and delve into the synth sounds of the early '80s. The result is a fascinating electro pop masterpiece showcasing her talent as a writer, musician, and singer, creating her own unique universe. Mixing Japanese and English lyrics, Yano crafts perfect pop songs such as "Tadaima.", "I Sing", "Harusaki Kobeni" (which became one of her most famous songs after its use in a Japanese cosmetics ad), while "Taiyo No Onara" is a suite composed of nine short stories written by children. Contributors on Tadaima. also include Shigesato Itoi, one of Japan's most famous copywriters (for Studio Ghibli among others) who wrote two tracks on the album and his friend legendary illustrator Teruhiko Yumura -- aka King Terry -- who revolutionized underground manga in the '70s with his "heta-uma" (bad-good) style, as showcased on the album's striking artwork. Tadaima. is the perfect entry point to Akiko Yano's unique body or work. This reissue includes original artwork by cult illustrator King Terry and a new introduction by renowned DJ Joakim.
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10"
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HJP 086EP
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Three murderous steppers dubs on a propulsive, rat-tat-tat rhythm, combining mystical spaciousness with detail and ferocity. Angry-lion bass and smears of brass, fusillades and explosions, scares and shocks, oriental pentatonics, clattering percussion and synthy transcendence -- the business. The second mix is nastiest; the third is the wildest and most discombobulated. Letter-pressed, poly-lined sleeves.
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FKR 097LP
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Finders Keepers presents Denis Wise's Wize Music, one of the most unique and unlikely exponents of the highly collectible genres of ambient electronics, experimental tape-music and PINA (Private Issue New Age). This English-born Jamaican-raised sound designer, artist and existentialist furrowed his own unblinkered path through lesser-charted electronic fields for many moons before eventually teaming up with Bill Laswell (with Material) and Daevid Allen in New York to bring self-taught synthesis to Gong during their most oblique periods. Creating two impossibly rare self-pressed vinyl LPs of conceptual inner-visionary outer-galactic angular tonal-dronal alien-art soundscapes in the process, the man known under figure shifting guises such as Dennis Wise/Denis Weise/Dr. Wise combined a culture of sound system circuitry and radiophonic trickery adding teapot poetry and sci-fidelity future-folk to his magnetic mesh. Presented here as the first ever dedicated Wize Music collection, this record combines compositions spanning 1979-1984 in both a solo capacity as well as small-group projects featuring members of the Emerald Web band. Imagine a comic book where a Funkenstein monster called "Laraaji-Scratch Perry" invaded your record shelf while Komendarek and Holger Czukay kept lookout. Dr. Dennis might be the only one Wise enough to outsmart all of them with his powerful amorphous anesthetic.
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FKR 098LP
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From Guy Skornik, the composer and arranger behind Popera Cosmic and Pour Pauwels (1971), comes the enigmatic instrumental cues that provided fellow existentialist and notorious auteur director Alejandro Jodorowsky (The Holy Mountain, 1973) with the soundtrack music to what is now considered his rarest and most overlooked feature film, Tusk (1980). As part as Finders Keepers' ongoing dedicated Jodorowsky soundtrack series, the label present the original film edits from the 1979 studio sessions featuring Steve Hillage (Gong) and members of Cossi Anatz. Following his mind-melting masterpieces Fando & Lis (1968), El Topo (1970), and The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky's "disowned" attempt at a family film retains the director's ongoing demand for intense, experimental film music resulting in what is undeniably one the best kept sonic secrets from the darker corners of this coveted filmography. Cherry-picked from pre-recorded synthesizer-fueled, cosmic pop sessions by Skornik, these compositions provided Tusk with arabesque new age synthesis alongside full-blown ambitious electro rock, as well as classic French Fender Rhodes-driven romanticism during some of this lesser-spotted movie's most memorable moments. Presented here in isolation, Guy Skornik's multifarious futurist-pop evokes worthy comparisons to Ash Ra Tempel, Eno's Bowie and Suzanne Ciani, mapping an unlikely journey between Magma and 10cc in the process. Don't ignore Jodorowsky's "elephant in the room" -- you never know what is hidden in the trunk. Tusk not only unearths a lesser-known Jodorowsky gem, but forms another spiritual circle in the label's alternative pop universe, forming new twines in the Finders Keepers family tree.
