"Few albums define a genre as succinctly as Simon Finn's Pass The Distance does for psychedelic folk. Not even landmark recordings by Pearls Before Swine or Skip Spence can stand up to the sheer madness of Finn's sole LP, originally released in 1970. After moving to London in 1967, Finn busked around town for a couple years before entering Camden's Chalk Farm Studios, best known for producing a string of reggae hits. Pass The Distance, however, would become more than a solo-acoustic project. Backed by free-improvisation innovators David Toop and Paul Burwell, Finn's dark, personal songs unravel lysergically over 40 minutes. Toop's sinewy electric guitar and Burwell's broad percussive palette lift up Finn's ardent strumming and snarling vocals, making this one wild ride in catharsis, introspection and raw merriment. As Finn tells journalist Dave Segal in an interview for this vinyl reissue, 'The songs were about alienation and loneliness. 'Jerusalem' came to me in one shot. I wrote it on mescaline and was playing it over and over and one of my flatmates wrote it down.' Pass The Distance remains a 'cult record' in the best sense of the term, possessing a hypnotic beauty all its own."

Be With presents a reissue of Alan Parker and Madeline Bell's The Voice of Soul, originally issued in 1976. Veteran library musician Parker recorded with session vocalist Bell for his Themes International Music label and the result was The Voice of Soul. The sensational uptempo dancer "That's What Friends Are For" is probably the most well-known track on the record, and is a big hit on the rare groove scene, but it is by no means an anomaly. The Voice of Soul is essentially a perfect, sophisticated soul album with heaps of swagger and sass from beginning to end. Its once generic-sounding title is now deservedly definitive; the whole LP oozes sex. It oozes sex so much that it could have soundtracked a period porn film. Indeed, parts of it did. "Love Is All" and "You've Got What It Takes" both featured on the infamously banned Pretty Peaches (1976). As is usual with library records, The Voice of Soul was hard to get even when it was first released; it's next to impossible now. So here's an opportunity to own what is one of the finest rare soul albums of the late '70s, and a superb example of Bell's superlative vocal talents. But that's not the whole story; all of the backing tracks from The Voice of Soul were concurrently released as The Sound of Soul (BEWITH 047LP, 2018); Be With couldn't re-issue one without re-issuing the other. Be With has worked with the hallowed KPM to re-issue ten of our favorites from across the KPM 1000 Series and the Themes International Music catalogue, currently under KPM stewardship. Whether it's killer soul-funk, sweet jazz-samba, scuzzed-up guitars or accidental Balearic beauty, these records include some of the most innovative work from some of the most talented composers and musicians of the 20th century. These records were never readily available, being originally released as a ready-made, affordable alternative to commissioning music for television and radio. Consequentially the originals have been unobtainable for decades by all but the most dedicated collectors. The audio for all ten re-issues comes from the original analog tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. The same care has been taken with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM's brand identity. 180 gram vinyl.

Silent Servant's Harm In Hand 12" single, includes exclusive bonus track "Death Of Decadence" for destroying the club. Juan Mendez has evolved to more aggressive and stripped-down acid punk electro dance attacks on Silent Servant's equally vital follow-up, Shadows Of Death And Desire (HOS 613CD/LP, 2018), from which "Harm In Hand" comes.

The Spheres announce the double-LP reissue of Current 93's classic Soft Black Stars. Originally released in 1998 in a vinyl edition of just 2000 copies, and on CD, this is the first official vinyl reissue. Remastered by The Bricoleur, this album contains all the released versions of the album's final track, "Chewing On Shadows" -- the original album track, as well as the two different versions used on the expanded CD release of 2004. Comes in a full-color sleeve, reproducing the original paintings by David Tibet, and a two-sided full-color insert.

"Jackson C. Frank's eponymous album is the embodiment of folk legend. Issued in late 1965 on the UK Columbia label, it was for many years more famous for its producer (Paul Simon) and the musicians who would go on to cover its songs (Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, Sandy Denny) than for the hauntingly beautiful music contained inside. Frank's backstory certainly adds to the legacy: born in Buffalo, New York, he used the settlement from a childhood accident to sail to London where he quickly became a fixture of the bustling folk scene. Performing a mix of blues standards and originals, he met fellow ex-pat Paul Simon who would put up the money to record Frank's only LP. For such a sparsely recorded work, Jackson C. Frank covers a lot of ground. From the rugged, world-weary opener 'Blues Run The Game' to the stunning melancholy of 'Milk And Honey,' Frank's nimble acoustic guitar and passionate howls are all that is needed to power such authentic songwriting. Captured in a single-day session, these ten tracks are stark, gritty and seemingly out-of-place with time. There may be no '60s folk record that is simultaneously as rare and influential as Jackson C. Frank's self-titled debut."

"Double Seven, released by Trojan in late 1973, was the last album Lee 'Scratch' Perry would release on the label for some considerable time, and it was essentially the final album project he put together before establishing his own Black Ark studio. Opening track 'Kentucky Skank' sets the tone with a slow creeper whose frying sounds underscore its role as a praise song to the Colonel's KFC recipes; the cosmic Moog blips come courtesy of Ken Elliott at Camden's Chalk Farm studio, also prominently featured on U-Roy's double-tracked, stereo-panned gambling ode 'Double Six.' David Isaacs' 'Just Enough' was cut a few years prior, which makes it slightly out of phase with the rest of the set, though the enigmatic 'In The Iaah' sounds mightily fresh, with its uncredited chorus said to come courtesy of the Wailers. Perry's own 'Jungle Lion' has hilarious roars from the maestro at the start, strangely grafted atop a reggae re-make of Al Green's 'Love and Happiness. Overall, Double Seven melds the soul, funk, reggae and dub elements that were constant in Perry's work during this phase. His enhanced audio spectrum and endless reference points would keep his music continually apart from that made by his peers.' --David Katz (excerpt from the liner notes)"

