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Recent Best Sellers
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CT 115LP
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2025 repress. Originally issued in 1973, Blackboard Jungle Dub is considered a milestone in the history of dub. Tracks include "African Skank" -- based on Junior Byles' "A Place Called Africa" -- and "Dreamland Skank", "Moving Skank" and "Kaya Skank" which are dub versions of Wailers" "Dreamland", "Keep On Moving" and "Kaya".
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CT 084LP
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2025 restock. One of King Tubby's finest works, originally released in 1974. Recorded at Tubby's famous 18 Drummly Ave. studio in Kingston during dub's early development period.
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2LP
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BEC 5772110
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2023 repress. Justice's highly-acclaimed debut album from 2007. French-only vinyl version, in deluxe gatefold sleeve. Retreating to their underground post-nuclear shelter/studio, French duo Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay worked on their first album as if their lives depended on it. The result is a mind-fuck of an album that proves that Justice's unique talent is to be found where least expected. Take for example "Let There Be Light" and its strident, angry electro, driven by a jabbing bassline; "D.A.N.C.E," a pure piece of vicious house sung innocently by a choir of children; "Newjack," a funky parody of the opulent times of the French Touch; "Phantom," taking over where "Waters Of Nazareth" left off to drift towards "Phantom Pt. II" and its head-swirling disco violins; "Valentine," an erotic, melancholic nursery rhyme, like a tribute to Vladimir Cosma and "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy," a pure electro-funk track where the sexy Uffie plays more than ever the cheeky Lolita. Justice have thrown established rules out the window (the notion of good and bad taste, the thin line between underground and pop music, the pigeon hole labeling between rock and electro, etc.) with a fantastic talent for synthesizing and mixing their influences with total candor, be it the cosmic disco of Larry Levan or Vladimir Cosma's panty-wetting romantics, Camel's prog rock or the anxious theme of Goblin for Dario Argento, to the flashy funk of the Brothers Johnson or "ABC" by the Jackson 5. Cross isn't a collection of random dancefloor singles. Cross is for listening at home or in clubs. Cross is a link between pop at its purest and experimental music. Cross brings together hardcore elements and cheese. Cross makes the Goths link arms with the rave kids. A generational manifest, ideally positioned on the side of the dancefloor, Cross, insolent with youth, is a testimony that the French electro scene is healthier than ever.
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2LP
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SR 561LP
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Double LP version. Founding work of minimalism, Music with Changing Parts is a piece with free instrumentation. The musicians choose which part to play among the eight staves of the score. At each indicated cue, the musicians can change part, which produces an abrupt change of instrumentation. While the music is based on a melodic material limited to a few notes that are repeated in patterns that expand or contract, the changes in orchestration refresh the listening experience by producing sonic contrasts. These techniques at work in Music with Changing Parts, written in 1970, will lead Philip Glass to renew his language and move from the monochromatic works that precede it to more dramatic works such as music in 12 parts and especially the opera Einstein on the Beach. When Philip Glass began rehearsing the piece, he was surprised to hear long notes when everything was written in eighth notes. After making sure that none of the musicians were playing held notes, he realized that the fact that the same notes were played by all the instruments in the ensemble produced, through a psycho-acoustic effect, a harmonic substrate of resonant frequencies. He then decided to add to the score the possibility of playing long notes to reinforce this effect. "For this recording, we chose to record first the eighth notes, then the long notes in re-recording. This utopian version, with each musician playing short and long notes at the same time (!), illustrates the minimalist aesthetic that plays with our perception and allows us to reconcile opposites and cultivate the apparent paradox of a music that moves forward without Moving and changes constantly while remaining the same." --Dedalus Ensemble
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CT 119LP
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2025 restock; 1995 release. "A virtual wizard of the mixing desk, Overton H Brown has been one of the key figures in dub since the late 1970s. Getting his start as a teenager at King Tubby's legendary studio in Waterhouse, Brown was known as 'The Scientist' because his imaginative approach to the mixing desk and electronic gadgetry seemed to derive from magical powers that linked him to some intangible, futuristic realm."
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WRWTFWW 017LP
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2025 repress. We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records present the first ever official vinyl pressing of the soundtrack for Mamoru Oshii's critically acclaimed and all around legendary science fiction anime film Ghost In The Shell (1995), adapted from Masamune Shirow's groundbreaking manga series of the same name. The haunting score is composed by Kenji Kawai, one of Japan's most celebrated soundtrack composers alongside Joe Hisaishi and Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose work includes Hideo Nakata's Ring (1998) and Ring 2 (1999), Death Note (2006), Hong Kong films Seven Swords by Tsui Hark (2005) and Ip Man by Wilson Yip (2008), and countless others. Kawai's compositions see ancient harmonies and percussions uncannily mesh with synthesized sounds of the modern world to convey a sumptuous balance between folklore tradition and futuristic outlook. For its iconic main theme "Making Of Cyborg", Kawai had a choir chant a wedding song in ancient Japanese following Bulgarian folk harmonies, setting the standard for a timeless and unparalleled soundtrack that admirably echoes the film's musings on the nature of humanity in a technologically advanced world. Ghost In The Shell is widely considered one of the best anime films of all time and its influence has been felt in the work of numerous movie directors, including James Cameron's Avatar (2009), the Wachowskis's The Matrix (1999), and Steven Spielberg's AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001). For fans of anime, manga, movie soundtracks, science fiction, ambient, folklore, Japan, Akira (1988), artificial intelligence, Midori Takada. Cut from the original master reels at Emil Berliner Studios (formerly the in-house recording department of renowned classical record label Deutsche Grammophon).
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BT 129LP
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Carrying on from recent archival releases from masters of Indian classical tradition such as Kamalesh Maitra and the Dagar Brothers, Black Truffle presents a previously unheard recording of a concert by Pakistani vocalist Salamat Ali Khan. Born to a musician family in Hoshiarpur in the northwestern state of Punjab, Khan moved with his family to Lahore in Pakistan after the 1947 partition of India, becoming a child musical prodigy. Khan was a master of the kyhal form of Hindustani classical vocal music, a style integrating influences from Middle Eastern musical traditions that gives the singer a great deal of improvisational freedom. Travelling widely across the globe from the 1960s until his death in 2001, Khan approached ragas performed in the kyhal style as expressive forums for risk-taking improvisation, enlivened by ceaseless ornamental invention. This remarkable recording was captured by Michael Hönig (of krautrock legends Agitation Free) in concert at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie as part of the MetaMusik festival in 1974. Khan, who is also heard accompanying himself on a specially tuned alpine zither (in place of the traditional swarmandal, an Indian style of zither), is joined by Shaukat Hussein Khan on tabla and Hussein Bux Khan on harmonium. The lack of a familiar underlying tanpura drone gives this performance a weightless, floating quality, with all three of the musicians playing masterfully with the interaction between silence and the pulse propelling each section of the raag. Virtuoso tabla interjections at first barely state the tempo, and the interplay between musicians is so spacious that we hear scraps of audience noise and the squeak of the harmonium's mechanism in between the notes. Gradually picking up rhythmic definition and melodic complexity, after around fifteen minutes the music builds dramatically, with Khan letting out emotive yelps and swooping scalar shapes ranging across his full vocal range. Accompanied by stunning black and white concert photographs, the LP also contains a moving and entertaining recollection from acclaimed German musicologist Peter Pannke, looking back on his experience assisting Khan and his musicians in Berlin at the Metamusik festival (including a mouth-watering description of a feast cooked by the maestro himself). As Pannke describes in his account of attending the concert, the beauty and spiritual intensity of this music leaves the listener speechless.