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DPROM 146LP
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Dead Memory LP, on United Dirter, by Steven Stapleton and David Tibet features two further out-takes from Musical Pumpkin Cottage (1996). Neither of these two tracks feature on The Threats Of Memories double-LP (DPROM 141LP, 2018) or The Threat Of Memory 5CD box-set. The cover features new paintings by Babs Santini and David Tibet, with handwriting by David Tibet. The LP was mastered by Andrew Liles, and the cover was designed by Ania Goszczyńska.
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10"
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HJP 085EP
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Precious, timely, moody reflections on migrating from Côte d'Ivoire to Moss, in Norway, over ruff breakbeat funk supplied by the nimble bass-playing of Maimouna's old man (from Kambo Super Sound), and the expert conga and kit-drumming of Stliletti-Ana (from Jesse, in Helsinki). Even in their delirium, b-boys and girls will savor traces of the Incredible Bongo Band, in the chorus. Over the eight minutes, and going deeper on the flip, the mix lifts off into a cosmic steppers dub, featuring Gilb-r alongside Sotofett on keyboards, with no let up for the dancefloor in energy and vibes.
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OME 1012LP
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Henri Pousseur was a Belgian composer, teacher, and music theorist active from the 1950s on, influenced by Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Luciano Berio. Pousseur may be lesser known than those contemporaries but his composition and technique is regarded by many as equaling, if not surpassing much of the work of those more famous names. Realized in the same Cologne radio studio as much of Stockhausen's most famous work, this collection brings together some of Pousseur's greatest work, early tape and electronic masterpieces that deserve the recognition afforded many of his more famous contemporaries.
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LP
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JBH 073LP
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Trunk presents a special, first-time, issue of David Shire's soundtrack for The Conversation (1974). This is the first time the complete score to The Conversation has been released on vinyl. The film itself was originally released in 1974 but until now nothing else has ever been pressed on vinyl. Jonny Trunk's obsession with this music began after he'd caught the film, late night, sometime in the mid-1990s. Musically it's an exceptional example of the "new minimalism" in film music of the period, marking a departure (for some) from big scores to smaller, more economic ensemble sounds. The film was written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and is a thrilling journey into sound, mind and murder. Heavily influenced by Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966) Coppola wanted to fuse the concept of Blow-Up with "the world of audio surveillance". The story centers around Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), a professional wire-tapper and clandestine bugger consumed by a conversation he's been paid to record. Caul is a loner, an obsessive-compulsive character with numerous neuroses that play out brilliantly throughout the film. And as he slowly pieces together the conversation fragments and forms his own story around it, his world falls apart. For the music, Coppola wisely chose a young David Shire, his brother-in-law. Shire's deceptively simple piano theme is one of tragic beauty, capturing Caul's loneliness, his disturbed nature and this trip into darkness. The melody has both sweet and sour tones, feeling a little like a slow ragtime, developing throughout the film; there are even trips into avant-garde territory with electro-acoustic flourishes and Concrète. The agitated figure of Caul, wearing his distinctive transparent mac, is made all the more raw and poignant by the score, its sparse and curiously emotional compositions unlike any others from the period. The soundtrack for The Conversation proved to be a major break for Shire, his career taking off from this point. His next score was to classic Taking Of Pelham 123, followed up ironically by All The Presidents Men - a thriller about the Watergate scandal. The Conversation won several awards and nominations, and has become a classic of the "New Hollywood" movement. Personnel: Jack Nimitz - baritone sax; Ray Brown - bass; Shelly Manne - drums; Walter Murch - sound montage; Norman Wachner - engineer; Pete Jolly - piano; David Shire - piano; Clark Spangler - ARP 2600; Don Menza - tenor sax; Conte Condoli - trumpet.
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2CD
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CVSD 052CD
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Corbett Vs. Dempsey presents a reissue of Milford Graves's Bäbi, originally issued in 1977 on Graves's own IPS label. This is the first reissue of one of the most legendary albums in the history of free music. Recorded live in concert in 1976, when Graves' trio with saxophonists Arthur Doyle and Hugh Glover was at the height of its powers, Bäbi is a testament to the absolutely unique approach the drummer had established for himself. He had reconfigured the drum kit, removing the second heads on all the drums and replacing the snare with two toms, which allowed him a much more nuanced sense of indirectness in his multi-directional adventures in time. The track "Ba" remains one of the most astonishing feats of percussion alchemy ever waxed, as funky as ten slap bassists and as free as an exploding grenade. Doyle and Glover are incendiary, too, inspired by Graves to new and shocking heights of achievement, their hoarse cries and whistling split-tones carried to thrilling plateaus on the energy of Graves' hands and feet. The original tapes for the session have been lost, so the reissue was lovingly remastered from virgin vinyl, itself now worth a mint. In 2017, Graves discovered a previously unknown tape in his archives featuring the same trio at its inception, in home recordings made seven years earlier, in 1969. Graves pummels a huge gong while Glover plays an instrument that, after sounding like none ever known, turns out to be bass clarinet. Extreme music recorded up close and very hot, it is among the most searing sessions never heard, until now. Rounding out the two-CD package are three previously unpublished photos by Gérard Rouy, and the original LP cover design by Graves himself.
