2018 repress; 2016 release. We live in an era when "change" is a soundbite to sell more of the same old ideas, and "revolution" has more to do with social trends than social change. Will Long's deep house debut on Terre Thaemlitz's Comatonse Recordings examines that pack of lies dubbed "change" from the sweaty dancefloor, sounding the aftermath of failure around attempts at equality in "progressive" societies. Made with a simple setup of rhythm composer percussion, polyphonic synth chords, and rack sampler vocals, these tracks have a minimal rawness that contends we've been wrong the whole time about how far the US -- and the world -- has come. Although they are sonically unlike anything Long has produced as Celer or his other aliases for minimal and ambient experimental audio, they share a stripped-yet-full sound that reacts against overproduction -- within the dance music industry, and societies at large. DJ Sprinkles' overdubbed contributions quite literally and psycho-acoustically resonate that intention, tactfully rending a farther, lush physicality and soulfulness through deftly applied daubs of glutinous sub-bass pressure, airy strings, and subtly shimmering FX, really bringing Long's tracks to life in a whole other dimension; and via disciplined, stripped-down, full-bodied production values that rank as perhaps the deepest productions yet in the Sprinkles' canon. They could be taken as a call for humbleness and meditative efficiency over cliched buildups and preening vanities, perhaps a comment on "deep" house as the equivalent of a fresh tattoo or sweatshop t-shirt slogan. Because, you know, it really does stand for a lot more. Tsuji Aiko has provided illustrations of the activists sampled featured on the front and back covers. Mastered by Terre Thaemlitz, cut by Dubplates & Mastering.

XOR Gate is the brainchild of Heinrich Mueller, one half of Drexciya and Dopplereffekt. In linguistic or electronic logic, the XOR Gate designates a device, digital or grammatical, which outputs a value only when two differing inputs are fed into it. This can be summed up with the formula "one or the other but not neither, nor both." A conic section is a shape created as a plane intersects a cone. This can result in different figures such as a circle, an ellipse, a parabola, or a hyperbola. Conic Sections here is composed of eight themes, or shapes, over which waveform and synthesis entirely merge with human emotions. The line is blurred. These eight themes are intertwined, forming one long musical string. The line is forever blurred. Conic Sections was commissioned by ArtCenter South Florida in Miami, for the AN IMAGE exhibit. Comes in silver print sleeve.

Alien Transistor and Tokyo-based label Afterhours release the vinyl-version of Volume 4 of Tenniscoats' masterpiece Music Exists, originally released in 2016. The final piece in this magic quadruple release by the Japanese experimental folk luminaries. Tenniscoats have devoted followers all over the world, but their releases were always hard to find outside of Japan. Except for their album Tokinouta (2011), which saw a very limited run on vinyl, and the seminal Two Sunsets, their collaboration with the Pastels (and a small handful of 7"s), there were never any vinyl-releases, and also the CDs were hard to get for anyone who doesn't speak or read Japanese. So, this is the chance to dive deep into the beautiful, unique world of the Tenniscoats and their opus magnum Music Exists. Fourth in a series of four vinyl-only "discs" by Tenniscoats. In their 20 years carrier the band collaborated with the Pastels, Jad Fair, Norman Blake, and others. Includes double-sided fold-out insert.

"It may even be their greatest ever music, essential plus" --Monorail Music, Glasgow.

"Whatever's ailing you, Tokyo's Tenniscoats have got something for that" --Boomkat, Manchester.

RSD 2018 release. Analog Africa present a reissue of António Sanches's Buli Povo!, originally released in 1983. Funaná, the most African of music styles from Cabo Verde, had been banned by the Portuguese Rulers. But in 1974, with independence and the birth of the Bulimundo band, everything changed. Their leader, guitarist Katchás, believing it was time for a new approach, decided to dig deep into the ancient rural roots of funaná and modernize it with a full-band electrified setting. The idea gave birth to a whole new chapter in the already rich Cape Verdean musical landscape. A group of equally adventurous and talented young musicians with a renewed sense of pride spread across the cities of Lisbon, Paris, and Rotterdam followed the path and with the help of out of space synthesizers, electric guitar pedals, and all kinds of studio effect created their own renditions of funaná music. One of these musicians was António Sanches who recorded Buli Povo!, the strangest and yet most fascinating funaná recording to emerge from this period. Recorded in Lisbon with the legendary Voz de Cabo Verde in 1983, the album is a synth-drenched journey to the outer limits of Cabo Verdean popular music, which had remained off the musical radar until now. It was only in recent years, as interest in vintage Cabo Verde music started to grow, that rumors began to circulate about the strange brilliance of his synth-driven journey into the heart of funaná. Impossible to find for many years, the sound of Buli Povo! is just as arresting and mesmerizing today as it was on the day it was released. It has just taken us thirty-five years to catch up with António's vision. Deluxe gatefold sleeve.