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LP
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CT 3022LP
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2025 restock. "There are very few people who define a genre the way King Tubby defines dub. From the early days of dub in the 1960s, King Tubby (born Osbourne Rodduck) influenced a generation of producers across a variety of genres and continued to do so until his death in the late 1980s. While King Tubby was known for experimenting with different sounds, he was also truly never one to settle for mediocrity. Flexing his signature dub muscle on 1975's Explosive Dub, a compilation of various Tubby gems 19 tracks long, the true beauty of his ability is brought to light. It's obvious to the listener that King Tubby spent hours perfecting each track and remix before releasing it to the public. Explosive Dub, a previously hard to find collector's item is a shining example of King Tubby's work. Though many of these tracks have been previously released by different labels on a variety of dusty pressings and formats, Clocktower's reissue of Explosive Dub features audio mastered from the original analog tapes."
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LP
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V 25AH506LP
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2023 repress. Victory present a reissue of Haruomi Hosono, Takahiko Ishikawa, and Masataka Matsutoya's The Aegean Sea originally released in 1979. The album is somewhat of a companion piece to the previous year's Pacific (V 25AH426). A beautiful piece of Japanese smooth fusion-jazz with elements of traditional Greek music and Balearic grooves, it's one of Hosono's cleanest and most focused works to date. Long sought-after by collectors, this record is nearly impossible to find in original pressings outside of Japan and this is a welcome reissue of one of the greatest titles in Hosono's seemingly infinite catalog. Essential Japanese jazz fusion.
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BALMAT 016LP
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When you're running a label, a demo occasionally comes across your desk that makes you reconsider everything you thought your label was all about. For Balmat, such was the case with this stunning album from Stephen Vitiello, Brendan Canty, and Hahn Rowe. It sounds like nothing Balmat has released so far. Fans of ambient, experimental electronic music, and sound art will be familiar with Vitiello, a New York native, long based in Virginia, who has collaborated with a cross-generational list of greats: Taylor Deupree, Steve Roden, Lawrence English, Tetsu Inoue, Nam June Paik, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pauline Oliveros, and many more. This album is something different. It may begin in ambient-adjacent territory, but it quickly veers off, and it just keeps zigzagging, taking on elements of krautrock, post-punk, dub, and the groove-heavy interplay of groups like Natural Information Society and 75 Dollar Bill. This stylistic turn is thanks in large part to Vitiello's choice of collaborators. Active since the early 1980s, Rowe -- a violinist, guitarist, and producer/engineer -- has played with, or manned the boards for, a frankly jaw-dropping list of musicians: Herbie Hancock, Gil Scott-Heron, the Last Poets, Roy Ayers, John Zorn, Glenn Branca, Swans, Live Skull, Brian Eno, David Byrne, Anohni, R.E.M., Yoko Ono, and many more. Canty, of course, is the legendary drummer of Fugazi, the visionary DC post-hardcore group, as well as Rites of Spring before them, and, currently, the Messthetics, a Dischord-signed instrumental trio with guitarist Anthony Pirog and Fugazi bassist Joe Lally. Second took shape in phases, shifting between improvisation and collage. Vitiello laid down the skeleton of the music at home, sketching out initial ideas on Rhodes keyboard and acoustic and electric guitar; he then fed the parts through samplers and his modular system, recording 10- or 20-minute jams. Once he had edited them into more structured forms, he hit the studio with Canty, who added not just drums but also bass and piano; finally, Vitiello took the results of those sessions to Rowe, who played violin, viola, electric bass, and 12-string acoustic and bowed electric guitar, and assisted in some of the final structuring and mixdown. A few more surprises along the way: Reanimator's Don Godwin, the studio engineer where Vitiello recorded with Canty, contributed what he calls "resonant dustpan;" and none other than Animal Collective's Geologist, who just happened to be in the studio that day, sits in on hurdy gurdy. An unexpected gift is a great way of describing Second as a whole: three veteran musicians venturing outside their usual zones and finding a new collaborative language together.
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LP
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NP 049LP
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Another selection of eight songs following the first compilation released in late 2020 covering the same period but also venturing in the 1990s. Drissi is one of Rai's softest voices. This is more Wah-Wah driven, mid-tempo guitar-based Rai from the city where Rai's "harder' form was conceived. Sad romantic songs about lost loves and other sorrowful tales.
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2LP
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FAITBACK 001LP
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2025 restock. Faitiche presents a long-lost vinyl album. Since 2003, Jan Jelinek's Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, originally released in 2001 on ~scape, existed only as a download. Now the album is available again on vinyl, as a double LP with two bonus tracks, "Moiré (Guitar & Horns)" and "Poren", B-sides from Tendency EP (2000).
"Don't be misled by the title, though for there isn't a finger-snapping rhythm bebop lead anywhere on the album. Instead, Jelinek chooses to explore the visual effect moiré - two shifting patterns creating an implied third dimension - in the audio realm." --Alternative Press
"The title acts as explanation for the studio technique that provided the basis for this album, snippets of other people's arrangements deconstructed through a sampler into loops and then splashed onto an audio canvas." --ATM
"Jelinek's sound evolved out of his dislike for (and inability to play) keyboards." --RPM
"Jelinek has abstracted his sources beyond recognition, looping his millisecond samples into flickering patterns of sonic moiré laid atop a dub techno framework. . . . Jelinek might as well have sampled a horn player's hissing intake of breath - it would have been 'jazz' enough for his purposes." --The Wire
"It's a perfect inversion of conventional music, a sonic negative. Everything that would typically be foreground is moved back or pushed off the screen altogether, and the flecks of sonic debris that would normally be covered by other sounds are left to carry the melody and rhythm." --Pitchfork
"All you need to know is that these onomatopoeic non-specific songs . . . are warm, paradisiacal creations." --NME
"Listen carefully and you'll hear textures slowly unfolding and mutating. Presuming you've not fallen asleep of course." --iDJ
"At times, it's all a bit dripping tap Japanese water torture; so sedentary it drowns in its own motionlessness" --DJ
"Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records is a genuine modern classic whose re-release is anything but a cynical mortgage repayment exercise. Consider this a second chance, then pretend you had it all along." --Boomkat
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LP
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FL 1016LP
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2025 restock. "The string of albums Culture recorded during the late '70s contained some of the most reliably solid sets from the tail end of reggae's roots era. These early releases for the production team of Joe Gibbs and Errol 'E.T.' Thompson yielded the group's finest work . . . The typically excellent assembly of session men respond to such material with an appropriately light touch: the exemplary rhythm work of keyboardists Ansel Collins and Earl Lindo and guitarist Willie Lindo is kept under close watch by the great Sly Dunbar. The drummer's playing is effortless as he alternates the makeup of a particular pattern or subtly changes up the rhythm, heading into a chorus. Closer attention to the backing for tracks like 'Behold,' 'Tell Me Where You Get It,' and 'Vacancy' reveals the sort of strength, though subtle, that drives the best roots music." --Nathan Bush, All Music Guide
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LP
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CTLP 1045LP
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2025 restock; 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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DC 860LP