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LP
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LR 144C-LP
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Lilith Records present a reissue of Caetano Veloso's Caetano Veloso (Irene), originally issued in 1969. Although Veloso had already been thrown in jail once for his criticism of Brazil's military regime, he continued to speak out against it on Caetano Veloso (Irene), with tracks like "Irene", (about a machine gun-toting outlaw celebrated by the left). No wonder he would soon find himself in political exile in the UK. The general tone of the album is in keeping with its dire message and actually, Veloso felt it was important for his voice of protest to be heard around the world. If he was a high profile public figure, he felt that he would be safer. Despite all of this (or perhaps because of all this) and the man still managed to make excellent records! Clear vinyl.
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12"
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RS 008EP
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Rhythm Section International presents Midnight In Peckham, the new EP from Chaos In The CBD. Born in New Zealand, but based in Peckham, literally around the corner from Henry Wu and Bradley Zero, these brothers have made a real mark on the scene in London. The duo's approach to production has matured immeasurably in the last year, as is evident in the restrained potency and poetic subtlety on the four tracks that comprise this accomplished EP. The record channels a delicate late night energy, equally indebted to Ron Trent as it is the hazy atmospheres of Burial.
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LP
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GB 067LP
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Ustad Saami's God Is Not A Terrorist is hypnotic, unvarnished recordings by one of Pakistan's most revered and iconic classical singers. The roots of Saami's music go back to the 13th century, but its message is contemporary and universal: "to sing is to listen." Produced by Grammy Award winner Ian Brennan, God Is Not A Terrorist is volume five of Glitterbeat's acclaimed Hidden Musics series. "75-year-old Ustad Saami risks his life daily in Pakistan to keep alive his microtonal, pre-Islamic, multilingual (Farsi, Sanskrit, Hindi, the ancient language of Vedic, gibberish, Arabic, and Urdu) music. Handed down by his ancestors for over a thousand years, he is the only practitioner of Surti left in the world; when he passes, this music will die with him. Extremists resent his work as they do anything else pre-dating Muhammad. In the land where Osama Bin last hid, Master Ustad Naseeruddin Saami has spent his entire life mastering the nuances of every given note. It has been said that India always had a region where all of the greatest singers came from; that place is Pakistan. "To sing is to listen." These are the words of the master. The translation of his last name, Saami, even means "to hear." For him, everything centers on one note. From that, all else grows and music is seen as a sixth sense for people to better communicate with each other. With great precision, Saami utilizes 49 notes versus the West's mere seven. The scale was founded by a mix-raced royal whose lifelong endeavor was to make peace with duality through art. This predecessor of qawwali music is called khayál, the Arabic word for "imagination"; in it the melody carries the meaning. The lyrics are almost incidental during these call-and-responses. It is the uneven pitches that the master values as being the most searching; those with even numbers are too stable. The master shapes the notes with his hands as he sings like conducting a Theremin. Most masters now hide their knowledge, possessively passing their skills down through family only. Subsequently, traditions have died and withered. Master Saami's mission is to share his knowledge with the world, so that the music may live on freely." --Ian Brennan. LP version; 180 gram vinyl, includes download.
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CT 085LP
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2018 repress. Reissue of the 1976 historic collaboration between producer instrumentalist Augustus Pablo and dub engineer King Tubby.
