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Recent Best Sellers
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4LP+CD
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BEC 5543617
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Because Music presents a 20th anniversary remaster and reissue of The Three EPs, a compilation of The Beta Band's early music, dating from 1997-1998. Arguably one of the most acclaimed and loved bands of the past 20 years, by both fans and their musical peers alike, The Beta Band formed in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1996. Their unique musical and aesthetic approach to everything they did set them far apart from their musical contemporaries. Together for a relatively short period of time, the three albums and three EPs that they released between 1996 and 2004 would nonetheless help define them as one of the most exciting and cherished bands of their generation. After acquiring the Beta Band's catalog in 2017, Because Music reissue the first in a series of releases, starting with The Three EPs. A deluxe vinyl edition gathering the EPs: Champion Versions (1997) on red vinyl, The Patty Patty Sound (1998) on two yellow vinyl, and Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos (1998) on blue vinyl. Remastered tracks; Includes CD; Slipcase box set; Hand-numbered edition; Limited to 5,000.
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LP
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KENZ 001LP
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Le Renard Bleu, the new musical and cinematic collaboration between Lafawndah and composer Midori Takada, and filmmakers Partel Oliva, takes a cross-generational echo as ground zero for recovering a crucial myth for uncertain times: the blue fox. As transmitted by Takada, the fox appears in both ancient Senegalese and Japanese folktales as the trickster archetype. Above all else, the fox is famous for its cunning nature. Renard Bleu marks the first new music released by Takada in nearly twenty years. Her first solo record, 1983's Through The Looking Glass (WRWTFWW 018LP, 019CD/LP), has been rediscovered and heralded as a lost classic; the influence of her percussion trio, the MKWAJU Ensemble, continues to permeate and inspire a new generation. Takada has performed in numerous film score orchestras, including the ensemble for Akira Kurasawa's Dreams (1990), coincidentally a key influence on Renard Bleu. In the ensuing years, Takada has worked closely with theater group the Suzuki Company of Toga on productions of Electra and King Lear, an experience, she says, that allowed her to pursue "a unity of music, body and space." Equally, it is Lafawndah's freedom of tone, decentralized maps of ancient and modern music cultures, and alloying of devotional intensity with modern songcraft casts her as a distinct relative of Midori Takada's. One can trace the influence of artists such as Meredith Monk, Carlos Sara, and Andy Kaufman as much as musical antecedents AR Rahmann, Missy Elliott, or Geinoh Yamashirogumi. It is in a mutual commitment to this unity that Lafawndah, Takada, and Partel Oliva find fertile aesthetic common ground. The music of Renard Bleu originated in Takada's preoccupation with the legend of the fox; after constructing a vivid instrumental composition dramatizing the spirit animal's journeys through waterphone, bells, marimba, and various forms of drums, Lafawndah responded -- in her inimitable mix of fairytale and undertow -- with melodies and lyrics capturing a dialogue between her and the fox himself. Eventually, the duo met in Tokyo for a week of communing with the material at Avaco Creative Studios, where new elements were composed on site. Created in partnership with KENZO and premiered today via their channels, it was Partel Oliva who imagined a contemporary cinematic frame for the myth of the fox to reappear, creating a hybrid of choreography and narrative around Takada and Lafawndah's performance of their joint composition (also titled Le Renard Bleu). 20+ minute project/track.
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WRWTFWW 024LP
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LP version. 140 gram vinyl; Comes in Stoughton tip-on sleeve. WRWTFWW Records announce the reissue of the 1981 self-titled album from cult Japanese duo Colored Music. Includes liner notes in English and Japanese by digger, curator, connoisseur, writer, and legend Chee Shimizu. An incredible mix of cosmic new wave, unconventional disco, avant-garde synth pop, and hybrid electronic funk, Colored Music is enchantingly unique, a sort of experimental and magnetizing take on David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy with a psychedelic Haruomi Hosono touch. From the groovy post-punk glam title track to the proto-house dance floor killer "Heartbeat", Ichiko Hashimoto and Atsuo Fujimoto hit all the right (and sometimes not-exactly-right-but-truly-genius) notes to create the odd and beautiful, an unparalleled audio escape to the best elsewhere you can think of. Also playing on the album are celebrated musicians Mansaku Kimura, Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami -- 1978's Pacific (V 25AH426), 1981's KI-Motion by MKWAJU ensemble (WRWTFWW 026CD/LP), collaborations with Jun Fukamachi, Yasuaki Shimizu, Haruomi Hosono... -- Kiyohiko Semba, Tamio "Doyo" Kawabata, and Tatsuhiko Hizawa.
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2LP
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BLANK 002LP
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Selected Early Keyboard Works is the first in a series of planned archival records of the unheard music of Swedish composer, philosopher, poet, mathematician, and visual artist Catherine Christer Hennix, co-released by Blank Forms Editions and Empty Editions. It comes hot-on-the-heels of Traversée Du Fantasme at the Stedelijk in Amsterdam, Hennix's first solo museum exhibition in over 40 years, and coincides with both Blank Forms' publication of Poësy Matters and Other Matters, a two-volume collection of her writing, and the closing of Thresholds of Perception, a retrospective archival show of Hennix's visual work at The Empty Gallery in Hong Kong. The record also marks the first time Hennix's own music has been given a full-length vinyl issue. In 1976, Catherine Christer Hennix's just intonation live-electronic ensemble The Deontic Miracle performed Hennix's original compositions, alongside works by La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Terry Jennings, as part of Brouwer's Lattice at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Culled from rehearsal tapes recorded during the ten-day Dream Music Festival, Selected Early Keyboard Works features three pieces of minimal music, performed by Hennix on tunable electric keyboards. "Mode Nouvelle Des Modalités", for well-tuned just intonation Fender Rhodes and sine wave drone, is a consummate expression of Hennix's formative years, a probing meditation giving the mercurial quality of early electronic music an instrumental life replete with the dexterity of Cecil Taylor and shades of Paul Bley's synthesized reveries. "Equal Temperament Fender Mix", performed on the same Rhodes but in twelve-tone equal temperament tuning, employs a tape delay system not unlike that used famously by Terry Riley, here towards more somber, hallucinatory means. Hennix is joined by Hans Isgren for the collection's centerpiece, "The Well-Tuned Marimba", for well-tuned Yamaha, sheng, sine wave, and live electronics. Using the same approach and just intonation keyboard featured on Hennix's The Electric Harpsichord (2010), but with marimba in place of harpsichord stops, the piece is an undulating marvel of lysergic drone, equally deserving of its companion's status as "THE obscure masterpiece of the days of the early American minimalism". Now accessible for the first time, these recordings only begin to fill gaps of silence from a figure whose work has until recently remained flickering at the margins of some of the most enduring cultural developments of the 20th century. Tape transfer and master cut by Andreas (Lupo) Lubich. Audio restoration and mastering by Stephan Mathieu.
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WRJ 001LTD-LP
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LP version. Mastered at half speed. 180 gram vinyl; Stoughton tip-on sleeve. We Release Jazz (WRWTFWW Records' new sister-label) presents its first release, the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's highly sought-after masterpiece Scenery, originally released in 1976. Unquestionably one of the most important Japanese jazz albums ever recorded, Scenery reveals Ryo Fukui as a miraculously brilliant self-taught pianist fusing modal, bop, and cool jazz influences for a very personal, dexterous, and game-changing take on classic standards made famous by Bing Crosby and John Coltrane among others. From "It Could Happen To You" and its serene and calm intro which magically flows into a jubilant and upbeat piece, to the out-of-this-world piano solo of "Early Summer", or the incredible teamwork of "Autumn Leaves" where Fukui leads Satoshi Denpo (bass) and Yoshinori Fukui (drums) into groove heaven, every single note on the album oozes precision, confidence, and flair and every single section slides seamlessly into one another, creating a supreme and elegant blend of jazz. Often compared to McCoy Tyner or Bill Evans, Ryo Fukui was a genius in his own right, a true master of his craft whose perfectionism gave birth to some of the greatest music ever recorded. Scenery is his magnum opus and an absolute must-have. The Hokkaido wizard-pianist followed Scenery with the soulful gem Mellow Dream (WRJ 002CD/LTD-LP) in 1977. He then focused on improving his live skills, often performing at Sapporo's Slowboat Jazz Club (which he co-founded with his wife Yasuko Fukui) and releasing two live albums. Ryo Fukui sadly passed away in March 2016, leaving behind a legacy of works that is sure to captivate jazz lovers for generations to come. Sourced from the original masters.