"No composer had a greater appetite for revolution than Stockhausen, who was embarking on a quest that would occupy him for more than half a century, and which would take in a whole gamut of constantly re-defined objectives - among them 'point music', 'spatial music' and 'multi-formula composition'. His early electronic compositions such as the Studies were painstakingly and meticulously constructed using magnetic tape, to be followed over the ensuing decade by the works which ranked among the masterpieces of electronic music, Gesang der Jünglinge (Song of the Youths) and Kontakte (Contacts). All of these unprecedented early electronic works are included in this three CD box set presentation which also incorporates such visionary creations of intellect and sensitivity as Pierre Boulez' orientally flavored Le Marteux Sans Maitre, recorded under the baton of Robert Craft, Xenakis' brilliant explorations of the dramatic and coloristic properties of Concrète sound, Poème électronique, Edgard Varèse's extraordinary response to a commission from Le Corbusier for music for the pavilion of the 1958 Brussels World Fair, and Ligeti's 'conversation without words', Artikulation, alongside the audacious Cartridge Music, for 'amplified small sounds' constructed by John Cage, using phonograph cartridges inserted with feathers, lengths of wire, toothpicks, pipe cleaners, small twigs, wire coils and nails to make audible otherwise indiscernible sounds."

'Re-release of the sought-after Klaus Schulze album 'Cocooning', previously released as part of the strictly limited and long exhausted 5CD Boxset Contemporary Works II (2002). Track 'Easy Listening' is well-defined by the relaxed loops of Tom Dams and the filigree guitar play of Michael 'Mickes' Luecker. The mysterious sounding 'And She Is Kind And Gently' don't need any rhythm -- a dialogue between Klaus and Tobias Becker, whose oboe and English horn is pleasing the ear on almost all Cocooning tracks. The third track 'I Just Have To Sing My Hymns' brings back further well known companions of Klaus Schulze: singer Julia Messenger and Thomas Kagermann on violin, flute and vocals. The last five songs are a song connected cycle of 'It Still Is Now', 'Blowin' Thru The High Grass', 'Many Dreams Have Faded In', 'Many Fears Have Vanished' and 'As Years Went By'. A worthily and impressive continuance of 'Easy Listening' full of atmosphere. The title Cocooning is program and coats the listener into soft sounds and relaxed rhythms - real 'easy listening' without getting fiddling or even boring. Another pearl from the huge Schulze Cosmos."

Since the release of their album Wonderland (LOVE 105JC-CD/105LP, 2016), Demdike Stare have been recording material for this new double album Passion; an asymmetric re-imagining of UK club styles taking in frenzied drum trax, shortwave jungle, pinging dancehall and clipped, post-punk riddims. During this time they've been busy curating their DDS label (releases from Shinichi Atobe, Mica Levi, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, and Equiknoxx, among others) and have been commissioned by both the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) and the surviving members of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza to mine and rework their archives. Enlisting visual artist Michael England (Autechre, Gescom, Leila), they've created a cinematic accompaniment for their collaborative live shows, resulting in the image which adorns this cover - a hybrid/composite portrait exploring/questioning the current use of software in creating hyper reality and the manipulation of the self. The accompanying film includes documentary footage filmed at a Voguing event in NYC, a Blackpool promenade and a Newark, New Jersey roller rink, the end result smudging the lines between live performance, documentary and sonic cinema. It's an idea that's echoed on Passion, continuing a process Demdike began on their Testpressing series of dismantling lines between analog and digital realms, between urban realism and fantasy, between experimental, pop and soundsystem cultures. An outlandish configuration of avant-garde and ultimately functional club weapons designed and honed for the weightiest bassbins, it's also their most direct and fucked up record to date -- a raucous, joyful 9-track smash that comes off like a night on a glamorous, neon-lit bender. Mastered by Matt Colton. RIYL: Errorsmith, Príncipe, Dem 2, Jon E Cash, Wiley, Joy Division, DJ Scud, Equiknoxx, Anthony 'Shake' Shakir, Bernard Parmegiani. High-gloss varnish sleeve.

Be With has worked with original label KPM to re-issue ten albums from across the KPM 1000 Series and the Themes International Music catalog, currently under KPM stewardship. Whether it's killer soul-funk, sweet jazz-samba, scuzzed-up guitars or accidental Balearic beauty, these records include some of the most innovative work from some of the most talented composers and musicians of the 20th century. These records were never readily available, being originally released as a ready-made, affordable alternative to commissioning music for television and radio. Consequentially the originals have been unobtainable for decades by all but the most dedicated collectors. The audio comes from the original analog tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. The same care has been taken with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM's brand identity. And don't worry! Those KPM stickers aren't stuck directly on the sleeves! This is classic work from Alan Parker, Alan Hawkshaw, Brian Bennett, Nick Ingman, James Clarke, Francis Coppieters, Keith Mansfield, David Snell, and John Fiddy.

Be With Records presents a reissue of Keith Mansfield and John Cameron's Voices In Harmony, originally issued in 1973. Voices In Harmony was released in 1973 as "a selection of contemporary pop titles featuring voices, brass and rhythm." This collection of works by Mansfield and Cameron can also be described as "a string-laced, harmony-drenched KPM classic". From the bright, lilting harmonies of "Liquid Sunshine" to the melting flutes of "Loving Touch" and "Gentle Persuasion", this is warm, effervescent soul music for dreamy, idyllic moods. The supreme "Husky Birdsong" is so, so smooth, with its unrelenting bossa bassline and warm keyboards. "Half Forgotten Daydreams" is a gorgeous wordless groove. As with all ten re-issues, the audio for Voices In Harmony comes from the original analog tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. The same care has been taken with the sleeves, with carefully reproduced original art in handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson. 180 gram vinyl.