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MAR 004LP
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2019 repress. Mad About Records present a reissue of Toni Tornado's legendary funk soul album, from 1972. Toni Tornado is a black Rio masterpiece, reissued here for the first time on vinyl. Son of a Guyanese father and a Brazilian mother, at eleven years old Toni ran away from home and ended up in Rio, where he made a living selling peanuts and shining shoes. Tony began his artistic career in the 1960s with the stage name Tony Checker, lip-synching and dancing on Jair Taumaturgo's Hoje é dia de Rock. In the 1960s, he traveled to the United States, where he lived for five years in New York, serving as a drug dealer and pimp, whilst pretending to be an employee of a car wash. At that time, Tony met another Brazilian in the form of singer Tim Maia. Back in Brazil, he worked in the group of Ed Lincoln and also sang under the pseudonym Johnny Bradfort, the owner of the club forcing him to pretend to be a foreigner. In 1970, he adopted the name with which he came to be known, Tony Tornado. Influenced by James Brown, Tony was one of the artists who introduced soul music and funk into Brazilian music. Brown's in-your-face approach to racial pride resonated in the ghettos as well as the slums abroad. Many black people, all around the world, embraced the consciousness and music of the black power movement. Working-class black cariocas (residents of Rio) of Zona Norte began using the English phrases "black power", "brother", and "black is beautiful". They played soul records at their bailes (dances) and incorporated the lyrics and sounds into their music. Maia, the godfather of "música soul", spent five years in the United States, coming to know the sounds of black America intimately. When he returned to Brazil in 1964, Maia incorporated these influences into his songs. By the 1970s, other Brazilian musicians, such as Tony Tornado, Banda Black Rio, Cassiano, Gerson King Combo, Jorge Ben Jor, and Gilberto Gil had begun making soul records. This new music spoke to an experience both universal and unique at the same time. By the end of the 1970s, funk and disco would take over where soul left off, but it was the latter that helped to shape a generation of artists around a universal black identity. 1970s "paste-on" packaging and obi; Edition of 500.
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LP
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OME 1011LP
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The Greek avant-garde composer Anestis Logothetis was noted for his pioneering tape techniques as well as developing his own notation system for composition that incorporated visual symbols meant to be interpreted by the performers. "Hör!-spiel" / Nekrologlog 1961 / Fantasmata 1960 collects three of his most famous works, realized in Vienna where he spent much of the 1940s-1960s. After completing studies at the music academy there, in the 1950s Logothetis became enamored of 20th century composers like John Cage and Earle Brown, and moved away from traditional composition for orchestras and performers in favor of fully electronic composition in the late '50s. A groundbreaking composer and electronic musician, Logothetis has long been underappreciated by the world of avant-garde and electronic musicians but Fantôme Phonographique seeks to rectify that issue with this brilliant release.
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LP
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ODILIV 003LP
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2018 repress; LP version. Odion Livingstone present another reissue from the Nigerian archives, the first ever international release of The Apples' essential Afro-funk rarity Mind Twister, originally released in 1978. As part of the St Gregory's student band scene in Lagos during the late '70s alongside Ofege, Grotto, and more, Apples were picked up and produced by legendary EMI Nigeria producer Odion Iruoje who added overdubs to the album at Abbey Road in London with Curved Air keyboardist Francis Monkman. The band met and formed in Lagos. Bandleader Frank Ikpefuran teamed up with Georges Vieira from the American School and brothers Clifford and Gerard Nagi who were studying at St Greg's in Lagos, and remembers, "I must have been 19 years old when I met Clifford. We used to hangout on Victoria Island, watching bands play and jamming with them. That's how we met Georges. We all listened to Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Idris Muhammad and the Beatles." "We started jamming with Clifford on the guitar, his brother Gerard on the bass and Georges on the guitar. We chipped in with song ideas, with the group contributing arrangements and refining things until we were satisfied. The band had a natural sound, which stemmed from the chemistry we had. It was a strange chemistry, we were an odd combination from different backgrounds but when we played, something happened..." After landing a residency at Tee Mac's club in Surulere, Apples auditioned for Odion Iruoje who arranged recording dates and cut the record. For a young band, Iruoje was surprised by the quality of the band, adding in extra keyboard parts from Lemmy Udofia and Francis Monkman, founder of Curved Air and session man for Kate Bush, Sky, and music libraries like BBC Music, Bruton, and KPM. Iruoje remembers, "their playing added a layer of sophistication and sheen without encumbering proceedings." This definitive edition of Apples' Mind Twister features new interviews with bandleader Frank Ikpefuran and producer Odion Iruoje. Fully remastered by The Carvery.