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MANA 005LP
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"Mana is pleased to finally present Pomegranates by Nicolas Jaar as a double LP, with new mastering by D&M. The sleeve is designed by David Rudnick, with labels by Stéphane Jourdan and a new insert created by Jaar collaborator and friend Maziyar Pahlevan. Longer and slower-releasing than his other albums, Pomegranates often parallels the cinematic epic on which it's based (Նռան գույնը), with ideas pursued over long timelines and across dark landscapes, assembling elements and moods from the aesthetic and folkloric landscapes of Armenia. Jaar's identity is perceived within this, folding in his heritage as Palestinian and Chilean as he attempts to build a musical architecture outwards that frames as much of the mess and sprawl of life as possible; using a language that investigates the movement and fluctuation of his own artistic career and character similarly to the film's tracing of the coming of age of the young poet, Sayat-Nova. At times, Pomegranates feels profoundly intimate, as though looking through the archive of a friend's music and discovering the accent and common currency that lives within each of these tracks. Much of Jaar's most elegant and touching melodic work is nestled here, its power residing in its simplicity and willingness to speak to the heart and not the mind of the listener. In the text document included in the first freely distributed version of the album in 2015, Jaar writes that the album was conceived during a moment of change, and that the pomegranate became an icon that heralded that passage of time. The physical publication of Pomegranates closes one door whilst opening another, keeping promises and marking a significant point in the career of an artist who restlessly reinvents himself, with a document that illustrates a common language of lyricism, freedom, and emotional resonance that links his many paths and projects."
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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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BS 040LP
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First of all, Bengt Berger -- a pioneer of the Swedish underground of the '70s and historical member of bands such as Archimedes Badkar and Arbete Och Fritid -- is a versatile drummer-percussionist and well-educated ethnomusicologist with several research sojourns in India and Ghana. Deeply influenced by Hindustani, Carnatic, and West Africa music, he founded the Bitter Funeral Beer Band in 1980, an ensemble of 12 elements, basing his ideas on the traditional funeral music of the people of LoBirifor, in the northern region of Ghana. The sound material reinterprets the spirit of the funeral ritual, when the dance and its songs become a moment of catharsis, releasing a sense of joy in the trance for the liberation from pain. The marriage between this Afro-polyrhythmic roots, with the spiritual jazz of the eternal Don Cherry, and the Ondian sarod of K. Sridhar, it is in the direction to a pan-internationalism of profound spirituality, which blends different geographical traditions in a single contemplative gaze. It is the convergence towards a music without boundaries, where every instrumental voice shines and is well fermented and integrated.
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2LP+CD
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BEC 5543596
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Double LP version includes CD. Gatefold sleeve. Duke Ellington once said that there are two kinds of music: the good one and the bad one. With the compilation series Shaolin Soul one is always certain to be on the right side of the line since its first volume (BEC 5543356, 2018) which compiled two dozen tracks sampled by RZA and the Wu-Tang Clan. Following a second episode (BEC 5543357, 2018) and a third (BEC 5543358, 2018), the famous curator Uncle O is back to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Shaolin Soul series with a fourth episode compiling 22 tracks among the rarest and finest treats of soul music. Features: Esther Phillips, Al Green, Eddie Kendricks, Sylvia, Betty Wright, The Ambassadors, The Dynamics, Carolyn Sullivan, Brenton Wood, The Floaters, Faze-O, Ernie Hines, Jerry Butler, J.J. Johnson, Monk Higgins and Alex Brown, The East St. Louis Gospelettes, Jean Plum, The Staples Singers, The Sylvers, Della Humphrey, Freda Payne, and Carla Thomas.
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2CD
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BEC 5543696
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Arguably one of the most acclaimed and loved bands of the past 20 years, by both fans and their musical peers alike, The Beta Band formed in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1996. Their unique musical and aesthetic approach to everything they did set them far apart from their musical contemporaries. Together for a relatively short period of time, the three albums and three EPs they released between 1996 and 2004 would nonetheless help define them as one of the most exciting and cherished bands of their generation. After acquiring the Beta Band's catalog last year, Because Music will reissue their releases. Alongside The Three EPs (20th Anniversary Remaster) (BEC 5543617), they start with the double-CD, The Best Of The Beta Band. The release compiles all their best hits and includes a live show recorded at the Shepherd's Bush Empire (London) in 2004.
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3LP BOX
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DS 036LP
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First in the series of LP boxsets documenting the birth of Roland Kayn's cybernetic music. One of the great pioneers of electronic, computer, and instrumental avant-garde music, for the majority of his life, the German composer Roland Kayn remained almost entirely unknown, a founding member of the legendary ensemble, Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, heralded as a singular genius by a small number of figures like Jim O'Rourke. Though the composer was included within Deutsche Grammophon's seminal Avant-Garde series during the early 1970s, it wasn't until 2017, six years after his death, that the ranks of his fans began to noticeably swell, following the release of his monumental work, A Little Electronic Milky Way Of Sound by Frozen Reeds (FR 007-022CD, 2017). Die Schachtel present a reissue here of Simultan, an overwhelmingly important work in his canon, from 1977, stretching across three LPs. While Roland Kayn might be easily described as a composer of electronic, electro-acoustic, or computer music, the majority of his career was in fact largely dedicated to the revolutionary sculpting of an entirely new territory of sound: cybernetic music, a generative process of composition through programming. Simultan was among the first of the composer's works to emerge from this process. Cybernetic music grew from Kayn's longstanding engagement and fascination with data processing theory. This territory of creativity was the composer's attempt to allow sound to be self-sufficient, stripping away notions of harmony, melody, and rhythm, deploying complex networks of electronic devices. Created during the period in which Kayn was living in the Netherlands and recorded with the assistance of electronic music legends Jaap Vink and Leo Küpper, Simultan is filled with a remarkable sense of humanity and touch. The sounds on Simultan range from seductive ambiences, grinding swells of atonally and pure texture, to buried tone clusters. "The mystery, the grace, the boundless invention -- Kayn's machine music is a vast catalogue of very human wonder." --The Guardian Remastered from the original analog master tapes. Includes booklet with new liner notes. Includes printed inner sleeves. Standard edition comes in an edition of 400.
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HH 3101CD
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Don Cherry Trio, live from Studio 105, Maison de l'ORTF, Paris on March 18th, 1967. Having played with a who's who of cutting-edge American jazz musicians (including Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Sonny Rollins, Archie Shepp, and Pharoah Sanders), by the mid-60s Don Cherry was spending increasing amounts of time in Europe. There he developed his concept of a symphony for improvisers, wherein form was more important than melody. This remarkable set was broadcast on French radio station ORTF, in Paris, March 1967, and is a fiery document of the trumpeter at his peak. The entire broadcast is presented here, digitally remastered, with background notes and images. Personnel: Don Cherry - cornet, piano, bamboo flute, gong; Karl Berger - vibes, marimba, piano, celeste, percussion; Jacques Thollot - drums, bells, timbales.