"All-new album by Robin Storey aka Rapoon. Founded in 1992 after Storey left Zoviet France, Rapoon soon became an outstanding ethno-dark ambient project that has gained a cult following all over the world. More than 50 albums have been released over those 25 years, some more beat-driven, others more playful and with ambient sounds and ethnic influences. Rapoon has never stopped evolving - think of Cultural Forgeries, an album full of unplugged acoustic music. Or Downgliding, full of compositions on the piano. Little Rocket Man was inspired by the political situation in 2018 and is classic Rapoon. Heavy beats meet drone soundscapes, long evolving tracks make up this new album."

Ted Lucas, the sole published album by singer-songwriter and master guitarist Ted Lucas has achieved an almost mystical reputation amongst aficionados and collectors. Ted Lucas is a seamless marriage of moody odes and raga-style instrumentals regarded by many to be, simply put, the greatest private press folk/psych album ever recorded. Lucas was a fixture in the Detroit rock scene of the sixties and seventies. His first band, The Spike Drivers, relocated to San Francisco to become one of the very first true psych bands, the Motor City's answer to Jefferson Airplane and The Byrds. Following that band's collapse, Lucas returned to Detroit and paid bills doing session work with Motown. And there he recorded, in 1972, the demo for Warner Brothers which would become Ted Lucas, released in two private editions in 1975 and known informally to friends and family as "The OM Album", after Lucas' own label. The album was released with artwork by the legendary Stanley Mouse originally created for Jimi Hendrix. A troubled figure whose lack of commercial capitalization and general disgust with the music business fueled a tragic narrative of self-destruction and an untimely death at 53, Lucas nevertheless reflects a regal confidence on this album, both in terms of his Sandy Bull-level guitar workouts and his masterful songwriting, as reflected in covers by the Blind Boys of Alabama, Richard Buckner, Phil Cook, and Father John Misty. As singular as Skip Spence's Oar (1969), as liminal and uncanny as David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971), Ted Lucas is a collection of elevated and elegiac cosmic folk music, presented here in a newly re-mastered edition from the original tapes with high-quality tip-on sleeves and the original back cover art.

Hence is the third collaborative release from Oren Ambarchi and Jim O'Rourke, following on from Behold (EMEGO 176LP, 2015). Building on the refined combination of electronics and acoustic instrumentation found on their previous releases, Hence presents two side-long pieces combining synthesizers, heavily effected guitar tones, and tabla rhythms played by special guest Uzhaan. On the first side, an explosive opening chord sends out ripples of sparse, irregularly pulsing guitar and synthesizer tones, aleatorically changing in pitch and jumping around the stereo image. Combined with the tabla, which gradually builds in busyness throughout the side, the piece is like a dream collaboration between David Behrman and the Henry Kaiser of It's A Wonderful Life (1984), gradually overtaken in its second half by a swarm of lush live electronic sizzle. The second side begins in a similar area, combining tabla, shimmering Leslie cabinet guitar tones, and a wandering melodic line. Undergoing a series of subtle variations, this initial area eventually builds to a climax of twittering synthesized birdsong reminiscent of Alvin Curran's '70s work. As on the first side, Ambarchi and O'Rourke craft a piece that is both comforting and subtly strange, as the constantly shifting dynamics and changes of focus (which recall the flow of improvised music) refuse to allow the music to settle into any one moment for too long or to build in too linear a fashion. Combining influences from post-minimalism, the pioneers of live electronics, and eastern music into a unique sound world, Hence is a seductive work from two of the most singular sensibilities in contemporary music. Cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin. Photos by Traianos Pakioufakis. Sleeve/type design by Stephen O'Malley.

LP version; Comes in a heavy, '60s style tip-on cover. Sparrow Nights is the first studio album from the furious duo of pedal steel player Heather Leigh and saxophone legend Peter Brötzmann. Their collaboration has quickly gained a well-earned reputation for their cutting-edge music and frenetic but sensuous playing. Recorded and mastered in Vienna by Martin Siewert. Features artwork by Brötzmann.

"There is complexity in simplicity, and Sparrow Nights is Brötzmann and Leigh's most enduring record to date. A series of emotionally rich and boldly elucidated tonal and timbral exchanges played like compositions on pedal steel and reeds, the tracks (released as a six-track LP and ten- track CD) are cold-forged minimalist blues motifs dragged from instrumental laments. After three years playing together Brötzmann and Leigh's connection and understanding is by now both cerebral and deeply invested in the physical and sensory possibilities of their combined sound, while retaining a melancholic distance. Within this duo there is fluidity - neither is the anchor - and these recordings sound with as much variety as the sea. At times Sparrow Nights carries the clarity and poeticism of still water and open horizon ("This Word Love"), and at others it contains the elemental and ferocious roar of white water breakers on black rocks ("This Time Around"). On their previous three live albums (Ears Are Filled With Wonder (TROST 147LP, 2016), Sex Tape (TROST 163CD, 2017), and Crowmoon (2018)), the duo have developed an intimate and intense language that manifests here as a focus on power and control, where figures blasted of unnecessary decoration are drawn from the shadows and smoke of collapse. The studio setting also allows Brötzmann to bring a broader range of reeds than in live scenarios: where previously he has played primarily tenor, clarinet and tarogato with Leigh, here he delivers the heat of alto and the low pressure of bass saxophone and clarinet. Brötzmann's duo with Leigh continues to trace a fresh new arc in his trajectory, and this release also falls at a time when Leigh releases Throne (EMEGO 257CD/LP), her most song-based record to date. Here as a studio duo they play a new-old blues for times of complexity, noise and chaos, continuing to redefine and re-sound possibilities for improvised music."--JLA.