RSD 2018 release. Following the release of their critically acclaimed album Shadow People (BEC 5543242/5543243, 2018) produced by Anton Newcombe, French psychedelic band The Limiñanas invites two guest stars from the French electro scene to remix two of their songs: the legendary techno producer Laurent Garnier and the master of synthesizers Arnaud Rebotini.

Tint is the first new solo recording from Joe Talia in over a decade. Australian-born but now based in Tokyo, Talia is known to many listeners as a drummer (frequently collaborating both live and in the studio with artists such as Oren Ambarchi and Jim O'Rourke) and as a recording and mixing engineer responsible for dozens of releases across the fields of contemporary experimental music, wayward pop, and jazz. Alongside James Rushford, he is also responsible for one of the most legendary releases in the Kye records catalog, the creaking electronic morass of Manhunter (2013). Lovingly crafted over many months in his tiny Tokyo studio, Tint is an album-length electroacoustic suite that brings together Talia's expertise as percussionist, studio engineer, and performer on analog electronic instruments (primarily modular synth and Revox tape machine). Ranging from minimalist austerity to kosmische lushness, Tint refreshingly refuses the dark and moody sonic palette of much contemporary electroacoustic music in favor of an airy, at times almost weightless sound-world of gliding tones, skittering percussion, and burbling field recordings. Drawing inspiration from Jean-Claude Eloy's epic concrète love letter to Tokyo, Gaku-No-Michi (2010), Talia makes extensive use of his own recordings of his new home, but removes any sense of audio verite, abstracting them into transparent glosses of outdoor ambience or unidentifiable chimes and creaks. Flowing seamlessly between distinct episodes, Tint is compositionally controlled while retaining a sense of played spontaneity, eventually building to a maelstrom of analog synth zaps and tape manipulated percussion that reflects Talia's deep engagement with the relentless yet constantly shifting dynamics of free jazz. Stunning photographs by Joe Talia; Album design by Stephen O'Malley. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.

Double LP version. On his latest studio album, Scott Monteith, aka Deadbeat, ruminates with hard-earned wisdom and confidence upon the notion of carrying on in the face of worldwide nonsense. Wax Poetic For This Our Great Resolve began with the simple idea of asking friends from across the globe for messages of hope. No musical input was provided beforehand, and each participant was free to interpret the request as they saw fit. Though some of the names involved will be familiar to electronic music listeners (Gudrun Gut, Thomas Fehlmann, Mike Shannon), the common thread linking all of them is their friendship with Monteith and the many hours he has spent enjoying their company over the years. As so often happens when good conversation is shared among good friends, the results are as surprising as they are inspiring, spanning original prose, dialectic word games, and timeless quotations in six languages. Each song on the album was then composed around the content received, and named after the people who did the speaking. Ranging from the overtly political to the tenderly inspirational and many points in between, Wax Poetic For This Our Great Resolve provides verbal expressions of hope as diverse and rich as the experiences of the people who so generously delivered them. Musically the album sees Monteith taking his well-honed sound design abilities and widescreen arrangements to new heights, and exploring a deep interest in traditional analog recording methods to mesmerizing effect. Every sound on the record, whether generated from his tried-and-tested array of software-based tools, or from the enormous collection of guitars, organs, pianos, and percussion instruments found in the Berlin-based studio he now calls home, was recorded via microphone. Even as the very first track slowly fades into existence, it's clear that the smoke filled atmosphere of the place has penetrated the recordings to their very core. Indeed, it is no understatement to suggest that without the physical confines of the magical studio Chez Cherie, and the countless late night conversations and musical contributions of all the other beautiful souls who occupy it (T. Raumschmiere, Ben Laubner, Tilman Hopf, PC Christensen, and of course Cherie herself), this latest Deadbeat album would have been an impossibility. Wax Poetic For This Our Great Resolve is a document of collective action, and the power of community.

Postmodern artist, dancer, choreographer, and writer Simone Forti originally wrote the Hippie Gospel Songs in 1969/70, around the time of the Woodstock Festival. She explains: "before coming to California where I started working and performing with Charlemagne Palestine and studying Tai Chi at the California Institute of the Arts, I had spent a year in Woodstock, New York, stoned in the woods. Now with Charlemagne at the piano I ran in circles and figure eights." The seven songs on the record were recorded in 2012 during Forti's exhibition Sounding at The Box, Los Angeles. This Box Editions release on 10" blue vinyl features an etching of Forti's Illuminations Drawing (1972) on side B and is accompanied by a 16-page color book with images of the original sheet music scored by artist, musician, and Forti's long-time collaborator Charlemagne Palestine. Includes download code.

RSD 2018 release. "Long deleted 1984 Reggae classic on 180 gram vinyl. The Maytones Only Your Picture LP + 12", including their biggest hits 'Boat to Zion' + 'Madness'."