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2LP
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KOM 392LP
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Double LP version. Two years on from his last outing, The Follower (KOMP 130CD/KOM 350LP, 2016), Axel Willner puts on his Field suit again to present his sixth full-length effort for Kompakt, Infinite Moment. Infinite Moment sees him striding further across the deeper, richer rims of the hue cycle. In Willner's own words, "the threshold of creating something new had to be broken", as had been done with his past albums, including his acclaimed debut From Here We Go Sublime (KOMP 057CD/KOMRSD 002LP, 2007). For Willner, "stepping outside of the studio opened up fresh perspectives on the creation of new music"; it was the opening cut, "Made Of Steel, Made Of Stone", that got him into the flux of things, "making of the rest of the album easier as I went". Substituting the up-tempo vim of his previous pieces for a sense of mind-expanding horizontality, Infinite Moment is an album filled with hope and draped in a diffuse, appeasing light, easing the pain and troubles of the human soul through a lushly forested recital of shoegazing modular, complex textural interplays and solar, atmospheric fractals. "Made Of Steel, Made Of Stone" gets the ball rolling on a thumping down-tempo note, which as Willner explains, "gives me a lot of hope". "Hope is something I've been missing in the nowadays climate and this album is a relief to me, a type of comfort, like a moment that feels good and you don't want to end." "Divide Now" is a sonic mitosis, engaging the metamorphosis to come; like a larvae pupating and reemerging weeks later from under rough bark in the form of a butterfly - fluttering breaks shed their skin to make way for a more intimate and hypnotic second chapter. "Hear Your Voice" propels the lavish, pad-upholstered glamour of its melodic lines in a bolder syncopated re-visitation of 1980s-indebted pop harmonics, while "Something Left, Something Right, Something Wrong" returns to a flaring post-euphoric daze. A more arrhythmic affair, "Who Goes There" spins out into orbit wildly, fusing acid bass moves with a haunting motorik, playing with the listener's mind intensely before the ten-minute-long epic "Infinite Moment" ushers its listener into a highly immersive final ballet of buzzing chords, trampling drums and all-consuming drones. This album is a direct soul-to-soul transmission, aiming no further than at finding the right balance between contained emotion and an expressive eloquence.
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KOMP 149CD
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Two years on from his last outing, The Follower (KOMP 130CD/KOM 350LP, 2016), Axel Willner puts on his Field suit again to present his sixth full-length effort for Kompakt, Infinite Moment. Infinite Moment sees him striding further across the deeper, richer rims of the hue cycle. In Willner's own words, "the threshold of creating something new had to be broken", as had been done with his past albums, including his acclaimed debut From Here We Go Sublime (KOMP 057CD/KOMRSD 002LP, 2007). For Willner, "stepping outside of the studio opened up fresh perspectives on the creation of new music"; it was the opening cut, "Made Of Steel, Made Of Stone", that got him into the flux of things, "making of the rest of the album easier as I went". Substituting the up-tempo vim of his previous pieces for a sense of mind-expanding horizontality, Infinite Moment is an album filled with hope and draped in a diffuse, appeasing light, easing the pain and troubles of the human soul through a lushly forested recital of shoegazing modular, complex textural interplays and solar, atmospheric fractals. "Made Of Steel, Made Of Stone" gets the ball rolling on a thumping down-tempo note, which as Willner explains, "gives me a lot of hope". "Hope is something I've been missing in the nowadays climate and this album is a relief to me, a type of comfort, like a moment that feels good and you don't want to end." "Divide Now" is a sonic mitosis, engaging the metamorphosis to come; like a larvae pupating and reemerging weeks later from under rough bark in the form of a butterfly - fluttering breaks shed their skin to make way for a more intimate and hypnotic second chapter. "Hear Your Voice" propels the lavish, pad-upholstered glamour of its melodic lines in a bolder syncopated re-visitation of 1980s-indebted pop harmonics, while "Something Left, Something Right, Something Wrong" returns to a flaring post-euphoric daze. A more arrhythmic affair, "Who Goes There" spins out into orbit wildly, fusing acid bass moves with a haunting motorik, playing with the listener's mind intensely before the ten-minute-long epic "Infinite Moment" ushers its listener into a highly immersive final ballet of buzzing chords, trampling drums and all-consuming drones. This album is a direct soul-to-soul transmission, aiming no further than at finding the right balance between contained emotion and an expressive eloquence.
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WWSLP 012LP
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Sold out, repress in August 2018... LP version. Wewantsounds present a reissue and the first international release of Hiroshi Sato's ultra-rare synth masterpiece, Orient, originally released in 1979 on Kitty Records in Japan only. This highly sought-after album is a superb breezy mix of Japanese synth-pop with a subtle touch of mid-70s Herbie Hancock-style funk and AOR. Originally released in 1979, at a fruitful time when Hiroshi Sato, Haruomi Hosono, and Shigeru Suzuki were fresh from playing in the group Tin Pan Alley and Haruomi Hosono had just formed Yellow Magic Orchestra, Orient is a unique balance of various styles. It has become one of the most sought-after Japanese LPs on the global Balearic scene and is now exchanging hands for astronomical prices. The album includes such cult tracks as "Son Go Kuw" and "Do-Jo" popular on the international DJ scene. It features the best Japanese musicians at the time, including Shigeru Suzuki on guitar, Haruomi Hosono on bass, Pecker on percussion, and Sato himself on keyboards and synthesizers. The album also features on Gilles Peterson's "Significant Album" List. Fully remastered from the original Kitty Records tapes by Universal Japan. Includes original four-page color insert, including English translations of the original liner notes by leading Japanese journalist Yasufumi Amatatsu, plus the full track-by-track musician line up. "Breezy Balearic synth pop with a Nippon twist" --The Vinyl Factory.
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WWSLP 013LP
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Wewantsounds present the first ever reissue Jack Wilkins's highly sought-after Mainstream Records album Windows, originally released in 1973. Produced by Bob Shad, the album, which is on many want-lists, is especially cult for his rendition of Freddie Hubbard's classic "Red Clay", notably sampled by A Tribe Called Quest (on "Sucka Nigga") and Chance The Rapper. Recorded in 1973 at New York's Record Plant, this superb session sees guitarist Jack Wilkins in a trio setting accompanied by Mike Moore on bass and young seasoned west coast drummer Bill Goodwin (Gabor Szabo, Gary Burton, Paul Horn, Tom Waits). Together, the trio plays mix of classics including John Coltrane's "Naima", Wayne Shorter's "Pinocchio", and Chick Corea's "Windows", showcasing their instant rapport. Jack Wilkins is an underrated guitarist; he's accompanied such stars as Stanley Turrentine, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, and Sammy Davis Jr. but he has remained more of a musician's musician. Windows has reached cult status for the fact that its slow funk version of Freddie Hubbard's "Red Clay" has been sampled by A Tribe Called Quest for "Sucka Nigga" from their masterpiece Midnight Marauders (1993). ATCQ's jazz samples have always garnered a huge amount of attention from DJs and hip-hop fans and this one has had an instant effect on Windows's popularity, making it one of the most sought-after albums released on Mainstream. Chance the Rapper has also sampled "Red Clay", in the song "Nana" which featured on his second mixtape, Acid Rap (2013). This reissue is thus a great opportunity to (re)discover a great guitarist. Comes in gatefold sleeve featuring never-seen session photos and new liner notes by leading UK journalist, Kevin Le Gendre (Jazzwise, Echoes, BBC's Jazz Line Up).
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LTNC 014LP
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"What works reliably is to know the raw silk, hold the uncut wood. Need little. Want less. Forget the rules. Be untroubled. Laurel Halo presents six instrumental pieces that form a meditative, cinematic listening experience. Inspired by recent film score work for Metahaven and Ursula Le Guin's translation of the Tao Te Ching. Featuring cello work by Oliver Coates and percussion by Eli Keszler. Working in abstraction leads to a deeper longing for touch and closeness. The tactile sensation of struck organ keys and bowed strings, wood and felt on drum heads. Smoke and dirt and stone. Febrile and tactile, hairy and hissy. A clover of highway onramps, a continuous flow, like old leaves melting on their way down a stream at the back of a house. Constant contradiction, the truth's nowhere."