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. Innovative and singular, 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 a short hiatus the band gradually gravitated back into the studio and recruited noted UK producer Colin Emmanuel, aka C-Swing, to oversee the process of Hot Shots II which was released in mid-2001. Notoriously the band had intended to release "Squares", which featured a sample from the Günter Kallmann Choir's 1970 version of Wallace Collection's "Daydream", as the lead single. However, after filming the music video and taking the single to radio it suddenly transpired that another single "Daydream In Blue" by I Monster featuring the sample from Günter Kallmann Choir recording was also to be released at the same time causing the band to release "Broke" instead. Touring extensively and supporting Radiohead in August 2002, they made No. 3 on Q magazine's list of "50 Bands to See Before You Die". Standard double-LP version includes CD; gatefold sleeve with printed inner-sleeves.

Boomkat Editions presents a first vinyl edition of Akira Rabelais' sophomore album, Eisoptrophobia, a spellbinding, uniquely decayed rendering of solo piano pieces by Erik Satie and Bela Bartók. The 2001 release forms a poetic farewell to the 20th century and a bittersweet embrace of new technological possibility. It's required listening for lovers of The Caretaker's haunted ballroom elegies, Stephan Mathieu's electro-acoustic microphony, or indeed the original, classical pieces. First released in 2001 on CD by Ritornell, a sub-label of Mille Plateaux, Eisoptrophobia is an early iteration of Akira applying his Argeïphontes Lyre software to classical music, and opening a fascinating schism between the original object and his modern, subjective perspective in the process. This process would also generate rarified and haunting results on Akira's Spellewauerynsherde (BKEDIT 015LP, 2017). The original piano recordings of Satie and Bartók pieces were made at Wave Equation Studios in Hollywood, California, and subsequently transformed with Argeïphontes Lyre, Adobe After Effects, SoundHack, Peak, and Pro Tools with beautifully elusive results. The recognizable melodies here ring out in myriad new ways, sometimes fractured and indented by patinas of crackle that echo the original contours, while, at other times, they're smudged into mind-bending obfuscation or spectral, timbral things. They have the uncanny capacity to resemble exhumed artifacts, dug up after decades of decay, and riddled with potently psychedelic mycelium ready to spore on the listener's mind. In its unique process and disjointed effect, Eisoptrophobia is arguably an album without precedent, and one that never ceases to yield anything less than a deeply reflective, perhaps even transformative experience with keener ears. Lacquer cut at Dubplates + Mastering, Berlin. Photography by Jacqueline Roberts, design by Michael Worthington. Gatefold jacket.

LP version; includes 4-page booklet and download. Born Bad Records present Antilles Mechant Bateau, a compilation of percussion-based music from Guadeloupe. More properly, the subject of this collection is musicians drumming on percussion as a way of asserting their creolized identity. Songs that tell, in veiled terms, a different reality from that what which mainlanders were fed. Special cases, with cries of joy and laments accompanied by cadences, as an invitation to trance, all immersed in the Caribbean melting pot of rhythm. A symbol of Guadeloupe's struggle for independence, the prominently featured ka drum became the soundtrack of a new generation, who sped up the tempo in the '70s and definitely transplanted it to town, while the plantation economy (the original soil of the ka drum) was in crisis. From then on, the old tambouyés (drummers) finally were celebrated as they should be: Anzala, Carnot, Serge Dolor, Ti Seles, Robert Loyson, Arthème Boisban, Esnard Boisdur, and especially Velo (born Marcel Lollia), who nevertheless died in misery, in the street, in 1984. As in the United States, blues and ka music fought the same battle against centuries of oppression, of negation, before finding the path to possible redemption. Between them, the same language, that of the Creole spirits, flooded the great ocean. This is what this selection is about, and its good, inborn sense of humor shouldn't hide the implicit commentaries. Here, jazz instills an emancipating energy from established formats, giving these songs a musicality that rhymes with spirituality. From infernal cadences borrowing from the Latin rhythms of neighboring islands, to beguines with percussion-spiced tempos, to more laid-back -- nonetheless dark -- ballads, this compilation takes the listener back to the early hours of a movement of rebirth synonymous with recognition, a rejuvenation in which all the music of the Black Atlantic diaspora naturally intertwine, like a wave of sounds, of sense and blood, reminding us that an original culture emerged from the holds of those 'wicked boats', the trace of which remains starkly persistent in 2018. Also features: Mahy, Guy Conquete, Joseph Lacides, Tino Saint Val, Gabby Siarras, Casimir Letang, Manuela Pioche, Gerard Valton, Beaujour Et Ses Diables Du Rythme, and Josiane Saint Louis.