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Repressed. "Years past the space time of Automaginary, Bitchin Bajas and Natural Information Society have reported back at last from beyond. If the new title doesn't clue you, Totality brings good news. Since their first collaboration, the path ways that lead from Natural Information Society's ecstatic all-world jazz to Bitchin Bajas' microtonal soundscapes have grown ever finer in their articulation. Across the spectrum, the septet balance a deeply searching mood with wonderfully in-pocket production feel. This makes for collective aural transport of the highest order to all those listening in. In the time since their 2015 first convergence, the Natural Information Society have released four albums (one in collaboration with Evan Parker, one with Ari Brown) and Bitchin Bajas five (one a soundtrack, one with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, one featuring the songs of Sun Ra). Given the multivarious paths both groups have traveled, it makes sense that their second convergence seems to emanate from centuries, eons beyond or below -- some undefinable elsewhere -- from their first. Totality is that. These days, Natural Information Society is populated differently. From the sextet NIS that co-created Automaginary, Joshua Abrams, Lisa Alvarado and Mikel Patrick Avery remain. In the stead of the departed former players is Jason Stein on bass clarinet. This might account for some mere impression of aspects of time, space and evolution to be found here -- but then again, Bitchin Bajas flow on in their long-standing trio configuration (Cooper Crain, Dan Quinlivan, Rob Frye), so the 'people in the room' theory of how Totality ever got this way will only take us so far. Recorded in a single day with Greg Norman at Chicago's Electrical Audio, then slowly considered into the finished record we hear here, Totality is a sweet-tempered second child. It experiences time in ways the first kid didn't. If you're in it for slow-shifting trance formations, it's gonna be cool. There's lots here for you, lots of simmering time and synth atmospheres dappled with radiant woodwinds -- but there's some head-snapping hypno-rhythms that stand apart from the groove energies of the first one. It's just natural facts: two different days in time separated by years, with the experience of several live encounters between the two groups in between. Beyond that, only the music can say anything else. That said, here are a few thoughts from this listener's log... The low-key revolutionary thump of 'Nothing Does Not Show' and 'Clock no Clock' notwithstanding, Totality charts impressive new launch angles from NIS & BB's improvisatory heart, with their careful listening and response time continually redefining the space in a relaxed manner that rewards deep zoners. Additionally, their blended corps assimilate marvelously on Abrams' composition, 'Always 9 Seconds Away.' Here, and with the aforementioned groovers, the collective resonates beyond familiar kraut/spiritual/minimal power lines, bringing new time conceptions to bear in the always-expansive space of this album event. It's about time we got back to the singularly-divined space of Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas with Totality. That's the best way to way to define this new music -- it's about time."
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LP
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MGART 904LP
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2025 repress. 180-gram LP version with embossed chessboard artwork print and printed inner sleeve. In celebration of the 2016 35th anniversary of the December 12, 1981, recording of Manuel Göttsching's legendary E2-E4, one of electronic music's most influential recordings, Göttsching's MG.ART label presents an official reissue, carefully overseen by the master himself. Includes liner notes by Manuel Göttsching, archival photos, and an excerpt of David Elliott's review in Sounds from June 16, 1984.
"As the story is sometimes told, Göttsching stopped in the studio for a couple of hours in 1981 and invented techno. E2-E4 is the most compelling argument that techno came from Germany-- more so than any single Kraftwerk album, anyway. The sleeve credits the former Ash Ra Tempel leader with 'guitar and electronics', but few could stretch that meager toolkit like Göttsching. Over a heavenly two-chord synth vamp and simple sequenced drum and bass, Göttsching's played his guitar like a percussion instrument, creating music that defines the word 'hypnotic' over the sixty minutes . . . A key piece in the electronic music puzzle that's been name-checked, reworked and expanded upon countless times." --Mark Richardson, Pitchfork
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CT 088LP
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2025 repress. Originally released in 1985, this is a compilation of classic Horace Andy, including covers of Tappa Zukie's "Better Collie" and Leroy Sibble's "My Guiding Star."
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LP
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SOW 057LP
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Recorded in March 1958 and released a few years later on Prestige, this album sees John Coltrane, the young and future sax giant at the head of a quartet featuring two close partners from the Miles Davis band, pianist Red Garland and bassist Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor on drums. A super-tight, powerful backing band for Coltrane's early attempts to push the boundaries of the bop tradition. Trane's Reign consists of four long tracks including Jackie McClean's original "Little Melonae." A perfect introduction to the early reign of John Coltrane.
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7"
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PSS 139EP
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"Repro! The first EP (1978) by the English post-punk band. It was released by the band's own label, Enigma, shortly after the group changed their name from Warsaw."
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LP
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CT 114LP
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2025 repress. Originally released in 1981. Landmark dub record from legendary reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, using a combination of established collaborators and new musicians: The Upsetters, Johnny Lover & The Towerchanters, Lee & The Blue Bell, Val Bennett, Brad Osbourne & The Towerchanters, Devion Iron, The Black Arks, and Ricky And Bunny.
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LP
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SR 557LP
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"The term 'Miao' is a very ancient Chinese misleading pseudo-ethnic categorization, the Hmong in western languages, a term recognized by colonial French Indochina. Miao became a generic term which does not reveal the diversity of 38 subgroups or 9 million people, mostly in Southern China Guizhou Province. China, since having moved towards the market economy, now includes a large number of minority regions that are marketed a commodity available only to them: their ethnicity itself. Ethnic tourism has developed in a big way in China since the 1990s, for both Chinese and foreign tourists, and it is often promoted as the way to generate income in those areas for development. I usually stay away from Ethnotouristic shows and try to get music that is not a commodity! I was based in Dali, Yunnan, China between 2006 and 2013." --Laurent Jeanneau
Recorded by Laurent Jeanneau and Shi Tanding. Notes By Laurent Jeanneau. "Miao Three Mouthorgans In Guizhou China" features three men each using a different size lushen or gué and four women each blowing in a different mantong. Recorded in Paisha village. "Hua Miao Wedding Dance In Sichuan China" features an instrument called the lushen, the predominant kind of mouth organ being used for entertainment. "Hmoob Dongliang In Guizhou China" was recorded in Biasha village, composed of two reeds instruments and male and female singers, intended as love songs. "Hua Miao Hulushen In Sichuan China" was performed by one man. The main music instrument is the small mouth organ, hulushen, the predominant mouth organ used for entertainment, where the long tubes lushen is mounted on a wooden resonance box. "Hmoob Mouthorgans In Guizhou China" was recorded in Biasha village, and features a Miao (they call themselves Hmoob). This is part of musical demonstration for tourists. Armed with heavy cameras, six men using six lushen of various sizes. "Gelao Gupiaoqin In Guizhou China" was recorded in Songlong village, where people identify themselves not as Miao but as Gelao, using a very rare string instrument called the Gupiaoqin. "Gelao Canon Singing In Guizhou China" features two old ladies performing canon singing in Songlong village. "Shui Miao Travelling Song Guizhou China" features the Shui Miao (water Miao), a sub group of the Miaos of Guizhou, based in the Shidong area outside of Kali in Guizhou.
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LP
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LIFE 061LP
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Tokyo playwright, director and artist J A Caesar sprang to prominence in the early '70s largely through his work with Shuji Terayama's Tenjo Sajiki Theatre, specializing in vaguely sinister music. The Kokkyou Junreika release, often considered Caesar's finest work, was culled from the five hours of music written for the original play distilled down to an album's worth of ageless chants, Buddhist mantras, heavenly invocations and fuzztone guitar vamps supported by Caesar's droning electric organ and the eerie female vocals of Yoko Ran, Keiko Shinko, and Seigo Showa. An album that sits comfortably alongside early Ash Ra Temple, Cosmic Jokers, and ATEM-period Tangerine Dream.