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TES 159LP
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One afternoon in 1975, friend and fellow music traveler, Harold Schroeder, showed up at Poo-Bah Record Shop where Tom Recchion worked selling records and experimental music to people, forcing them to buy albums that he swore would change their lives. Harold asked if Tom wanted to share in a studio space close to the shop. After seeing it Tom immediately said "YES!". They moved in and divided the space in half. On Tom's half he made drawings, paintings, performances, video, sculptures, installations, and music. Harold had his all set up for music with his newly acquired Steiner-Parker synth and guitars and things. At the beginning they played under the name The Two Who Do Duets. Soon the late-night jam sessions that took place in the back of Poo-Bah moved over to the fourth floor of 35 South Raymond. It was pretty beat up and derelict, the way one imagines an artist's studio to look. They could make all the noise they wanted. No one else was on their floor. The music heard on this LP has remained unheard since it was recorded and was created just before and right after the inaugural concert by the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) groups Le Forte Four, Doo-Dooettes, and Ace & Duce. That concert took place in late January 1976. The sessions on this release feature members of the newly formed and expanded Doo-Dooettes, which now included Dennis Duck, Juan Gomez, Harold Schroeder, and Tom Recchion, as well as Ju Suk Reet Meate from Smegma and Ace, of Ace & Duce. 35 S. Raymond eventually became a sort of LAFMS headquarters, with Chip Chapman of Le Forte Four, artist and future Extended Organ vocalist/guitarist Paul McCarthy, and soon to become singer for Nervous Gender, punk/folk artist Phranc, who along with many other artists and musicians, moved into the building. 35 S. Raymond allowed for free expression and explorations of all sorts. Some wild parties ensued, not to mention the luxury of endless hours of experimentation. Parking was free and so was the art and music. Ace found the tapes for side one ("Tom's Studio") in his archive and Ju Suk Reet Meate found the tapes for side two ("50 Of Every American Are Machines") and edited them both for this release. No overdubs or remixing was employed. Luxury gatefold sleeve; Edition of 200.
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LP
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PAPR 2005LP
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Past & Present present Girls In The Garage Volume 5, the fifth volume of a series of garage rock compilations focusing on female artists. Prior to Joan Jett, Patti Smith, Courtney Love and other era-defining women in rock, there were the girls in the garage. Like their male counterparts discovered, being in a band was not only cool and alluring, it was sexual and ultimately political without making a political statement. The garage band was a medium that enabled a voice to be heard, whether it be an adolescent fury of angst and frustration or plain old hormones. Girls In the Garage captures the raw essence of those juvenile dreams played out through guitars, drums, microphones and amplifiers. Prevailing gender roles would be tested, and rock 'n' roll became someone else's domain: the girls. Although it's been said that it was rare for a girl group to play on their own records in the mid-1960s, they were many exceptions. On both sides of the Atlantic, cynical and shrewd producers largely employed session musicians, afraid of any conceivable faults at the hands of such young and innocent hands, male and female. The ones who didn't were bold visionaries that believed not only in this new generation's ambitions, but their capabilities as well. As the female presence in rock n' roll gained traction through the appearance of figures such as The Vejtables' Jan Errico, The Honeycombs' Honey Lantree, and the fabulous Maureen Tucker (The Velvet Underground), so too did the rise of all-female bands. Liverpool's Liverbirds and Hull's Mandy and The Girlfriends gave weight to the idea that it was "normal" and paved the way for like-minded girls to pick up their guitars. Although the prevailing attitude among both major and independent record labels was never going to be inspiring or welcoming, times were changing and girls didn't just want to have fun. Emerging groups such as The Pleasure Seekers, White Boots, Ace Of Cups, Bittersweets, and The Luv'd Ones were playing rock n' roll on their own terms whilst breaking new ground, whether they were trying to or not. Features: The Majorettes, The Bermudas, The Occasionals, Bente Lind & the Lunicks, The Pussycats, Jeff/The Atlantics, The What Four, Linda Gayle, The Girls, Stacy's 5th Mavricks, Tammy & the Sounds, Beatlemaids, Angel & the Devines, The Electric Lollipop, Zuma. 180 gram, white vinyl; Includes full-color, four-page booklet; hand-numbered sleeves.
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2LP
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BS 038LP
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If Conversations celebrates the memory, the artistic and spiritual heritage of bassist Fred Hopkins -- a historical member of the revolutionary Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians of Chicago -- who died in January 1999, it also marks the amazing collaboration between the Ritual Trio of Kahil El'Zabar (with Ari Brown and Malachi Favors) and the intrepid veteran Archie Shepp, the great voice of the '70s Afro-free-jazz. Being a tribute that invites to an intimate memory, almost an antidote to exorcise the loss of a brother, the music is a spiritual hymn to life. Between ballads, hard-bop, and free-improvised accents, blow winds of vibrant pianistic chiaroscuros, which are reminiscent of the best McCoy Tyner in the great blinding quartet of John Coltrane in the '60s. Furthermore, when an angular rhythmic base decisively follows the typical hypnotic ostinato of the ancient tribal rituals, the voice is expressed in the purest black spirituals (Big Fred and Brother Malcolm), pervading some moments of that "Holiness" culture dear to the dawn of Afro-American identity. Here, Shepp brings back the flaming shivers of the golden age, when his message of freedom resonated the true spirits of primordial Africa.
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KR 052LP
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Second album by Turkish free jazzers Konstrukt and the Japanese avant-garde/noise icon Keiji Haino, this time recorded live in concert. Celebrating their tenth anniversary these days, Konstrukt have since been creating an impressive catalog including collaborations/performances with significant musicians like Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, William Parker, Akira Sakata, Marshall Allen, Evan Parker, Thurston Moore, Michael Zerang, Alfred Harth, or Alexander Hawkins that gained them an ever growing audience and media attention (e.g. a recent feature in the Wire), and they keep exploring new grounds. Like in 2016 when Konstrukt invited Keiji Haino to their home town of Istanbul for a recording session that resulted in a quite unique album: A Philosophy Warping, Little By Little That Way Lies A Quagmire offered -- besides all the elements you may well expect from such a musical meeting like Konstrukt's "acerbic razor-edged sound" (Mark Corroto, AllAboutJazz) and Haino's unmistakable voice/guitar explosions -- some actual surprises like the really groovy opening track with a funky feel and a kind of '70s fusion style album closer. Two days later the free jazz quartet and the Japanese avant-garde icon continued their adventure with a public performance at SalonIKSY, pushing things further and raising the level of energy and rawness. Carrying the same title, A Philosophy Warping, Little By Little That Way Lies A Quagmire proves a condign sister release to their previous studio effort (KR 043LP, 2017). Or, as the famous Asian phrase goes: "same same but different!". Recorded and mixed by Deniz Sağdıç at SalonIKSY, Istanbul. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Cover painting "Solar" by Artur Trojanowski. Personnel: Korhan Futacı - alto and tenor saxophones, zurna, kaval, sipsi, instant loops, voice; Umut Çaglar - Moog (MicroMoog), Korg (X-911), gralla, bamboo flutes, xylophones, percussion, tape echo, Vermona (Retroverb); Berkan Tilavel - Nord (Drum2) electronic percussion, tef, cymbal; Erdem Göymen - drums, cymbals, percussion; Keiji Haino - electric guitar, percussion, voice, air synths. Includes download.
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CD
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SUBL 128CD
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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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WRWTFWW 008-9LP
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Double LP version. 140 gram vinyl. Gatefold sleeve. Includes liner notes (French and English). WRWTFWW Records announce the release of two never-released-before soundtracks by French award-winning composer, audio experimenter, electroacoustic, and musique concrète magician, and all-around sound visionary Bernard Parmegiani, sourced from the original reels, and with English and French liner notes. Les Soleils De l'Île De Pâques (1972), by French director Pierre Kast, is a sci-fi feature which secured itself a well-deserved place in the pantheon of mysterious cult films thanks to hallucinatory (and superb) cinematography, exploration of supernatural phenomenon and occult symbolism, and one hell of a trippy atmosphere. La Brûlure De Mille Soleils (1965) also comes from Pierre Kast, but this time with the help of none other than writer, photographer, multimedia artist, homme à tout faire Chris Marker -- notably known for films La Jetée (1962), A Grin Without a Cat (1977), and Sans Soleil (1983) -- who edited this bizarre short to brain-melting results that live up to the promises of its synopsis: A depressed millionaire poet, accompanied by his cat Marcel and a sign language robot, travels in time to shake a persistent feeling of ennui and falls hopelessly in love with a woman from another planet. 'Nuff said! A renowned member of the prestigious GRM (Groupe De Recherches Musicales, the French equivalent of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop) and frequent collaborator of Pierre Schaeffer, Iannis Xenakis, and Pierre Henry, among others, Bernard Parmegiani does what he does best with these two rare soundtracks: create moods with electroacoustic experimentation, elevating the weird and hypnotic with soundscapes from other dimensions, and cementing his status as a true innovator.