The Maciunas Ensemble was founded in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in 1968 as a free improvisational music group that set out to realize the score "Music for Everyman" by Fluxus initiator George Maciunas, which they interpreted as allowing total freedom in the sounds being produced. In the mid-1980s, after a number of personnel changes, the group settled on the line-up of artists Paul Panhuysen and Mario van Horrik, musician Jan van Riet, and scientist Leon van Noorden, which remained stable until Panhuysen's death in 2015. The group met and played on a regular basis, usually improvising on instruments that were at hand and recording every session. Before playing the next session, the previous recording was listened to and discussed. In 1980, the Eindhoven art initiative Het Apollohuis, also the home of Panhuysen and his family, became their home base, a place that subsequently gained fame for being one of the first and longest-running venues for sound art and experimental music in Europe. In the recent years, the Maciunas Ensemble has begun to go through its vast archive of recordings and to select material for publication that remained unreleased so far. The first bundle of archival recordings, dating from 1968 to 1980, was released on an 11-CD set on Apollo Records in 2012. For their 50th anniversary in 2018, the second part of archival recordings is to be published, its first instalment being this LP on Edition Telemark comprising unreleased tracks recorded between 1982 and 2012. More archival material will be released in digital format by the ensemble. This LP allows a glimpse into the musical directions the Maciunas Ensemble has been undergoing during those 30 years. Side A features "Ice Cream Man" and "Toxic Metals", two repetitive, thundering tracks from the early 1980s played on guitar, piano, and cello, and heavily inspired by minimalist rock and post-punk music. Side B contains four shorter tracks: "Russolution" (1985), played on self-built aluminum monochords, "Stamples" (2002), employing sampled voices, and "ZENder" (2009) and "Dèdeboum" (2012), both improvised tracks on vocals and a number of instruments. Standard edition of 250; brown Kraftpak sleeve with printed inner sleeve and liner notes by Mark van de Voort and Werner Durand.

Uneven Paths: Deviant Pop From Europe 1980-1991 is the second multiple artist compilation on Music From Memory. It's compiled by record connoisseur Raphael Top-Secret and label man Jamie Tiller. The compilation brings together twenty-one tracks from across the continent; exploring the more unusual and unexpected sides of pop music produced during that period. Drawing material from cult experimental artists such as Steve Beresford, Brenda Ray, and Bill Nelson alongside one-off independent musical projects rescued from the fringes, Uneven Paths focuses on a selection of tracks that go beyond the confines of mainstream pop music but which also transcend expectations of much of the "experimental" music of the time. This is music with one foot in the avant-garde and another foot firmly rooted within the sensibilities of pop; where jazz musicians detour into synth-pop, punk bands break into boogie jams, and student doctors jam out on odd melodies with synthesizers and drum machines during their night shifts. Features Nightfall In Camp, Stroer Duo Howard Fine, Tony Hymas, Violet Eves, Miko & Mubare, Piscine Et Charles, John Makin & Friends, Nonobstant, Wolfgang Klingler, Thomas Heimes, Hans-Christian Mittag, Sound On Sound, Harte 10, Pete Brandt's Method, Lost Gringos, Patrick Forgas, Brenda And The Beachballs, Xavier Jouvelet, Lou Blic, Steve Beresford, Bill Nelson's Orchestra Arcana, Harte 10, and Monica Rypma.

Jeff Mills's Waveform Transmission Vol. 3 initially came out in 1994 on Tresor Records. The eight titles on this album marked a turning point for Mills. It indicates a transition from the straightforward sound he had created through the early 1990s, into the different facets and sound palette he would develop through the remainder of the decade. It is a significant piece within Mills's oeuvre. This repress is a stamped and hand-numbered edition, limited to 1500.

LP version. Bureau B presents a reissue of Richard Pinhas's Chronolyse, originally released in 1978. Pinhas is one of the most important French electronic space-rock musicians. Following five albums with Heldon, his band, he released solo records from 1977 on. His transition to solo material gave the guitarist and synthesist an opportunity to work on material that was a little lighter and less constrained. Chronolyse was his second solo album. Following the previous year's Rhizosphere (BB 279CD/LP, 2018), 1978's Chronolyse was actually the first to be completed having been recorded two years prior. On four of its five tracks, Rhizosphere presents just the 25-year-old Pinhas and his synth alone together, a melding of man and machine that gradually becomes an expansive, outward-bound journey. Pinhas's simple approach spawned a galaxy of diverse sounds and ideas. Each track on Rhizosphere inhabits its own mini-universe sonically and emotionally. The range of moods traversed is stunning. Dedicated "to all S.F. freaks", Chronolyse takes its name from a work by the science fiction writer Michel Jeury. The individual track titles, as any sci-fi fan will clock, are inspired by the classic Frank Herbert novel Dune (1965). This led some listeners to assume that Chronolyse was some kind of scrupulous concept album based around Herbert's invented universe of interstellar feudal houses and giant sandworms. That's not quite accurate. While Pinhas remains a proud sci-fi freak, he's quick to distance the album's titles from the music contained therein. "I always name the titles of the tracks and albums when everything is finished," he says. "So there is no relationship between them and what is inside." The younger Pinhas had been inspired by guitar heroes such as Hendrix and Clapton. It was King Crimson's Robert Fripp who had prime impact on Heldon's mix of spiralling space-rock guitar and analog electronics. Indeed, Pinhas once said the three most important figures in the history of modern music were Richard Wagner, Béla Bartók, and Robert Fripp. At the time of Chronolyse's gestation, Pinhas had been listening to a lot of classical music. Bach, Scarlatti, and Wagner were key. So, too were the new wave of American minimalist composers, Philip Glass in particular. The final record of Heldon's 1974 to 1979 run of LPs would appear the year after Chronolyse; thereafter Pinhas would concentrate on projects under his own name. This vital release bridges the gap between these two phases of Pinhas' remarkable career.