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2LP
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WRJ 015LTD-LP
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Double LP version. We Release Jazz presents the release of Casimir Liberski ReTRio's The Z Suites, a full-length jazz album reinterpreting the music from iconic Nintendo video game series The Legend of Zelda. The epic Z-Jazz journey is available as limited edition 180g half speed mastered vinyl double LP housed in a heavyweight sleeve with obi and digipack CD (WRJ 015CD) with cavalier/obi. Casimir Liberski reimagines the golden era of video game soundtracks with jazz versions of Zelda favorites The Legend of Zelda (1986), A Link to the Past (1991), Link's Awakening (1993), and Oscarina of Time (1998) -- plus a few Easter eggs! Dancing between nostalgia and avant-garde, the Brussels-born pianist and composer crafts a sonic world of pixelated folklore where melody and improvisation coexist in harmony.
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LP
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NA 5273LP
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"Definitive reissue of a Zamrock masterpiece, ranging from hard psych to wistful folk. Contains bonus track 'Sunday Morning Sunshine,' never before on LP. 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 its newly-named country, formerly known as Northern Rhodesia. Zamrock is startling 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."
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LP
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DMOO 088LP
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Released in 1959, The Amazing Nina Simone marked her debut with Colpix Records, blending jazz, gospel, and folk with a striking orchestral touch. Unlike her piano-driven debut, this album leans on lush string arrangements led by renowned conductor Bob Mersey. A bold departure that highlighted her vocal depth, it showcased Simone's ability to transcend genres with effortless grace.
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MR 483LP
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Gusano mecánico has become a coveted collector's item, highly valued by music lovers worldwide. It has been included in 5001 Record Collector Dreams by Hans Pokora, receiving the highest rarity rating and hailed as a musical masterpiece. It was released in 1974 by the legendary Bolivian rock band Climax and was a big leap from their early recordings, where they paid tribute to their musical heroes. It became a landmark of prog rock in Bolivia and one of the few conceptual albums produced in the country. Gusano mecánico explores themes such as the loss of personal essence and the vindication of indigenous peoples. Founded in 1968 from the remnants of the disbanded Los Black Byrds and the unrealized project The Turtles, Climax was formed by guitarist José "Pepe" Eguino and bassist Javier Saldías, who developed a strong bond with drummer Álvaro Córdova, cemented by their shared passion for rock. Together, they embarked on a journey of self-discovery, spending several months in the United States during a crucial period straddling the end of the Summer of Love and the lead-up to Woodstock. This period, perhaps the most significant of the 1960s countercultural movement, saw an explosion of artistic expression driven by dissatisfaction with the society that the youth had inherited from their parents. Within this context, the influence of iconic bands such as The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, Blue Cheer, and Emerson played a pivotal role in their decision to return to Bolivia and form the country's first 'power trio'. They quite literally brought psychedelic and prog rock to Bolivia by carrying new, experimental vinyl records in their luggage, at a time when rock music (and music in general) had very limited exposure due to the scarcity of media resources. Their musical project reflected their influences and laid down the first traces of what would later be called heavy rock, a genre that never achieved widespread popularity in Bolivia. Climax embarked on a prog rock journey, exploring themes such as the loss of personal essence and the vindication of indigenous peoples. Their rebellious discourse opposed the mechanization of humankind brought about by past decades of industrial exploitation in which they resist being absorbed by the system. It became a landmark of prog rock in Bolivia and one of the few conceptual albums produced in the country.
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LP
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LPCT 3193LP
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"The partnership of Dennis Brown and Errol 'Flabba' Holt continues to pay rich dividends, for of all the producers the singer worked with across the '90s, arguably Holt was the most sympathetic. Blood Brothers, where Brown joined forces with Gregory Isaacs, was very good indeed, but Holt still had to cater to the latter man's style as well; here he can lavish his attention on Brown alone. The results are awe-inspiring. Backed by Holt's Roots Radics, and with a guest appearance by bassist Leroy Sibbles and drummer Sly Dunbar, the album is driven by modern digitized beats, but boasts the Radics at their richest. The group plunder the Jamaican songbook for old rhythms, reaching back into the past to root out old roots numbers, disinter the beautiful melodies of the rocksteady era, and even cross the Caribbean to plunder the American pop chart." --AllMusic
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CD
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SF 126CD
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Tsapiky music from Southwest Madagascar features wild ecstatic vocals, distorted electric guitars, rocket bass, and the amphetamine beat! Unlike anything else, this is THE high life music you've always wanted -- ceremonial music played with abandon and extreme intent, honoring the living and dead alike. In Toliara and its surrounding region, funerals, weddings, circumcisions and other rites of passage have been celebrated for decades in ceremonies called mandriampototse. During these celebrations -- which last between three and seven days -- cigarettes, beer and toaky gasy (artisanal rum) are passed around while electric orchestras play on the same dirt floor as the dancing crowds and zebus. The music, tsapiky, defies any classification. This compilation showcases the diversity of contemporary tsapiky music. Locally and even nationally renowned bands played their own songs on makeshift instruments, blaring through patched-up amps and horn speakers hung in tamarind trees, projecting the music kilometers away. Lead guitarists and female lead singers are the central figures of tsapiky. Driven as much by their creative impulses as by the need to stand out in a competitive market, the artists distinguish themselves stylistically through their lyrics, rhythms or guitar riffs. They must also master a wide repertoire of current tsapiky hits, which the families that attend inevitably request before parading in front of the orchestra with their offerings. This work, a constant push and pull between distinction and imitation, is nourished by fertile exchanges between various groups: acoustic and electric, rural and urban, coastal or inland. What results during these ceremonies is a music of astonishing intensity and creativity, played by artists carving out their own path, indifferent to the standards of any other music industry: Malagasy, African or global. Recorded live on location by Maxime Bobo, this CD edition includes three bonus tracks not on the LP plus an eight-page full-color insert with detailed liner notes and photos of the musicians and surroundings.
Featuring Mamehy, Drick, Songada, Befila, Behaja, Mahafaly Mihisa, Meny & Ando, Rebona, Renitsa, Gorop Milalaza, and Mirasoa & Mahapoteke.
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LP
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DMOO 086LP
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The brilliant My Point of View was Herbie Hancock's second album for Blue Note, a 1963 session featuring an all-star lineup: Donald Byrd, Hank Mobley, Grachan Moncur III, Grant Green, Chuck Israels, and a young Tony Williams. Each track radiates a deeply engaging musicality, showcasing Hancock's masterful arranging skills. With standout compositions like "King Cobra" and "A Tribute to Someone," this is a timeless classic -- an essential reissue not to be missed.