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CD
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HH 3107CD
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Hi Hat presents Free Jazz Meeting Baden Baden '67, capturing a set of live performances from 1967. Since 1966, the Free Jazz Meeting (now known as the SWR NewJazz Meeting) has taken place annually in Baden-Baden, Germany. This disc presents performances that were broadcast in Germany from the second of these events, which took place from December 16 through December 18, 1967. The four pieces feature different lineups of major free jazz musicians from several countries, including such top players as Don Cherry, Marion Brown, Evan Parker, and John Stevens. Featuring Jeanne Lee, Albert Mangelsdorff, Gunter Hampel, Buschi Niebergall, Pierre Courbois, Peter Kowald, and Sven-Åke Johansson.
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TES 158LP
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New primitive-suburban-folk music from Temple City and Pasadena, CA, circa 1973-4. This new edition is culled from the original unissued Smegma tape vaults of Ju Suk Reet Meate and represents the most pure expression of the insular sound-world that was spontaneously discovered as a group. Unlike 2017's Look'n For Ya (TES 154LP) no song forms are ever used, instead fearless group improvisational vocals take you on a strange shape-shifting journey through operatic show tunes, spirit visions and visits to a delirium motel room. The only exception is the title track "Abacus Incognito" that features poetry by Dennis Duck (Human Hands, Dream Syndicate, LAFMS...) with accompaniment by the family stereo console record player/radio unit and utilizing conventional instruments creating a strangely unique non-jamming sound. Except for the first track, all sounds were recorded casually in various band-members parents' houses while they were away... they would have been horrified! The final track is possibly one of the strangest concepts ever recorded, inspired by both the Lord Dunsany story The Three Infernal Jokes and the most popular record of 100 years ago, The O.K. Laughing Record (or OKeh), there is The Smegma: Laughing to Death Record. Edition of 200 (numbered).
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LP
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SR 411LP
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Sub Rosa present a reissue of Jean C. Roché's Birds Of Venezuela, originally released in 1973. The bird on the cover is a potoo; this metal-looking bird is one of the sonorous curiosities of this mad nature, the sound that he produces essentially is a death song that David Toop heard on his 1978 expedition, but was unable to record, amazement playing its role.
Jean C. Roché on his recordings: "The bird songs which I had recorded in the West Indies in 1969 made me inclined to find out more about those of the nearby South American continent, and convinced me, moreover, that musically speaking, they possessed an unquestionable originality in comparison with those of Africa and Europe. I therefore decided to carry out a series of ornithological trips on this continent, starting in the north with Venezuela. With this in mind, I disembarked at Caracas on 27th May, 1972. The unusual musical volume of this tropical country made its impact known to me on my arrival in town, where the unbearably shrill chirping of the cicadas overwhelmed me each time I passed under a tree. At night fall, around even the meanest of ditches filled by the daily rain, myriads of toads and frogs struck up a concert, which, through its sheer intensity, muffled all other surrounding noises. When I penetrated the forest, I could hear bird species literally by the dozen and individuals by the hundred, all calling and singing together at dawn and at dusk."
David Toop on Jean C. Roché: "Jean-Claude Roché (b. May 11, 1931) is a French ornithologist and wildlife field recordist. Roché recorded bird songs worldwide for over 30 years and has released over 130 records out of his recordings. Among many of his amazing records, I came across Birds of Venezuela, a beautifully produced LP of birdsong. I began to plan a trip to Amazonas, to record for myself the unearthly song of potoos and Yanomami shamanism."
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LP
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OME 1009LP
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Fantôme Phonographique present a reissue of G.I. Gurdjieff's Improvisations. G.I. Gurdjieff was an Armenian and Greek philosopher, spiritual teacher, and musician, whose teachings of The Fourth Way influenced thousands worldwide and created communities that still exist to this day. His goal was to teach humans to reach a higher consciousness out of the "waking sleep" he considered most to be living in. Music was an important part of his teachings and these brilliant harmonium improvisations were recorded in 1949 in Paris, just a short time before his death. Droning and ethereal, these beautiful pieces mark a pinnacle in the work of a legend of human spirituality. Comes in a heavy sleeve with a hand-numbered sticker.
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LP
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JBH 070LP
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Limited repress! Subtitled: ... That We Are Not Allowed To Mention For Legal Reasons. Rare and brilliant music as used in the late 1960s amazing animated series we are not allowed to mention for legal reasons. And the same music was used in all the NFL clip shoes throughout the '60s and '70s too. Way back in 1967, an animated superhero cartoon was released into the world. It was created by Grantray-Lawrence Animation and was based on a web-spinning, crime fighting blue-and-red dressed character that had originated in 1962, through Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. This amazing series ran on ABC TV in the USA, then Canada, then a few years, it ran in the UK. The series was notoriously low budget. After Series One the company Grantray-Lawrence went bankrupt, so the amazing spider series was taken on by producer Steve Krantz. He brought in new talent, including animation director Ralph Bakshi who later went on to turn a Robert Crumb strip cartoon into the feature Fritz The Cat (1972). Krantz also slashed the already cripplingly small spider budget and brought in the idea of using economic library music. Here, thanks possibly to an independent sync agent production turned to the KPM catalog. This was one of the few really established library catalogs around at the time with a modern edge; it was full of fabulous, modern dramatic music tracks -- often all on the same LP. But more importantly all the tracks were far longer than the one-minute musical cuts that many of the fledgling USA library companies were issuing at the time. Krantz produced two amazing spider series, and both were smothered with KPM music. In fact barely a spider second goes by without music playing in either the background or foreground. For many enthusiasts this really is formative music -- a junior foray into hip swinging crime jazz and esoteric musical grooviness. So, what features on this Spider-Jazz LP? Well it's music from the amazing TV series, but, not music from Series One. No, but it is all from Series Two and Series Three. From looking at archival cue sheets, over 50 tracks from various early KPM 1000 series albums were used across the episodes. It's all distilled down into one exciting and enthralling LP. Features Syd Dale, Johnny Hawksworth, Bill Martin/Phil Coulter, David Lindup, Johnny Pearson, Keith Mansfield, and Alan Hawkshaw.
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RMLP 005LP
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Zamaan Ya Sukkar is a rich musical portrait from the time when Cairo was the vibrant cultural heart of the Middle East and the grandeur of the leading orchestras was incomparable. Unearthed Latin and jazz-tinged tracks will let your mind drift off to the glamorous nightlife of '60s Cairo. Meet some forgotten souls of the Egyptian music scene and cinema world. Sensual voices and Bollywood-like orchestra sounds inflame the senses of the body with an intangible exotic twist! All music is remastered from original 45s produced by Sono Cairo. Features Salim El Baroudi, Sayed Salamah, Abd Al Fattah Mansi, Soad Mohamed, Al Thourathy Al Mareh, Taha Al-Ugayl, Mohamed Fawzy, and Magda Ali. Includes download.
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LP
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LIVST 006LP
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LP version. Livingstone Studio present a reissue of Gboyega Adelaja's Colourful Environment, originally released in 1979. Fresh from touring with Hugh Masekela -- The Boy's Doin' It (1975) -- Gboyega Adelaja goes into the lab to drop heavy keyboard science on his Moog and Fender Rhodes. Its Joe Sample meets the Afro funk of BLO. With names like Jake Sollo on guitars, Mike Odumusu (BLO, Osibisa) on bass guitar, and Gasper Lawal on percussion, this is a top quality, Afro funk -- an all-stars affair that shines from the inspired interventions, masterly arrangements to the sublime production.
Adelaja on the period of recording: "I was already following Hugh Masekela when I met him, he was an outstanding musician and I knew of his collaboration with Hedzoleh, that band brought him nearer to many of us, because he was playing authentic African melodies with the Hedzoleh sound which was mostly percussion oriented. Yes I knew about Hugh's music before I met him. In fact when we started playing together, he insisted that I stay with him in our three bedroom apartment, other members of the band had their own apartments, but Hugh and myself shared the same three bedroom apartment". "We were touring, under Casablanca owned by Neil Boggart, we toured as professional musicians, flying to our gigs. There was a time when we were touring with George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic we had two luxury buses deployed for our use. We made many friends where ever we went to play, we met many big and popular musicians who came to watch our shows, the Spinners came to see us in Detroit, we met Wayne Shorter of Weather Report, Freddie Hubbard, we played a gig with Herbie Hancock at the Carnegie Hall New York City, we toured almost all the 50 States of the US."