LP version. Bureau B presents a reissue of Richard Pinhas's East West, originally issued in 1980. The fourth solo album by French spacerock mastermind Pinhas, East West was his first and only album to be released by a major label (CBS). Some say it is his most commercial but Pinhas doesn't see it that way. "Signing to CBS was a blessing. It gave me the tools for better production. At that time, some big companies were better and more honest than the so-called underground labels. Besides, I don't see any virtue in remaining underground. You try to do what's best for the music at each moment in your life. Always." reflects Pinhas. Even so, East West contained some surprises for those who were used to Heldon's extended jams or the sparse and moody atmosphere of Iceland (1979). East West's average track length is four minutes, indicating greater accessibility. It also has a David Bowie cover, although Pinhas naturally chose one of his more avant-garde moments, the foreboding "Sense Of Doubt" from Heroes. (1977). Despite having "gone solo", Pinhas remained a serial collaborator. The intense and frantic opener, "Houston 69: The Crash Landing (Part 1)", features his old Heldon colleagues Didier Batard, François Auger, and Patrick Gauthier. The robotic vocals were supplied by writer Norman Spinrad from whose novel, The Iron Dream (1972), Heldon had lifted their name. East West's synth-centric tracks resemble siblings to the groundbreaking work of Kraftwerk. Others, like the dreamy "XXXXX: La Ville Sans Nom" or longest track, "Paris: Beautiful May", showed Pinhas hadn't lost enthusiasm for fusing the revolutionary sound of the synthesizer with his impressive talents as a meditative and expressive guitarist. Certain songs evoke Brian Eno or Tangerine Dream but hold their own distinct flavor, anticipating much later ambient practitioners such as Mountains or Emeralds. Besides the relatively succinct running times, it's "New York: West Side" that takes most responsibility for East West having been categorized as Pinhas' "most commercial" work, another view which its maker defies. "I don't know why people say it's the most structured or commercial," he reflects. "I wanted to do this album in the way I did it. In terms of commerciality, I don't work with those kinds of concepts." East West hardly represents Pinhas' shift from abstract composer to pop artist but offers a sublime showcase for the diversity of Pinhas' powers, all delivered in handy bite-sized chunks.

Pivotal, peerless DJ/selector and Minimal Wave overse'er Veronica Vasicka serves her solo debut on Downwards with In Silhouette, a dank industrial-pop workout recorded in 2004 and now issued for the first time, backed with sick remixes by Regis, Paul Kendall, and Robert Hampson in his lesser-spotted Chasm alias. Penned on analog synth and four-track tape recorder in 2004, one year before Veronica established the Minimal Wave label, the ripped metal textures and spectral vocals of In Silhouette forms a rare snapshot of her daily, diaristic working practice.

"Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of a newly remastered and expanded edition of the classic 1968 psychedelic rock album by The United States Of America."

2018 repress. Honest Jon's Records has prepared a series drawing on some of the earliest recordings in the EMI Hayes Archive -- recovered from more than 150,000 78s -- staggering music from Iraq, Turkey, Caucasia, Lebanon, Iran (including sides made in Old Street, London, in 1909), Egypt, and the Belgian Congo. This series opener presents the music of the West African underground of 1920s Britain, recorded at Hayes and released on the Zonophone label (which exported nearly all the records to West Africa). You can hear Caribbean influences here, the promise of highlife there, but Living Is Hard mostly disavows fusion and assimilation. And by contrast with antecedents in the history of black music in Britain -- minstrelsy and spirituals, for example, ragtime and jazz -- these recordings are unhitched from the protocols of a white listenership. These are startling, trenchant, elemental roots -- carrying troubled news home, along with signs of the new African nationalism -- and an enthralling glimpse of other lives, another time. Artists include: Oni Johnson, Isaac Jackson, Ben Simmons, Harry E. Quashie, Douglas Papafio, Prince Zulamkah, The West African Instrumental Quintet, The Ga Quartet, Domingo Justus, James Tucker, John Mugat, Kumasi Trio, James Thomas, Nicholas De Heer, George Williams Aingo and James Brown. Deluxe gatefold sleeve with large insert including Mark Ainley's liner notes plus photos, etc.

Back in 2015, George Thompson aka Black Merlin started a deep love affair with the remote island of Papua New Guinea. After his first album, Hipnotik Tradisi (2016) was released on Island Of The Gods, George was intrigued to find a place drenched in culture and untouched by the western world. In 2016, George planned his first solo expedition, venturing out to meet the Kosua tribe. Over the course of the next two years, George would record the sounds of the Kosua people, from their daily lives to ancient dance customs and wildlife. During one of these trips he spent 14 days alone in the jungle, getting in and out of the Mount Bosavi crater and a further three days inside recording and filming his experience. These recordings and experiences formed the basis of his second album, Kosua.

Repressed; LP version. Tip-on gatefold sleeve; Includes liner notes. Craig Smith was an extraordinarily gifted songwriter and musician who seemed poised for a successful career in the 1960s music business until his life was derailed by drugs and schizophrenia. In 1969 clean-cut, charismatic Craig Smith became Maitreya Kali, a dark, disturbed psychedelic Messiah figure with a black widow spider tattooed on his third eye. He laid out his strange vision on a self-released double-album Apache/Inca (1972), which would become a sought-after artifact of the psychedelic era. Success came easily for Craig Smith. In 1963, right out of high school he became a cast member of the popular Andy Williams TV show as one of the Good Time Singers, a wholesome folk ensemble that recorded for Capitol Records. Next he landed one of the lead parts in a new TV show, The Happeners, about a Greenwich Village folk group. But when the TV pilot was not picked up, he set out on his own musical path with the folk-rock duo Chris & Craig and then the more psychedelic Penny Arkade, produced and managed by Mike Nesmith of the Monkees. Throughout this period Smith was constantly writing songs, some of which were recorded by other artists, including the Monkees ("Salesman"), Andy Williams ("Holly", "Christmas Holiday"), the Robbs ("Rapid Transit"), and Glen Campbell ("Country Girl"). But soon afterwards, his life took a dark, terrifying turn. Turning to LSD and Eastern mysticism he journeyed through Asia along the hippie trail where he was brutally attacked, raped, and left for dead. He was never the same again. As Maitreya Kali, he self-released the now legendary Apache and Inca albums in 1972 before disappearing into the shadows. He spent much of the 1970s in prison or in mental institutions before eventually drifting into homelessness on the streets of Hollywood. He died in his sleeping bag in North Hollywood Park in March 2012. Craig's older brother Gary contacted Stax with a trove of unreleased music. The best of those songs are presented on Love Is Our Existence. Professionally recorded in Los Angeles studios between 1966 and 1971, these previously unheard songs reveal a singer and songwriter of breathtaking depth and talent. Remastered from acetate discs and master tapes.