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2LP
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12XU 165LP
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"Water Damage is ten people from one town and one sound from twelve people. For Instruments, the plus two are guitarist David Grubbs and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi, neither of whom blunt the angle or confound the aim. The tempo? Slow and low. Four tracks, averaging twenty minutes each, the pace never above a comfortable walk. The damage creeps, a forest becomes a mountain, and the faithful move forward. The album is named after Fugazi, in a manner, and 'Reel 25' takes after the Shocklee Brothers, in a cry. Stop asking the lord how many drummers this band has and ask him how much of your mind, babe. Some people say drone and same people say trance and some people say invocation through patterned unity. Some people just say rock and we let them set their clocks back. Lie down and let these holy treads flatten you. Just because Water Damage know what they are doing doesn't mean you have to. Fix your hearts or die!" -- Sasha Frere-Jones
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10"
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AUK 142EP
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This is a new limited edition 10" single from Brian Jonestown Massacre, the band's first new recordings for two years .Side A includes "Makes Me Great Again," a whimsical song rooted heavily in psychedelic folk rock -- the way Anton Newcombe does it best. Side B offers the up-tempo "Out Of Body," a joyous plunge into an experimental shoegaze ode to the '60s, with multiple experiments conducted on an array of instruments. The art work is a photo taken by the talented Francis Delacroix, part of a series of photos of Anton Newcombe taken by the artist.
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LP
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VAMPI 308LP
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Repressed! Reissued here for the first time, Cartão Postal is one of the best and most sought-after Brazilian funk-soul albums from the early '70s. It includes some outstanding up-tempo gems like Marcos and Paulo Sergio Valle's "Que bandeira," and the stellar "Esperar Prá Ver," co-written by Evinha's brother Renato Corrêa who also happened to be a member of the Golden Boys. This is a classic Brazilian soul-funk title, right up there with all the greatest albums of the genre. Remastered from the original tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl. This release is part of a new reissue series that will include many other outstanding Brazilian classics. Cartão Postal was originally released on Odeon Brazil in 1971, a few years after Evinha started her solo career. From 1961 to 1968 she was a member of Trio Esperança, alongside her brothers Mário and Regina. In 1969 Evinha won first prize at the Festival Internacional da Cançao Popular and her discography for Odeon took off. Cartão Postal, her third solo album, comprises some outstanding gems. "Só Quero" emanates samba soul sounds while songs like "Por Mera Coincidência" or "Rico Sem Dinheiro" resemble what Trio Esperança was doing at the time: vocal-driven groovy jams spiced with celestial strings arrangements and heavy-duty drums and basslines, which is not surprising since they both worked with the same producers and arrangers, as they were all Odeon artists. Ridiculously rare and expensive now, and at the top of many collectors' wants lists for decades, it's finally reissued here after years unavailable.
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LP
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WHYT 084LP
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Going belly up, guess it's always a possibility. Following the release of their latest acclaimed record You Never End (Pitchfork, The Quietus, RA) Moin follow up with their latest EP, Belly Up.
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2LP
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FIELD 037LP
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Twenty-four years on from its original release, Monolake's seminal Gravity receives its first vinyl pressing courtesy of Field Records. Occupying its own space at the intersection of dub techno, minimal and electronica, it's an ageless album of staggering vision and technological prowess which has matured into an all-time pillar of electronic music. This edition, remastered by the album's key architect Robert Henke, follows on from the reissue of Monolake's first album, Hongkong. Arriving just after the turn of the millennium, Gravity marked a turning point for Monolake. With co-founder Gerhard Behles moving on to other ventures, Henke produced most of the album solo and journeyed deeper into spatial exploration and the dub-informed principles that underpinned their project from the start. Minimalism and negative space run through the whole record, from the keen slithers of percussion pinging through lattices of delay to the hypnotizing pulse of subliminal basslines anchoring the tracks. Gravity is a record which hangs on techno's linearity as a form of meditation, but the crystalline clarity of the mix allows every micro-fluctuation in rhythm and sound to cut through. Compared to a lot of overly sterile digital music released in the early 2000s, Gravity endures thanks to the warmth and texture Henke elicited from his processes -- even when leaning into none-more-digital effects like bit reduction. He described the ninth-floor view over Berlin from his studio at night as a key influence on the sound of the record, but the space Gravity shapes out feels thrillingly implacable. Unbound by the standard conventions of time and space, Gravity stands proud as a true original and finally gets the ceremonious vinyl pressing it so richly deserves.
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CD
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CT 085CD
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2025 repress, digipak edition of King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown, the historic 1976 collaboration between producer and instrumentalist Augustus Pablo and dub engineer King Tubby. "If you had to pick one album that best represents the pinnacle of the art of dub, you'd cull the candidates down pretty quickly to ten or 12, and it would get very difficult after that. Few would fault you for ending up with this one, though, which stands as perhaps the finest collaboration between two of instrumental reggae's leading lights: producer and melodica player Augustus Pablo and legendary dub pioneer King Tubby. Among other gems, this album offers its title track -- a dub version of Jacob Miller's 'Baby I Love You So' -- which is widely regarded as the finest example of dub ever recorded. But the rest of the album is hardly less impressive. 'Each One Dub,' another cut on a Jacob Miller rhythm, possesses the same dark and mystical ambience, if not quite the same emotional energy, as 'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown,' and the version of the epochal 'Satta Massaganna' that closes the album is another solid winner. Pablo's trademark 'Far East' sound (characterized by minor keys and prominent melodica lines) is predominant throughout, and is treated with care and grace by King Tubby, who has rarely sounded more inspired in his studio manipulations than he does here. Absolutely essential." --Rick Anderson, AllMusic
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CD
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SR 561CD
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Founding work of minimalism, Music with Changing Parts is a piece with free instrumentation. The musicians choose which part to play among the eight staves of the score. At each indicated cue, the musicians can change part, which produces an abrupt change of instrumentation. While the music is based on a melodic material limited to a few notes that are repeated in patterns that expand or contract, the changes in orchestration refresh the listening experience by producing sonic contrasts. These techniques at work in Music with Changing Parts, written in 1970, will lead Philip Glass to renew his language and move from the monochromatic works that precede it to more dramatic works such as music in 12 parts and especially the opera Einstein on the Beach. When Philip Glass began rehearsing the piece, he was surprised to hear long notes when everything was written in eighth notes. After making sure that none of the musicians were playing held notes, he realized that the fact that the same notes were played by all the instruments in the ensemble produced, through a psycho-acoustic effect, a harmonic substrate of resonant frequencies. He then decided to add to the score the possibility of playing long notes to reinforce this effect. "For this recording, we chose to record first the eighth notes, then the long notes in re-recording. This utopian version, with each musician playing short and long notes at the same time (!), illustrates the minimalist aesthetic that plays with our perception and allows us to reconcile opposites and cultivate the apparent paradox of a music that moves forward without Moving and changes constantly while remaining the same." --Dedalus Ensemble
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LP
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SR 464LP
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LP version. Unreleased material composed by Bernard Parmegiani in 1992. Lac Noir - La Serpente is part of Emmanuel Raquin-Lorenzi's Lac Noir, a composite work inspired by a serpentine female creature or "snake-woman" that he saw in Transylvania in 1976, with a total of 33 pieces using various media, 24 by himself and 9 by other artists. All the materials used in Lac Noir were gathered on the land of the snake-woman between 1990 and 1992. The first coordinated broadcast ran from June to October 2019, like a theatrical display of media.