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LP
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UNROCK 013LP
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It took more than just some time and imagination to believe that Carte Blanche, this piece of astonishing contemporary music by some of the most talented and able musicians of the international avant-circuit, could be realized. Karkhana, a highly explosive mostly Middle Eastern/Mediterranean ensemble -- Sam Shalabi (Land Of Kush, Shalabi Effect, Dwarfs Of East Agouza), Sharif Sehnaoui ("A" Trio), Michael Zerang (Peter Brötzmann, Hamid Drake, Jaap Blonk, Vandermark, etc.), Mazen Kerbaj ("A" Trio), Maurice Louca (Dwarfs Of East Agouza), Tony Elieh, Umut Caglar (Konstrukt) -- is weaving a tapestry of sound for Egyptian songstress Nadah El Shazly's voice to slide deep into. On the other side, two grand seigneurs of underground, ex-Sun City Girls and Rangda guitar whirlwind Richard Bishop and W. David Oliphant (Maybe Mental) play it loud. Far Eastern post-industrial. Very heavy, sharp, and crystal clear. Ripe. Carte Blanche will be released as a one-time pressing. It is released as a part of Unrock's Saraswati Series. Vinyl cut by Peter Koerfer at Ivory Tower. Extra-heavy deluxe cover, printed cardboard insert. 140 gram vinyl.
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LP
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SR 361LP
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2018 repress; LP version; black vinyl. "I believe the use of noise to make music will continue and increase until we reach a music produced through the aid of electrical instruments which will make available for musical purposes any and all sounds that can be heard." --John Cage, 1937.
"Although John Cage occasionally worked in large, sophisticated studios -- for example, when he composed 'Fontana Mix' in 1958 -- his approach to electronic and tape music was often uncomplicated, makeshift, and pragmatic, employing simple tabletop devices: tape machines, phonograph cartridges, contact microphones, record players, portable radios, etc. He developed a soundworld that was utterly new, radical and demanding. It heralded the age of the loudspeaker, mass communication and Marshall McLuhan's 'global village.' The hiss, crackle and hum of electronic circuits, and the disembodied sounds, snatched by radio from the ether, spoke of the 20th century. Langham Research Centre works within the tradition firmly established by Cage, using resources that would have been available to him. For the realization of Cartridge Music, moving iron phonograph pickups were sourced and restored. These have a knurled screw designed to hold a steel phonograph needle and, in the piece, other objects are inserted and amplified: pieces of wire, toothpicks, paperclips, etc. The realization of 'Fontana Mix' includes the individual mono tracks from Cage's original tapes created in 1958. These are played using open-reel tape machines. These practices ensure we work within the limitations that Cage experienced and enable us to get close to the soundworld he inhabited." --Robert Worby, Langham Research Centre
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LP
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OME 1013LP
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Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 13,000 islands including Java, the world's most populous island, and Bali, is as diverse as it is large. Having been a crucial stop on international trade routes since as early as the seventh century, the influences on Indonesian musical traditions are deep and wide. Music Of Indonesia, recorded in 1950, is one of the earliest western documents of this rich tradition. Featuring sounds ranging from beautiful Balinese gamelan orchestras and operas to the raw power of katjapi (a variety of boat-lute), and more, this is one of the best glimpses into the Indonesian musical traditions the world will ever see.
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LP
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OME 1016LP
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Rune Lindblad was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1923 and began composing music in 1953. This was a time when composers in Germany and France were feuding over the merits of electronic music made by pure wave oscillators versus Musique concrète, which used the tape recorder as its main instrument. Lindblad, however did not see these genres as mutually exclusive. In fact, Lindblad extended his work to incorporate other mediums along with his approach to music. Deeply involved with woodcuts and painting, Lindblad was already experimenting with using damaged 16mm film in his Optica 1 as early as 1959. Not surprisingly, since Lindblad represented no institutionalized school of thought, his experiments went unnoticed for many years with the exception of his demonstration of Musique concrète in a concert at Folkets Hus in 1957 where the audience demanded their money back and the critics called his concert "pure torture". Until a retrospective published by Radium in 1989 there were only two recordings of Rune Lindblad's compositions; one was the single side of a 7" record released in 1957, the other a full length album published in 1975. Both of these recordings were poorly distributed and remain fairly unknown. Lindblad taught at Gothenburg University; among his students were Rolf Enstrom, Ake Parmerud, and Ulf Billing. The music on Death Of The Moon & Other Early Works has lain dormant for almost 35 years. It was recorded at a time when Lindblad was forced to borrow equipment from the University in Gothenburg in the evening and have it returned by sunrise the next morning. These compositions are essentially tape music, where individual performances are fed back and forth between tape recorders in a style represented by the technical limitations during this time period.