Double LP version, edition of 500, gatefold sleeve. Manana presents their third release, an album collaboration between the UK's Soundspecies and Ache Meyi, based in Santiago de Cuba, a groundbreaking fusion of Cuban folkloric music and electronics. The project was born in April 2016 in Santiago, in the balmy weeks leading up to Manana Festival and is the culmination of two chaotic weeks of rehearsals at the Casa Del Danzon and two sessions at the legendary Egrem studios. "Ache Meyi" can be translated into "Ache" ("power" or "blessings" in the Yoruba language) and "Meyi" ("double" or "twin" or "twice") and the band have their very own power twins, Hector and Rafael. Hector is the senior, patriarchal figurehead of the group alongside his apprentices Alieke and Rafael. Two female singers, Alina and Maire, complete the line-up. The band's identity is rooted in an interlocking web of Afro-Haitian rhythms like bembe, vodu, gaga, and merengue, absorbing these folkloric traditions from the neighborhoods in which they grew up. Soundspecies are brothers Henry and Olly Keen, a producer/DJ duo from Dorset who explore the connections between the rhythms of traditional folkloric percussive music and the sounds and forms of electronic dance music. Integrating electronics and melodies initially proved hard. "We were struggling to respond to the frenetic, seemingly impenetrable web of rhythmic sounds, and the singers' sense of tonality was quite free, jumping from one key to an unrelated one within songs," recalls Olly. However, at the legendary Siboney Egrem Studios in Santiago, they began separating the instruments, breaking the music down into textures and patterns and trying new directions with the sound. At a later session, Ache Meyi then jammed with kick and snare sounds on the MPC, playing to bembe rhythms recorded during the first session. Olly continues, "With a virtuoso like Hector, who has dedicated his whole life to his art, it could have been a challenge for us to suggest respectfully that he does it differently but he was the most open-hearted, patient and positive man. The show at the Manana festival was a euphoric experience for us. We wanted the album to capture and distil some of the energy from that night." RIYL: Carl Craig, Fourtet, Ondatropica.

Monster Melodies present Kundalini, an unreleased live recording of Hamsa. This French band with Richard Raux (ex-Magma) at his best in 1976 play an incredible and unique music, groovy, powerful, between funk and spiritual jazz, drawing on roots in African and Indian rhythms. Raux was born in Périgueux in 1945, but would never forget his Creole origins, his family having come from Madagascar. In his early years, Raux was introduced to ethnic music, Django Reinhardt, Brassens, and most importantly the jazz of Coltrane, Dolphy and, Monk. Richard studied at Paris' Ecole Normale, and frequently played at the Chat Qui Pèche in order to measure himself against other horn players. It was there that he met the bassist Jean François Catoire, who played in two groups with the distinction of having Christian Vander as drummer. When Vander formed Magma in 1969, Richard was staggered by the energy of the new group. He shared Vander's fascination for Coltrane, he was hired to replace departing saxophonist René Garber. After 12 months of intense work, Richard took part in the recording of Magma's first album for Philips, before leaving the band. While Magma had taught him a lot about composition, he was exhausted by having to play note-perfect renditions of un-notated music on stage, with no room for improvisation. The first Hamsa record was released in 1975 on Fiesta, a small Belgian label that specialized in African music. Raux composed all of the tracks and was accompanied by Patrice Raux and John Faure on guitar, Jano Padovani and Jean Louis Besson on drums, Albi Cullaz on bass, and Alain Pistre on percussion. Following that, Hamsa was snapped up by singer Jacques Higelin as his backing group, but the relationship ended in conflict when Higelin prohibited the musicians from playing any solos at all. Richard had discovered free jazz through Frank Wright, and collaborated with the Celestial Communication Orchestra directed by Alan Silva, but left mid-concert, exasperated by being forced to "play the same segment twenty times before playing the music backwards". Into the '70s and '80s Richard toured as a soloist, and collaborated with Charlie Haden, Jacques Thollot, Mal Waldron, among others. He also formed The Richard Raux Quartet, who recorded the album Under The Magnolias (1995) was formed with the desire to return to more orthodox jazz, showing the diversity of his approach.

Peverelist re-masters and re-issues a lead track from his debut Jarvik Mindstate (2009) on Punch Drunk alongside a newly unearthed and previously unreleased track from 2008. A leading protagonist of a nascent, more techno-indebted sound in the dubstep era, alongside peers such as Martyn, 2562, and Appleblim, Peverelist released a series of tracks that helped shape and define that scene. "Bluez" fuses melancholic Detroit-style synths with the dub-wise aesthetics of the UK underground. Peverelist has since explored these themes further with his pioneering Livity Sound label. This release revisits the roots of his sound a decade on.

Marco Shuttle first caught The Bunker's ear many years ago upon discovering his music the old fashioned way, picking up his Clone Store Only series in Brooklyn. These mysterious records led to becoming obsessed with his incredible, self-released podcasts. The Bunker is psyched to present The Moon Chant EP: intricate and detailed jams for enjoyment in foggy dance floor corners. These tracks all have that unmistakable Marco Shuttle vibe with plenty of deliberate, slightly twisting melodies, shadowy disembodied echoing vocals that let your brain fill in the meaning, underpinned with punches of tautly layered rhythms.