"At the end of May 1992, in Provence, in his Summer studio not far from the Montagne Sainte-Victoire, Bernard Parmegiani played the first musical moments he had worked on from the sounds he and Christian Zanési had collected in Negreni in October 1990. A few days after this listening session, on 4th June, I wrote him a letter. I didn't mean to take control of what was to become the ninth movement of his composition, but to share with him some of the resonances I had heard in what he had composed, which mingled with my dreams and memories of the Transylvanian snake-woman, and outlined possible concordances with the other pieces underway for Lac Noir. In the midst of the garish chaos of the fair and its spectacular stunts, there could spread out -- still, silent eye of the cyclone -- the long waters of a lake. Calm waters. Patches cool but sensitive as skin. Between the waters there flows and ripples, there shows up and dives again a snake-woman born of the still waters. A sweet, good serpent whose song -- strange and melodious, sensual, yet already tinged, as if bitten by the black depths, with bitterness; that of prescience, shading it with melancholy -- is her very undulation, the rings of which appear, together or in turn, the way translucent veins overlap, slither over one another in a moving braid of metamorphoses." (Extracts from notes by E. Raquin-Lorenzi)
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LP
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HAB 030LP
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LP version. "Lebanese composer and multi-instrumentalist Charif Megarbane returns with Hawalat, a new album that seamlessly blends together a mix of global influences of sounds and collaborations. Hawalat builds on Megarbane's distinct ability to merge Mediterranean psychedelia, jazz, hip-hop, and orchestral elements into an evocative listening experience. Taking inspiration from hawala, a system of informal money transfers made to certain countries impacted by a lack of currency or unstable contexts. Megarbane spins this concept on its head, reimagining it as an artistic exchange spanning cultures, generations, and geographies. This spirit of creative movement is embodied in the album's amalgamative nature, featuring contributions from an international lineup of artists, including London-based jazz vocalist Sahra Gure, Italian-Tunisian singer LNDFK, Neapolitan pianist Dario Bassolino, Berlin beatmaker and violinist FloFilz, and an 18-piece orchestral arrangement by Swedish composer Sven Wunder. Recorded across multiple locations, from Beirut to Brooklyn, Stockholm to a rural French commune, the album's sonic journey mirrors its thematic premise. Musically, the track list of Hawalat travels through a varied journey of textures and temperaments. The album's opener, 'Hanadi,' is a percussive, Somali-inspired groove with wordless vocals and soaring saxophone lines. Tracks like 'Al Dollarji' and 'Al Bahriye' encapsulate Megarbane's signature Mediterranean sound, while 'Helia,' performed with the Stockholm Studio Orchestra, showcases his cinematic sensibilities. 'Jana,' an homage to the late Malian kora master Toumani Diabaté, sees Megarbane transform his guitar into a kora-like instrument, staying true to his commitment to experimentation. Hawalat expands further outwards, exploring themes of diaspora, exile, and artistic migration. The album avoids nostalgic recreations of the past, instead situating itself comfortably in the present with a sound that is both timeless and contemporary. Known for his prolific output -- having released over 100 projects under various monikers -- Megarbane continues to defy categorization, crafting what he calls 'Lebrary music': a borderless, Mediterranean-rooted fusion of library music, Afrobeat, hip-hop, and jazz. His ethos of spontaneity extends to his live performances, where he and his band reinterpret songs anew with each show. In 2024, he toured extensively, often sharing the stage with fellow Habibi Funk collaborator Rogér Fakhr. Through Hawalat, Megarbane reaffirms his place as a global musical storyteller, allowing influences and traditions to cross borders and meet fluidity and spontaneity."
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LP
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VAMPI 319LP
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This wonderful and highly sought-after album was originally born from a promotional campaign by the U.S. Army to encourage recruitment. The recording perfectly captures the spirit of young America through songs written by Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Funkadelic, and Burt Bacharach (via Isaac Hayes, of course). High-level soul and funk performed by brilliant anonymous musicians. Virtually impossible to find in its original edition, Vampisoul are now reissuing it once again thanks to a collaboration with Now Again. Pressed on 180g vinyl. Often, the most prized records by collectors hold unexpected stories. When they also feature incredibly high musical quality and only a few original copies are available, they become the holy grails of collecting. This is the case with this album, recorded by American soldiers stationed in Germany in the early '70s. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army organized a band competition among its soldiers. The winners would record a promotional album that would be distributed for free to encourage enlistment during such a turbulent time. The result was a double LP shared between the bands SOAP and East of Underground. Although East of Underground's repertoire consists of covers of soul and funk hits, the quality is surprisingly high: raw guitars, crushing drums, and brilliant vocal harmonies. When the label Now Again tried to reconstruct the story of East of Underground, they only managed to contact one of its members after digging through documents in the New York Library and collaborating with the U.S. Army.
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2LP
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WRWTFWW 078LP
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2025 repress. WRWTFWW Records announce the first ever vinyl release for Pizza Hotline's brilliant 2022 full-length Level Select, originally only released on cassette and digital. The liquid drum & bass meets Y2K era video gaming aesthetics monster is now available in a limited-edition transparent vinyl double LP with a glorious 45rpm cut, packaged in a heavyweight 350gsm sleeve. Entirely written and composed by UK producer Pizza Hotline (apart from "GLACIER ZONE", a collaboration between Pizza Hotline and DJ Total 90), the stellar eight-song album was initially released as a limited cassette in January 2022 and quickly gained cult status -- making a full-on vinyl release quite the necessity. It's here now with the previously unreleased track "POLYGON DREAMSCAPE" (which sounds as magical as its title) and 45rpm cut for louder, bigger, deeper bass rumbling. Spellbinding, atmospheric, and beautifully melodic, Level Select is a large scope dreamy adventure of liquid DnB filled with ambient escapades, ethereal jungle, high vibe breaks, and a heavy loving dose of late '90s/early 2000s video game influences. Hypnotic late-night hype and pensive chill moods mesh with ease in a cinematic soundscape that re-contextualizes and gives a new life to a beloved music genre -- LTJ Bukem, Peshay, the Wipeout OST or Soichi Terada's Ape Escape come to mind, and sounds and soundtracks from the Sony Playstation, the Nintendo 64, and the Sega Saturn resonate from the speakers. It's all fresh with a subtle nostalgia and so much heart. An instant classic. Press start.
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CD
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ESPDISK 5084CD
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Joe Morris's recording career began in 1983 and has made him one of the most revered avant-garde jazz guitarists. Down Beat magazine dubbed him "the preeminent free music guitarist of his generation," while The Wire magazine called him "one of the most profound improvisers at work in the U.S." His revelatory 2012 book Perpetual Frontier/The Properties of Free Music (Riti Publishing) is a detailed and rewarding accounting of his approach to improvisation. He has been on the faculty in the Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Department at New England Conservatory of Music since 2000. This is his fifth album as guitarist on ESP-Disk': two as leader, two in Fay Victor's SoundNoiseFUNK, and now this unique duo. Elliott Sharp began recording in 1979 and has continued prolifically adding to his discography ever since, working fluently in genres ranging from blues and jazz to free improvisation and modern classical composition. A cornerstone of the downtown NYC music scene and collaborator with musicians from around the world, he has extended the vocabulary of the guitar in ways that led Guitar Player magazine to include him in its 30th anniversary issue's list of "The Dirty Thirty: Pioneers and Trailblazers." (He also plays saxophone.) His 2019 book IrRational Music (TerraNova Press) is a crucial document of his work that goes beyond biography into musical philosophy. Realism is his first album released on ESP. Recorded and mastered by Jim Clouse, Park West Studios, Brooklyn, NY on July 17, 2023. Mixed by Elliott Sharp and Jim Clouse at Park West Studios on August 1, 2023. Produced by Steve Holtje for ESP-Disk'.