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LP
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SV 118LP
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"Faust stand among the most influential creative forces to have emerged from Germany in the late '60s and early '70s. Along with Can, Agitation Free, Neu!, and others, Faust rejected the Anglo-American norms of rock 'n' roll to start a back-to-basics and uniquely Teutonic revolution in sound, later dubbed by the UK press with the semi-derogatory term 'krautrock.' Faust would reach near-mythical status through a series of classic albums recorded between 1970 and 1973 at their secluded Wümme studio. As Dave Segal writes in the liner notes, 'There's no consensus about which Faust album represents their zenith. But a survey of the group's fans would likely find the collage-heavy messterpiece The Faust Tapes (1973) triumphing. Its freewheeling, jump-cut nature and unlikely earworm moments conspire for more what-the-fuck epiphanies per minute than just about any other record about which Krautrocksampler (1995) author Julian Cope has raved. Comprised of twenty odd tape-manipulation experiments and freak-out jams, The Faust Tapes stashes away some of the band's best-known songs. 'Flashback Caruso,' with its delicate acoustic guitar and Rudolf Sosna's airy vocals, could easily have appeared on So Far (1972) or Faust IV (1973), while on 'J'ai Mal Aux Dents,' Jean-Hervé Peron's playful lyrics and this ecstatic, era-defining riff perfectly represent Faust's magical mischievousness. This first-time domestic release of The Faust Tapes on vinyl reproduces the original sleeve design, featuring artwork by Bridget Riley."
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LP/DVD
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POTOMAK 158681
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Gatefold LP version with DVD. With Grundstück, a real rarity is being released on the commercial market for the first time: Originally issued in 2005 as a small limited edition, the much sought-after album is now officially available as a CD and also for the first time ever as an LP, each including a DVD with previously unpublished film recordings of the project and an extensive booklet. With their noise-laden anti-pop, Einstürzende Neubauten has established itself as one of the most radical, unpredictable and unconventional avant-garde bands in the popular music scene. Looking back to the year 2002: To make itself independent of the record industry and keep full artistic control, the band became early pioneers of crowdfunding with an internet-based fan action for the financing of their next album, which came to be known as the supporter project. An interim work consciously conserved in its unfinished condition, Grundstück is the missing link between 2004's Perpetuum Mobile and 2007's Alles wieder offen. Grundstück represents what the album title asserts: One's own lot. Aside from material that was produced in the band's own Berlin studio, some parts of Grundstück were played live while on tour, matching the experimental character of the project's genesis: In addition to Blixa Bargeld, Alexander Hacke, N. U. Unruh, Jochen Arbeit, Rudolf Moser and Ash Wednesday, a 100-member choir made up of supporters can be heard. Grundstück opens with the noisy and propelling "Good Morning Everybody," based on engine sounds of air compressors and accompanied by rhythmic steel plate beats. The seven-part title track shapes its core, which in its atonal experimental spirit represents the non-conformism and nihilism that the name Einstürzende Neubauten stands for to this day. Closely connected to the album, an accompanying DVD was also produced with the help of a supporter. It was filmed on November 3, 2004, during a special supporter gig at East Berlin's Palast der Republik; the earlier political apparatus of the former GDR state leadership. Exclusive live recordings were made at a historical location, which was torn down shortly thereafter to make way for a demonstration of the power of the freshly reunited Federal Republic of Germany. Einstürzende Neubauten in the gutted control center of a collapsed state -- a witness of the times with the greatest possible symbolic value: Einsturz (collapsing), Neubau (rebuilding), Grundstück (lot). DVD is NTSC all-region format.
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FFL 044LP
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Souffle Continu Records present the first ever reissue of Jean Cohen-Solal's Flûtes Libres, originally released in 1972. In a dreamlike fictive and windswept Brittany, hippy pirates and wild women more or less inspired by Gérard de Nerval fight it out in a theater, the magic of which brings to mind Cocteau, and where musical improvisation has an important role: this is Noroît, a cursed film which was never released in cinemas at the time (1976), directed by the great Jacques Rivette, where Jean-Cohen-Solal, his brother Robert and Daniel Ponsard can be seen and heard playing. The scene is every bit as inventive as that featuring the Art Ensemble Of Chicago in Les Stances à Sophie (1971). The same magic and invention can be found on this first album by Jean Cohen-Solal: Flûtes Libres. A magic which can be keenly felt on "Quelqu'un", a long contemplative mantra which takes up the whole of the B side and which anticipates the future collaboration in the mysterious universe of Jacques Rivette. Jean Cohen-Solal studied flute from all angles, and became one of the great French virtuosi, along with Michel Edelin who at the time was with Triode. This was a period (1972) when flutists were very popular with the public, most of whom had been influenced by Roland Kirk, including Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Whereas Jean Cohen-Solal tells a different story, richer and centered on the instrument itself, using the magic (yes, that again) of overdubs. Perhaps Paul Horn rather than Roland Kirk could be an influence but stripped of a classical background which was too audible and a tendency for easy listening. In fact, in terms of comparison, "open music" by Bob Downes would be the closest to the electroacoustic experiments of Jean Cohen-Solal, who, by the way, was also close to the GRM and Bernard Parmegiani for whom he occasionally provided sound sources. These are the qualities which probably explain why Flûtes Libres figures (and justifiably) on the famous Nurse With Wound list. Licensed from Jean Cohen-Solal. Includes eight-page booklet. Highlighter yellow vinyl; Obi strip; Edition of 700.
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DRUG 017LP
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"Halloween 1998: Coil were invited to record at Sun Dial's studios beneath the London Bridge Hop Exchange -- a studio first known as Samurai Studios, originally built and owned by Iron Maiden. The premises in Victorian times had been a debtor's prison, with three underground levels -- and the original chains, manacles and wrought iron prison doors. This caught the attention of John Balance, who was very keen to record there. With Gary Ramon's help, Coil developed a number of tracks, some of which resulted in the Astral Disaster album. But there were other tracks recorded too during those Halloween sessions -- the recordings included on this release, Astral Disaster Sessions Un/finished Music. For various reasons, this material and these mixes were omitted from the original (Prescription Edition) Astral Disaster album -- including the extremely rare version of 'I Don't Want To Be The One', previously only available on a 1999 promo-only Prescription label sampler, and the 14-minute track 'Cosmic Disaster' (the original working title of the album). Taken from the original masters, this digipack reissue includes an eight-page art booklet, and facsimile signatures of John Balance and Peter Christopherson. Taken from the master tapes and remastered by Denis Blackham. Recorded in 1998 at Sun Dial studios, in the bowels of a Victorian era debtor's prison."
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OMRENTAL 001LP
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Optimo Music present a collection of works from Robert Rental Different Voices For You. Different Colours For Me. Demos 1980.
"On an unassuming cassette, just labelled Robert Rental in green Dymo tape, these demos have lain unheard for years amongst his family's treasured possessions, cared-for artefacts of a life cut short far too soon. These songs, which Robert recorded in his council flat in Battersea in 1980, provide an enticing glimpse into his all-too-infrequent solo work. On most occasions, Robert worked with Thomas Leer, Daniel Miller, or other collaborators. These are rough recordings, tape hiss still in evidence, but his creativity shines through the murk, like uncut diamonds. With these recordings Robert appears to be moving towards more recognizable song structures than most of his earlier work, which could be wildly experimental and would often involve found recordings taped directly off television. We know two of these tracks from their later re-recording for the Mute Records single 'Double Heart' late in 1980. Robert spoke to friends of his frustration at being unable to replicate his sound in a commercial studio -- it was these demos' sound that he wanted to recreate. Sometimes having only access to the most rudimentary of equipment can hone the creative talent into something sharper and more focused -- necessity is the mother of invention, indeed." --Simon Dell, 2018
"I am humbled and ecstatic to be entrusted with this music and able to aid getting these songs out into the world. I have now listened to them countless times and feel they are so, so much more than just an interesting archival release, but rather a small, fully formed body of wondrous songs that deserve to be heard and enjoyed by as many people as possible. In this current era where so much music is so completely focused on the production, with the result that often the soul is sucked out of it, it's a pleasant shock to discover that a forgotten tape from nearly 40 years ago can be the freshest and most refreshing sounding thing ever." --JD Twitch, 2018
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LP
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TROST 173LP
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Trost have unearthed another gem from the Japanese jazz maestro Akira Sakata, together with Bill Laswell, Hamid Drake, and Pete Cosey. Fisherman's.com was released originally on CD, Japan-only, by Starlets Records in 2001. This release marks its first time on vinyl and available worldwide. Fisherman's.com is Sakata's ode to folksongs of the sea -- an intense personal statement on the fluidity of tradition. Personnel: Akira Sakata - alto saxophone, vocals, synth; Bill Laswell - bass, synth; Hamid Drake - drums; Pete Cosey - guitar.