LP version; includes printed inners and download. Of all the Cyrils born in the city of Calvin (Geneva) at the dawn of the '80s, these two were bound to find each other. Two Cyrils like two dizygotic souls whose contingencies have brought their meeting forward. Cyril Cyril. A liberated hydra, born in this city of diplomats where Borges duplicated his rejuvenated ego in The Other (1972). A muezzin without borders, Cyril Yeterian came to the disheveled world through Mama Rosin, a three-piece that stirred the ghosts of the rogue bayou, the clammy Mardi Gras of some electric Louisiana. Soon, the world fell in love with their flair. The BBC celebrated them, Jon Spencer produced them, records proliferated. And then in 2017, the honeymoon period passed; Cyril was alone. Within the same space-time, Cyril Bondi hit the road: Diatribes, La Tène, Insub Meta Orchestra, the most adventurous projects of the Geneva scene all included this percussionist in search of unheard beats. He soon found an accomplice for musical prospecting, another Cyril in tune with his rebellious instinct. A guitarist and an accordionist, Cyril Y. took on the banjo, adding effect pedals to it to turn it into a puny bouzouki, an epic bağlama or a krar. Cyril B. cobbled some cannibal drum kit together, with massive jingle bells and tropical nut shells embedded in his marching bass drum. For Cyril Cyril, music is a way of the world, a joyful decentration offering new keys to comprehend chaos. The point here has nothing to do with some globalized country excursion nor some gluten-free exoticism. Apart from tracing back the family pathway of some Lebanese dialect, Yeterian chants rhapsodies in French, the merciless terms of which say it all about coming insurrections. Certaines Ruines is thus a wordy lampoon of hoaxers, of neo-post-everything killjoys. Cyril Cyril know the superior power of suggestion, of temperance, of happy sobriety. A single word, a single cry can say a lot, as long as it is soulful. The sound of a duo reduced to its simplest expression: rhythm, a riff, a voice can bear within itself an infinitely luxuriant musical organism. Cyril Cyril, so real, so rich.

African Princess is a set of Linval Thompson's Channel One recordings from 1974-6. Musicians include Robbie Shakespeare, Earl "Chinna" Smith, Tony Chin, Ossie Hibbert, Augustus Pablo, Tommy McCook, and more. "Bunny Lee's 'flying cymbal' production dominates the session and consequently the listener might recognize several of these cuts from dub compilations on Blood & Fire. Generally speaking, though, this is not a dub record. Only the last song on each side is followed by a dub version. These are straight-ahead rockers with no frills and, depending on the pressing, rather muddy production. It is also worth mentioning that 'Money Money' and 'Blood Gonna Run,' among others, find Robbie Shakespeare at his slippery and infectious best. Serious basslines throughout." --AllMusic Guide.

Formed by prominent German electro producer Boysnoize and French film director/electro producer Mr. Oizo (aka Quentin Dupieux), Handbraekes comes back with a brand EP, the third one since the mysterious episodic collaboration started in 2012. Blending Boyznoize's electro mastery with Mr. Oizo's peculiar touch, #3 will undoubtedly both startle minds and make bodies dance, creating disco riots in clubs and festivals around the world.

3AM Spares is a new collection of Australian EDM compiled Andras and Instant Peterson that encompasses the darker sounds and later nights of the 1990s and beyond. Following on from forerunner compilation Midnite Spares, this release draws from local 12" releases, CD-Rs and the archives of community radio station 3RRR FM to make a diverse and pumping scene audible once more. No longer confined to beer barns and back rooms, this generation of producers, DJs, clubbers, and ravers embraced a new culture of machine-metaphor and chemical love. Future Sound Of Melbourne's "Resist The Beat" embodies a time when the country's youth united with juggernaut stamina, partying beyond the long arm of the law. Restored from the original DATs, this debut 12" incited label offers from Jeff Mills, Frank De Wulf, and Carl Cox. Released by the likes of Clan Analogue, Creative Vibes, Volition, DanceNet, Juice and Psy-Harmonics, this era's material has evaded sufficient digital documentation until now. Often these bedroom experiments existed solely for compilation inclusions, a plausible scenario for the mysterious Inner Harmony. In the case of Tetrphnm, Jeremy Dower's glacial sub-bass was digitized from the only known CD-R. Third Eye, the impressive evolution of industrial legend Ollie Olsen, finds common ground with "I Will Go", a hypnotic concoction by Adrenalentil and Jandy Rainbow. The most unique take on this new wave of dance music comes from Turrbal-Gubbi Gubbi woman Maroochy Barambah, using the sound palette of tribal house to highlight the broadening ways that identity and culture were being negotiated and manifested within club music. Artificial's Sobriquet remix bends one of the most looped samples of all time to fit a wired new generation's interrogation of that thing called disco. Her playfulness is mirrored in Blimp's frisky garage house, recalling Paul Johnson, while Ian Eccles-Smith's borrowing is comparatively more discrete on the chillout sampledelic collage "The Slaughtering Eye". Andy Rantzen returns to Efficient Space in two incarnations: as half of ambient alias Screensaver, and in collaboration with General Electrik on "Leather Lover:, a cocked and loaded glimpse at the bottom end of Oxford street, originally recorded for the Club Kooky compilation Gay In The Life: Adventures In The Queer Underground (2000). Reinventing himself as Hypnoblob, fellow Sydney Oz-Wave artist Ian Andrews also gives us his pneumatic-drill-step "Deep Down". Includes download.