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LP
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WLV 82105LP
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Huddie William Ledbetter, better known to the world as Leadbelly, was one of the most celebrated guitarists and vocalists of 20th century American music. He introduced the world to many traditional folk and gospel songs and his versions remain some of the most well-known and beautiful ever cut to tape. Born on a plantation in Louisiana in 1888, Leadbelly got his start as a teenager performing in the red-light district of Shreveport. "Discovered" by the legendary folklorists John and Alan Lomax while Leadbelly was serving time in Angola state prison for attempted murder. They recorded him while in prison and in 1934, at the age of 46, made these recordings, the first commercial recordings of his career. Featuring a wide repertoire of folk and blues songs along with his powerful voice and unique guitar style, these tracks are absolute cornerstones of American folk and blues music and some of the greatest tracks he ever cut.
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LP
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JMAN 105LP
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LP version. Calling all turkeynecks, dirt fiends and juiceheads! Often imitated, never equaled -- the legendary, the one-and-only, the unique Las Vegas Grind! hath finally returned! After many years scouring the greasy basement dives of the netherworld, Jazzman finally managed to locate the manic mastermind responsible for the original six volumes of deviant, demented, and depraved sleaze-ball bump and grind. Slumped at the end of a bar, we struck the deal at midnight as we drank a toast of cold rat piss, and with deep regret Jazzman can now unveil the latest in the whole sorry saga. Las Vegas Grind! Volume Seven. And so, dragged under the stripper's spotlight for the first time in 60 years, long-forgotten never-knowns by Alonzo And The Boppers and The Abstracts rock side-by-side with lurid low-life lurchers Louie And The Fat Men and The Escorts. Little Louie And The Finger Cymbals rattle their tiny pasties while Gay Poppa's Cha Cha flips us round and takes us to the other side. All in all, yet another set of crude and tasteless chud-locker choons bound to upset the whole square world all over again. 16 gruesome growlers guaranteed to torment and tease. Shameless and shocking; rotten to the core; welcome, welcome at last to Las Vegas Grind! Volume Seven. Also features: Savoys, Low Rocks, Frank Scott, B Bubba, UBs Group, Leo Valentine Trio, Los Virreyes, Bob Moore And The Temps, Little Louie And The Finger Cymbals, The Original Spacemen, and Y-Dells.
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LP
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FFL 047LP
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Souffle Continu Records present the first ever vinyl reissue of Philippe Maté/Daniel Vallancien, originally released in 1972. Although discrete, the career of saxophonist Philippe Maté includes nonetheless several indispensable albums: be it with the Acting Trio, Jean Guérin (Tacet), or Jef Gilson (Workshop), his collaborations in a big band or quartet with Lawrence "Butch" Morris, his presence in the Saxophone Quartet and also on the brilliant 1972 album L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouche by Jean-Claude Vannier (BMS 001CD, FKR 001X-LP). As for the man in the background: Daniel Vallancien, a sound engineer rarely featured on the sleeves; the collection Actuel on the BYG label owes much to him (he is at the controls behind Anthony Braxton, Don Cherry, Sonny Sharrock, or Steve Lacy), and the same goes for Saravah for who he notably recorded Areski, Brigitte Fontaine, Maurice Lemaître, or the Cohelmec Ensemble. Not bad for starters! What is more, Daniel Vallancien is one of a prestigious group of French recording engineers with open ears and often themselves musicians, even if only occasionally for some, including Bruno Menny, Daniel Deshays, or Jean-Marc Foussat, who have all recorded remarkable albums as leaders. Behind this collaboration was the idea of creating music which was free, direct, and spontaneous, while having also a minimum of advance planning. Music, according to the brief liner notes desirous to "remove itself from long and patient laboratory experiments". So, there can be found here none of the sophisticated tools associated with electroacoustic research, but mainly a recording mixer console, which, in the hands of Daniel Vallancien acts directly on the original instrumental sound in real time, modifying and multiplying it while respecting the natural flow. Be it Paul Méfano, Betsy Jolas, Gérard Grisey, or Jacques Lejeune, many contemporary composers working in France have, at one time or another, included the saxophone in their work. Nothing can compare to the singularity of the dialogue between Philippe Maté and Daniel Vallancien, which they themselves describe as being "serious, sarcastic or humorous", with, here and there, "disturbing sounds". Words, however, even those used by the protagonists themselves, are insufficient to describe such a sonic object, difficult to identify and, it has to be said, extraordinary. Licensed from Saravah. Gatefold sleeve; Obi strip; Edition of 500.
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