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2LP
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DKR 286LP
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2025 repress. "This compilation is dedicated to the memory of the late great 'Prince' Philip Smart -- the first apprentice of King Tubby and the first engineer at Tubby's studio besides Tubby himself. Alongside Tubby, Philip was integral to the innovation that took place at Tubby's studio in the mid-1970s, where the mixing of new roots reggae revolutionized the sound of Jamaican music and created styles and techniques that are still being echoed today, nearly 50 years later. Though rarely credited on records in comparison to Tubby, Philip also mixed a lot of the paramount music produced by those close associates of Tubby's studio such as Bunny Lee, Yabby You, and Augustus Pablo. Philip was closely tied to Pablo due to their childhood friendship and was a partner in his stylistically significant early production works. In the early years of Tubby's studio, both men were making and cutting custom dubs there for their sound systems before starting to produce their own tunes from scratch, and Philip becoming the second chair engineer. Several of the songs on this compilation are a selection of the aforementioned work. All of the songs here are sourced from Philip's personal tape archive, and basically all of these mixes and versions have been scarcely if ever heard, and never released before. This double album comprises a rare and genuine glimpse into the dubplate workings of the inner circle of Tubby's studio in the mid-1970s, where the prime players and emerging giants of reggae music production and sound system versioned, remixed and voiced rhythms for custom and exclusive cuts. Some of the cuts heard here were formerly exclusive power plays on King Tubby's own legendary sound system, and unlike some previous issues of such material, these are genuine mixes done at the time. Some other tracks clearly exude the youthful enthusiasm of the participants. Rest in power Prince Philip Smart." --RB/DKR, Summer 2023
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2CD
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LMS 1725323
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Originally released in 1993, The Brown Album marked a significant evolution in Orbital's sound -- and was met with widespread critical acclaim. NME awarded it 9/10 in their review, and it was chosen as one of Mixmag's best albums of all time. Standout track, "Halcyon + On + On", became an instant classic, known for its ethereal atmosphere and haunting vocal sample from Opus III's "It's a Fine Day." The track's dreamy progression and uplifting yet melancholic tone made it a staple in film soundtracks and DJ sets, embodying the emotional depth electronic music could achieve. "Impact (The Earth Is Burning)" is another defining moment, an evolving journey of layered breakbeats and dynamic synth arrangements, reflecting the duo's ability to create both club-ready and introspective music. Meanwhile, "Lush 3-1" and "Lush 3-2" demonstrate Orbital's knack for crafting intricate, evolving grooves, balancing pulsating rhythms with melodic flourishes that keep the listener engaged. The Brown Album 2CD includes a second disc of rarities, including the full 11:09 version of Halycon and the 13-minute Underworld mix of Lush. The Brown Album 2LP reissue has been cut at half speed, to ensure maximum audio fidelity for this landmark release, and is the first time the album has been pressed on vinyl for over ten years. 2LP version (LMS 1725320) comes in double black 140gr vinyl, in gatefold sleeve, with printed inners and sticker. Also available in limited edition, double gold and khaki vinyl (LMS 1725321).
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2CD
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ZORN 112CD
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The debut recording by The Ancients, the intergenerational coalition of Isaiah Collier, William Hooker, and William Parker formed by Parker to play concerts in conjunction with the Milford Graves Mind Body Deal exhibition at the Institute Of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and now a working group. Across two discs of long-form improvised sets recorded at 2220 Arts and Archives in LA and The Chapel in San Francisco, The Ancients bring the free jazz trio languages first explored by the Cecil Taylor Unit and Ornette Coleman's Golden Circle Band (expanded upon in later eras by Sam Rivers' trio and Parker's collective trios with Charles Gayle/Graves and Peter Brötzmann/Hamid Drake) into their own unique and scintillating realms of expression. As we tumble further into the throes of history's tides, people of hope and creativity rely on the works of our great artists to lift our spirits and focus our resolve. Ascension was recorded less than a year after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and four months after the assassination of Malcolm X. Journey in Satchidananda was recorded the month Reagan was re-elected governor of California. M'Boom made its debut recording weeks after the Watergate scandal broke and a couple months after the Wounded Knee occupation ended. The music of The Ancients builds on these great musical legacies. It resounds with the pride of survival and the joys of making and sharing music. It delivers to us hope and balm. Something real in you, real in history, and real in the music is shared, right on time. When Eremite records commenced operations during the 1990s free jazz resurgence, heavyweight freedom-seeking tenor saxophonists such as Fred Anderson, Peter Brötzmann, Charles Gayle, Kidd Jordan, and David S. Ware were at the height of their powers. Isaiah Collier's tenor playing in The Ancients is bracing testimony that the wellspring lives on. To hear the young Chicago firebrand blowing freely with veteran improvisers in an entirely open-form group music is a revelatory study of his vast talent, personal voice, and the intensity of his expression -- as well as a bold complement to his composition-based albums as a bandleader (including The Almighty, a New York Times' best albums of 2024 selection). I've admired drummer William Hooker since first encountering his music in a Hartford, CT, city park, early '90s (on a double bill with Jerry González and Fort Apache Band). From the man himself right off the bandstand I bought his even-then rare first recording, the 1976 self-released 2LP opus Is Eternal Life (reissued 2019 by Superior Viaduct). An imposing force on his instrument and an intrepid DIY cat, Hooker's been exuberantly swinging in-and-out of free time for 50+ years. Informed by the innovations of Sunny Murray and Tony Williams yet entirely himself, there is no other term for it than "pure Hooker." At age 78, with the Ancients and everywhere else, THE HOOK is in peak form. With a discography approaching 600 entries and 50+ years working across the musical maps, including in the history-defining bands of Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Peter Brötzmann, in his own wondrous ensembles from small group to orchestra to opera, a bastion of compassionate leadership and a poetic champion of his musical community, in tireless service to what he rather egolessly refers to as "the tone world," multi-instrumentalist, improviser and composer William Parker is a living hero of the grassroots and the Black Mystery Musics, not to mention one of the great bassists in the history of jazz. To quote George Clinton, conquering the stumbling blocks comes easier when the conqueror is in tune with the infinite. Free jazz is an enduring high art. Its greatest expressions belong to their particular moment in history, and live on to transcend and refract in amaranthine ways. Inside our present historical moment, we are fortunate to have the master musicians in the ancients bringing us their high-level creation. Live to 2-track concert recordings by Bryce Gonzales, Highland Dynamics. Mastered by Joe Lizzi, Queens, NY. Album and concerts co-produced with The Black Editions Group.