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LP
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AADE 009LP
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Prepare yourself for new directions in Afro-funk: Analog Africa presents the ninth release of their Limited Edition Serie. During the 1980s, Ghanaian bandleader Gyedu-Blay Ambolley began to experiment with electronic instruments, and the result was a potent mix of highlife, funk, exploratory synths and righteous vocals, the sound of a restless genius intent on pushing the traditional sounds of highlife into a brave new future. By the end of the 1970s, Ambolley was already a legendary figure on the Ghanaian music scene. He rose to prominence during the late 1960s, serving with countryman Ebo Taylor in the Stargazers and the Uhuru Dance Band before launching his own career with "Simigwa-do," the 1972 hit that propelled him to West African stardom. As a founding member of the Apagya Show Band and the Complex Soundz, he stretched the boundaries of highlife with electric instruments, funky rhythms and socially charged lyrics in Fante and English. With a new band, Zantoda Mak III, he recorded "The Message," a seven minute funk workout built on a highlife foundation, and decorated with shimmering synths. Recorded in 1980, the song became a hit that would change the direction of Ambolley's music: over the next decade, electronic instruments played a much larger role in his sonic experiments. "The Message" receives a long overdue re-release on this 12" along with three other peaks from Ambolley's eighties output. Difficult, if not impossible to find for decades, Analog Africa is proud to make Gyedu-Blay Ambolley's extraordinary eighties recordings available to a wider audience. 180 gram vinyl; silkscreen printed cover and color vinyl.
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LP
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AKU 1010LP
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Music of Northern Laos, subtitled Provinces of Luang Namtha et Phongsaly. One part of Akuphone's collection of Laotian music. Includes liner notes in English, French, and Japanese and a download code. Akuphone presents a collection of recordings of various musical practices from the Laotian provinces of Champasak, Attapeu, Sekong, Saravan, Luang Namtha and Phongsaly. These documents are a perfect introduction to the traditional music of South Laos minority groups. Popular modern music is widely spread but visitors are barely ever exposed to ancient acoustic practices from villages. As a matter of fact, mouth organs of various sizes exist among the Hmong and Bit as well as amazing vocal techniques among the Lantene, Ahka, or Khmu who combine simultaneous singing and flute notes. This collection also compels one to discover the Brao gongs, the Triang bamboo flutes, the Lao, Ta Oy, Alak, OI, Pacoh, or Nyaheun mouth organs as well as the powerful singing accompanying these instruments. Caught on the spot, these outstanding testimonies were collected between 2006 and 2013 by Laurent Jeanneau, aka Kink Gong. Through his researches, this self-taught ethnologist has gradually become one of the specialists of the field, building up a collection of complete and fascinating sound archives which contribute documenting parts of this immaterial heritage. Music of Southern and Northern Laos brings some light on a region of South East Asia still largely unknown from the general audience as well as the recently reborn ethnographic musical industry. This compilation will delight both molam/khene lovers and beginners unused to South East Asian sounds.
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2LP
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NEW 9253LP
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Zero 7 was formed in 1997 by producers Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker. In 2001, their debut album Simple Things was released selling over a million copies to date and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. Zero 7 were also nominated as "Best Newcomer" at the Brit Awards 2001. Simple Things peaked at no.28 in the UK album chart and spent 89 weeks on the chart. Stateside, the album hit no.4 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic album chart and stayed on that chart for 52 weeks. Singles taken from the original album included "I Have Seen" featuring Mozez, "Destiny" featuring Sia and Sophie Barker, "In The Waiting Line" featuring Sophie Barker, and "Distractions" featuring Sia. The LP has been discontinued and second-hand copies of the original pressing are changing hands on Ebay and Discogs for upwards of £100. This vinyl-only Simple Things reissue will mirror the original release, cut over four sides and using the original artwork, but now pressed on heavyweight 180 gram vinyl. Cutting is by engineer Kevin Metcalfe using his original cutting notes. Simple Things is a timeless and classic album -- the essential soundtrack to any laidback summer chilling.
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2LP
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SR 460LP
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Sub Rosa present a collection of Pauline Oliveros's early material, aptly titled Early Electronic Works 1959-66, released as a part of the label's Early Electronic series. Oliveros was an important American composer, born in Houston, Texas on May 30, 1932; the music she produced in the latter part of her life is akin to the breath of life, notably, through her pieces for accordion (particularly those which she herself performed). In addition to her performances, she also made an impact in the world of contemporary composition through the creation of the Deep Listening Center, her approach to improvisation, and her numerous and varied collaborations including those with John Cage, Morton Subotnick, Terry Riley, Sonic Youth, Erold, and Andrew Deutsch. The music presented here is her early and definitive contribution to the tape and electronic music of the late 1950s and 1960s through her systematic exploration of electronic sounds, which was fundamental during this period. Silver vinyl; Edition of 400.
"My work with electronic music began in 1959. My first tape piece was an ambitious four channel work called Time Perspectives (1959). The piece was made by recording small sounds from objects resonated on a wooden wall and changing the tape speed. I used cardboard tubes as filters by inserting the microphone into the tube and recording sources through the tubes. I used my bath tub as a reverberation chamber." --Pauline Oliveros.
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LP
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AKU 1009LP
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Music of Southern Laos, subtitled Provinces of Champasak, Attapeu, Sekong and Saravan. One part of Akuphone's collection of Laotian music. Includes liner notes in English, French, and Japanese and a download code. Akuphone presents a collection of recordings of various musical practices from the Laotian provinces of Champasak, Attapeu, Sekong, Saravan, Luang Namtha and Phongsaly. These documents are a perfect introduction to the traditional music of South Laos minority groups. Popular modern music is widely spread but visitors are barely ever exposed to ancient acoustic practices from villages. As a matter of fact, mouth organs of various sizes exist among the Hmong and Bit as well as amazing vocal techniques among the Lantene, Ahka, or Khmu who combine simultaneous singing and flute notes. This collection also compels one to discover the Brao gongs, the Triang bamboo flutes, the Lao, Ta Oy, Alak, OI, Pacoh, or Nyaheun mouth organs as well as the powerful singing accompanying these instruments. Caught on the spot, these outstanding testimonies were collected between 2006 and 2013 by Laurent Jeanneau, aka Kink Gong. Through his researches, this self-taught ethnologist has gradually become one of the specialists of the field, building up a collection of complete and fascinating sound archives which contribute documenting parts of this immaterial heritage. Music of Southern and Northern Laos brings some light on a region of South East Asia still largely unknown from the general audience as well as the recently reborn ethnographic musical industry. This compilation will delight both molam/khene lovers and beginners unused to South East Asian sounds.
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2LP
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BIO 005LP
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2018 repress. One of the all-time classic ambient albums finally available on strictly limited edition 180 gram vinyl. The vinyl edition of Substrata is released by Geir Jenssen's own label, Biophon. It comes as a double gatefold album featuring the bonus track "Laika" (14:35). Biosphere is widely-regarded as one of the legendary names in ambient/electronic music. Residing in Norway, near the Arctic Circle, he has found the focus to slowly and steadily create a self-contained aural universe, made up of reflective and immersive sound sculptures. For almost 15 years, he has released a string of critically-acclaimed albums. 1997's Substrata, which marked Jenssen's embarkation towards an intensely minimal style, is not only often considered to be Jenssen's best work to date, but is also seen as one of the all-time classic ambient albums. Re-mastered by Stefan Betke @ Scape Mastering, Berlin. New artwork by David Coppenhall.
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LP
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MFM 034LP
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Music From Memory return with a further six tracks from Dutch musician Richenel. Perfect Stranger, like La Diferencia (MFM 017EP, 2017) contains recordings taken from his debut mini-LP, also called La Diferencia, and originally released in 1982 on the cult Amsterdam cassette only label Fetisj. Music From Memory's second release from the artist, Perfect Stranger, includes alternate takes drawn from Richenel's personal copy of the album alongside a further composition which didn't make it onto the original Fetisj cassette. Studying set and costume design whilst making a name for himself as a singer and performer in Amsterdam's underground clubs, Richenel played with several disco acts and cultivated an extravagant cross-gender stage persona before connecting with members of the local label. Hooking up through their time together at the Rietveld art academy in Amsterdam, Fetisj was an experimental multi-media collective which revolved around a loose mix of various young artists and musicians. Having developed a house band with artists going by a number of different pseudonyms the label set up their own small makeshift studio and would produce and sell the cassettes through their distribution network and at events across the city. Recorded amongst the turmoiled punk and squatter scene of Amsterdam against a backdrop of drugs and social unrest, the La Diferencia sessions reflect a unique mix of punk aesthetics with a synthesized bedroom funkiness. A somewhat illustrious figure in Dutch pop history with his flamboyant appearance as well as having one of the more exceptional male voices to come out of the country, Richenel would go on to record a number of successful albums and hit singles in the Netherlands and beyond. This largely unknown album on Fetisj however, seems to embody the spirit of another time; a particularly unique and richly creative moment in Amsterdam's musical and cultural history and one that is deserving of a much wider audience. Perfect Stranger is co-compiled by Orpheu De Jong.
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LP
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SV 130LP
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"Of all the releases on Italy's legendary Cramps Records, Raul Lovisoni and Francesco Messina's seminal LP from 1979 has long remained among the most beloved. Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo not only introduced the world to the work of two gifted composers, but also is notable for being produced by electronic pioneer Franco Battiato. A sister album to Prati Bagnati would be Giusto Pio's breathtaking Motore Immobile, likewise graced with the maestro's gentle hand around the same time. Lovisoni and Messina are both central figures within the Italian avant-garde. Part of a generation of artists who contributed to a radical rethinking of musical practices and composition, they reveal Minimalism as it's rarely known: delicate melodies, subtle harmonic interplay, incorporating diverse creative traditions and slowly giving way to an ever-expanding open space. Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo's meditative title track, inspired by René Daumal's surrealist novel Le Mont Analogue, features Messina on synthesizer and Michele Fedrigotti's impressionistic piano, while on Lovisoni's 'Hula Om' and 'Amon Ra,' solo harp, crystal glasses and Juri Camisasca's radiant vocal drones further ascend into the stratosphere. Skirting the outer edges of ambient, new age and experimental music, Prati Bagnati has a transformative beauty unlike anything else. Superior Viaduct's edition reproduces the original sleeve design and is recommended for fans of Jon Hassell, Luciano Cilio and Popol Vuh."
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LP
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BS 048LP
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LP version. Listening to the music of Al Doum & The Faryds is always like staying in the pristine nature of an exotic island, in the sacred harmony of a new organic society; imaging all brothers and sisters singing and dancing in the unity of the brotherhood. This is the message of love and joy that pervade this fourth album, Spirit Rejoin. Moving towards accents of jazz ancestry, the Faryds absorb and re-elaborate -- with remarkable insights -- disparate elements and influences of electric jazz of the '70s (Miles Davis, Dr. John) and spiritual jazz (Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry), marrying them with the forceful instances of Afro-free (Pyramids, Alkebu-Lan). The music celebrates a new collective soul, a dancing cathartic ritual with birds, plants, and all the animals, together in the circle of devotion. A journey in the total pranic breath.
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2LP
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FKR 068LP
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2018 repress. Sharing social circles and spiritual ideologies with artists such as Iasos, Connie Demby and Deuter, whilst splitting label release schedules with Laraaji, Laurie Spiegel and Wendy Carlos, the unique Florida-raised soul mate duo known as Emerald Web released their privately pressed debut LP at an axis where post-prog rock met proto-new age and ambient electronic music. At the turn of the 1980s, Bob Stohl and Kat Epple embarked on a ten-year spiritual journey playing at planetariums and laser shows above the same Californian silicon city that devised the early computer music software, unifying their state-of-the-art modular synth soundscapes and organic compositions of flutes, bells and field recordings and furnishing a self-pressed cassette tapeography of inimitable Emerald Web music for their self-funded Stargate label. Having first communicated via the medium of music as flute players at a South Florida jam session, the future space music luminaries would be instrumental in assisting synthesizer companies via feedback and consultancy in developing instruments such as the Lyricon wind synth (favored by Suzanne Ciani and Bruno Spoerri) and various sponsored machines for Arp, Buchla, EML, Computone and Orchestron. Named after a laser show formation and combining influences from science fiction films, fantasy novels and a broad musical spectrum including Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, It's A Beautiful Day and Goro Yamaguchi, Bob and Kat would balance day jobs as synth programmers as well as TV and film soundtrackers under the moniker BobKat Productions (counting microscope nature documentarian Carl Sagan amongst their clients) with evening synthesizer shows at galleries, spiritual centers and even punk clubs. This compilation album comprises early tracks from Emerald Web's debut vinyl release and the four rare cassette-only albums on Stargate Records from 1979-1982. Taken from original master tapes and recorded using revolutionary and prototypal music technology.
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CD
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HH 3104CD
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Hi Hat present a live set from the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Live At the Grand Casino Basel 1963. Dave Brubeck was already a living legend by the time this concert was performed for broadcast on Radio Suisse. Featuring his classic quartet with Paul Desmond on sax, it takes in material that had been in their repertoire for years, as well as newer material from their Time Changes (1963) and Jazz Impressions Of Japan (1964) albums. Versatile, smooth, and powerful, the entire Radio Suisse broadcast is presented here, digitally remastered, with background notes and images. Personnel: Dave Brubeck - piano; Paul Desmond - alto saxophone; Eugene Wright - bass; Joe Morello - drums.
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LP
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AMETHYST 024LP
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Mark McGuire returns with Vision Upon Purpose, the full-length sequel to Beyond Belief (2015). Continuing a process that began in 2015 with the birth of the beloved one, Vision Upon Purpose sees magic brought directly into 3D reality, bringing new adventures into being with a new sight and new purpose; this will be the toughest and most beautiful road yet. These are warm, electric soul rainbow songs for the elders -- past, present, and future. All songs written by Mark McGuire utilizing electric and acoustic guitar along with guitar, synthesizer, bass, and vocals. Previously released on CD in Japan, Amethyst Sunset present this limited-edition vinyl version. Mastered by James Plotkin. LP version includes download code.
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LP
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SR 403LP
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Ceux Du Dehors is the third album by Belgian band Univers Zero, originally released in 1981. The title alludes to the short story of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft; the players read the story in studio, then proceeded to record the piece. A key release for the band, Ceux Du Dehors sometimes suggests a darker and more complex version of the motorik minimalism of classical music contemporaries Philip Glass and Steve Reich. It finds the group continuing to evolve and return to the more general and varied chamber music sound of their first release, 1977's 1313 (SR 399LP), except with more precision and skill. The tricky charts of percussionist Daniel Denis and new keyboardist Andy Kirk are executed with great panache. The labyrinthine compositions are typically filled with unexpected twists and turns, and angular repetitions of jagged riffs that accelerate, decelerate and mutate in passages of acute tension or quiet but ominous dread. Vinyl comes on clear/red vinyl.
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2LP
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AU 1001LP
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2018 repress. "The compilation that started the renaissance. In 2002 Audika Records entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with the estate of Arthur Russell to compile and issue previously unreleased and out of print material from Arthur's vast archive. This first album Calling Out of Context, features 12 previously unreleased tracks of Buddhist Bubblegum Alt Disco Pop recorded during Arthur's prime years 1985-90."
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