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TR 584CD
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Picture one of the greatest living singer-songwriters in a kitchen. He is on holidays, he's just had a swim. His wife is out on the beach, and he finds himself faced with a bowl of irresistible strawberries. They're meant to be shared, of course, but their taste is "out of the ordinary," so he just can't help himself. Minutes later all of the delicious fruit are gone, but there's the germ of a song as the phrase "Someone ate all the strawberries" has just popped into Robert Forster's mind, sounding "so weird, but normal". Thankfully, he has taken his guitar with him. As the story goes, his wife Karin Bäumler not only forgave her husband, she actually joined him on a duet of what was to become the title song to his ninth solo album. Robert Forster has perfected the art of being outré in a least ostentatious way, from his time in the Go-Betweens to his solo career, now spanning almost three decades, interrupted only by the old band's reformation in 2000 which ended with his songwriting partner Grant McLennan's untimely death in 2006. Strawberries follows a recent spate of deluxe reissues of four of his older solo albums as well as the third and final volume of the career-spanning series of G Stands For Go-Betweens boxsets with a much awaited helping of new material. Next to admittedly bigger names such as Bob Dylan or Nick Cave, Robert Forster is the rare case of an artist with a celebrated past whose current work evokes genuine interest among a faithful fan base. As a straight-up personal song, "Strawberries" is a bit of a red herring in the context of this new album that, unusually for Forster, deals almost exclusively in observational character studies or, as the author would have it, "story songs". Louis Forster, by the way, also makes an impressive appearance on lyrical lead guitar in "Such a Shame." As his slapback echo vocals tuck into a rockabilly vibe, you can hear Forster enjoying the company of his Swedish backing band: producer Peter Morén (of Peter, Björn and John fame) on guitar, Jonas Thorell on bass, and Magnus Olsson on drums, crucially augmented by Lina Langendorf on various woodwind instruments and Anna Åhman on keys. The album's monumental closing track "Diamonds" starts off as a cross between Lou Reed and Buffalo Springfield, then takes off via Astral Weeks into an (almost) Albert Ayler direction, with Lina Langendorf given free rein on the tenor sax and Forster himself relinquishing his trademark understatement for some unexpected outbursts of falsetto.
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LP
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WWSLP 101LP
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Wewantsounds presents the release of Sweet Rebels: The Golden Era of Algerian Pop-Raï, selected in Paris by Cheb Gero. The set features the raw energy of the Algerian Raï scene from the '80s and early '90s and its young stars Cheb Zahouani, Chaba Zohra, and Abderrahmane Djalti. Newly remastered and including liner notes from Raï authority Rabah Mezouane, the compilation brings together eight cassette tracks from the electrifying period when Raï music was evolving from a more traditional sound to the mesmerizing electro funk sound of the '80s. Raï music was born in the seedy parts of Oran, the port city north-west of Algeria, during the 20th century. Mixing elements of Arabic music and western influences, the music was raw and urban emanating from the cabarets and nightclubs of the city. Mainly performed by female singers such as Cheikha Rimitti and Cheikha Djenia, Raï songs would talk about love and social hardship in direct and often crude ways. The style evolved after the war and it was revolutionized in the 1980s by a new wave of singers who infused their sound with synthesizers and drum machines to instill tough messages of youth rebellion, political criticism, and heartbreak. Mainly released on cassette by street vendors in Algeria during the '80s, Rai rapidly spread among the youth. It became a phenomenon which soon spread beyond North Africa, led by the crossover success of Cheb Khaled. Sweet Rebels gives an insight into the genre's ecstatic electro sound, showcasing a unique cultural moment, where creativity and resistance connected to form a vibrant trend. Compiled by DJ Cheb Gero, Sweet Rebels includes cult, sought-after tracks released on cassette by the label Oriental Music Production and features the best exponents of the genre, such as Cheikha Djenia El K'bira, Cheb Zahouani, Cheb Abdelhak, Chaba Amina, and Chaba Zohra. Most of the tracks here make their vinyl debut and Wewantsounds -- following its releases from Lebanon and Egypt, is delighted to continues its exploration of Arabic music by digging into the fascinating Algerian Raï heritage.
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LP
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MR 467LP
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Repressed. La Revolución de Emiliano Zapata was the Mexican psychedelic rock band that achieved the most commercial success internationally in the early '70s. Their self-titled and much sought-after debut LP (1971) is considered one of the best acid rock albums in Mexico, recorded under the influence of groups like Credence Clearwater Revival or the Who but also adding their own style featuring an original and stunning guitar sound. Remastered from the original tapes. Includes poster. 180g vinyl. Their fantastic "Nasty Sex," along with other songs like "If You Want It" or "Melynda" boosted their first album at the top of the sales charts worldwide. Sadly, Mexican record labels lost interest in local rock bands due to the repression of La Onda movement by the Mexican Government, resulting in rock bands being banned. This, in addition to internal disagreements between members of the group, eventually led to the end of their relationship with Polydor in 1973. La Revolución de Emiliano Zapata entered a new artistic phase in their career, focusing on ballads and adopting different new musical trends over the years.
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2LP+CD
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BEC 5161605
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2021 repress. Originally released in 1998. Gatefold double LP with a CD copy of the album. "The first solo album released by the former frontman of Mano Negra, Clandestino is an enchanting trip through Latin-flavored worldbeat rock, reliant on a potpourri of musical styles from traditional Latin and salsa to dub to rock 'n' roll to French pop to experimental rock to techno... Just about every track has odd sampled bits from what sound like pirate radio-station broadcasts (a possible link to the title). There are so many great ideas on this record that it's difficult to digest in one listen, but multiple plays reveal the great depth of Manu Chao's artistry." --All Music Guide
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LP
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LR 2023LP
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"God only knows where the guys/gals behind 'Ill Eagle' get their material from. Originally, this appeared in the early '80s (1981 according to Discogs) with 13 tracks on it. This version has been cleaned up and expanded to include the five extra tracks added which were missing from the original release. Fabulous release indeed and a welcome addition, very limited quantity."
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LP
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WRWTFWW 019LP
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2025 restock; LP version. Comes in a Stoughton "Tip-On" jacket; Includes printed inner sleeves. Palto Flats and We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records present the highly-anticipated reissue of Japanese percussionist Midori Takada's sought after and timeless ambient/minimal album Through The Looking Glass, originally released in 1983 by RCA Japan. Considered a holy grail of Japanese music by many, Through The Looking Glass is Midori Takada's first solo endeavor, a captivating four-song suite capturing her deep quests into traditional African and Asian percussive language and exploring contemplative ambient sounds with an admirably precise use of marimba. The result is alternatively ethereal and vibrant, always precise and mesmerizing, and makes for an atmospheric masterpiece and an unparalleled sonic and spiritual experience. Midori Takada is a composer, multi-percussionist, and theater artist renowned in Japanese vanguard circles. Midori has released two solo albums: Through The Looking Glass and Tree Of Life (1999) and wrote music for Tadashi Suzuki's theater plays. Her hypnotic, minimalist music is based in the concept of coherence between sound and the human body. She performs solo on marimba and other percussion instruments. She debuted on the scene of Berlin Philharmonic, performing with the RIAS Symphonie-Orchester Berlin just after graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1974. She continued her career with solo concerts in Japan and abroad. In the 1980s, Midori began to explore the traditional music of Asia and Africa. Her fascination resulted in joint projects with Kakraba Lobi from Ghana, Lamine Konte from Senegal, Farafina Band from Burkina Faso, and Korean musicians: zither player Chi Seong-Ja, flute player Won-Il, and saxophone player Kang Tae-Hwan. She also led Mkwaju Ensemble's innovative percussion project and still performs with free-jazz band Ton-Klami with Kang Tae-Hwan and jazz pianist Masahiko Satoh. Takada's compositions have a remarkable way of affecting the imagination. Her minimalist, contemplative music is filled with the concept of infinity and reminds us of a moon voyage, falling stars, a journey into the ocean, or a walk in the garden. The trans melodies, initially simple, begin to loop and splinter, their rhythm breaking and thickening, slowly drawing the listener into another reality. This fully licensed reissue comes with extensive liner notes.
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