Double LP version. Includes printed inner sleeves; Includes download code. Black To Comm's Marc Richter returns under his Jemh Circs guise for a second album of sonic abstractions. In contrast to Black To Comm's analog tape- and vinyl-based sound, in Jemh Circs he works with digital sources by primarily sampling modern pop music (and various other oddities) on YouTube (et al.) and sending chunks of it through a variety of arcane transformations and mutations. Using similar esoteric methods as on his 2016 self-titled debut album (CELL 001LP) but with very different results the record deconstructs the hypermodern sound of pop music with a post punk attitude, energy, and primitivism. Richter's combining disparate elements that shouldn't really work together but somehow all the chaos is making strange sense creating a collection of oddly diverging sonic vignettes with a surreal and anarchic spirit. This is music deeply rooted in the present but still difficult to pinpoint to a certain year or style. (Untitled) Kingdom converts a seemingly one-dimensional concept into a complex puzzle of ideas, sounds, and narratives; completely assimilating the original sources and transforming them into novel entities with an unexpected melodic and rhythmic quality.

Previous press for Jemh Circs:
"The overall effect is quite remarkable. Each track is like a hologram of pop music itself, a tiny part that reflects the whole. You almost feel that you could open them out and re-create entire popular music cultures. We'll be grateful for that when the next solar storm fries all of our hard drives." --Ian Sherred, The Sound Projector

"In that way Jemh Circs is a record about process -- not just how Richter loops and distorts and mutates his samples, but how the sounds of pop music create a particular sonic signature, one that gets more interesting the farther they're pulled from their original context." --Marc Masters, The Out Door

"Recycling random audio off YouTube, Jemh Circs' process couldn't be less sentimental, but the results turn out to be sneakily emotive." --Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork

Terre Thaemlitz presents an exclusive vinyl edit of "Names Have Been Changed" taken from the epic Deproduction album (2017), backed with the incredible "House Arrest" mix as DJ Sprinkles. Asking pertinent questions about the hypocritical nature of relations between LGBT agendas and western humanist notions of the nuclear family, Terre's Deproduction sensitively yet unflinchingly broaches topics usually considered taboo by a mainstream who is all too happy to pick and choose parts of radical, fringe culture to fetishize, while swerving the bigger questions proposed by those niches. In the vinyl edit of "Names Have Been Changed", exclusive to this LP, Terre contracts the original, 43-minute blend of strings and unsettling scenes of domestic violence into a 17-minute version, beautifully suspended in the cut at 45rpm in order to best represent the work's unique democracy of frequency -- from the muffled row heard next door, to its hyper-realistic avian chirrups and modestly spare, foregrounded strings. On the B-side's 10-minute "House Arrest" mix Terre's ideas feel even more radical when juxtaposed with a sublime deep house production, placing them in context of what was and still can be a radical artform when done with insight and consideration. The result is one of this decade's most sublime yet unsettling house tracks, bar none. Mastered by Terre Thaemlitz, cut at Dubplates & Mastering.

Dagored present a reissue of Piero Umiliani's soundtrack for the 1966 film Requiem Per Un Agente Segreto. A catching exploration of easy listening and lounge music by the legendary Piero Umiliani, one of the Italian score masters who penned some of the most outstanding film music from the '60s and '70s. Composed for the Italian spy thriller Requiem Per Un Agente Segreto starring Stewart Granger and Bond-girl, Daniela Bianchi. First time complete edition on vinyl. Green vinyl; Edition of 300.

RSD 2018 release. Dagored present the first time reissue of Piero Umiliani's Musica Dell'Era Tecnologica, originally released in 1972. This killer experimental LP recorded by maestro Piero Umiliani in his legendary Soundworkshop Studios in Rome is on every serious electronic/Italian library wantlist. Enter the fourth dimension with Musica Dell'Era Tecnologica! 180 gram vinyl; Edition of 500.

"Piero Umiliani has taken things too far with Musica Dell'Era Tecnologica. Way too far. And since he dares to visit innermost heliospheres and microscopic galaxies that are deemed outright crazy to even the most diehard composer of Moog and synth material, he succeeds in his own, very peculiar way ..." --ambientexotica.com

The first volume in a stunning collection documenting the early years of the great Miles Davis. The first steps into the legend of the young man with the horn. Side A, tracks 1-4, recorded January 17, 1951. Personnel: Sonny Rollins - tenor saxophone; Bennie Green - trombone; John Lewis - piano; Percy Heath - bass; Roy Haynes - drums.

Side A, tracks 5-8, recorded March 8, 1951. Personnel: Lee Konitz - saxophone; Sal Mosca - piano; Billy Bauer - guitar; Arnold Fishkin - bass; Art Blakey - drums.

Side B, recorded October 5, 1951. Personnel: Sonny Rollins - tenor saxophone; Walter Bishop - piano; Tommy Potter - bass; Art Blakey - drums.

Juan Mendez, aka Silent Servant, finds his ideal EBM vocal foil in Ori Ofir under their Sterile Hand moniker. The duo's first vinyl round for Not Waving's Ecstatic label is a dark and sleazy run of deviant industrial techno and pugilistic EBM cuts made over the last year. Following Silent Servant's killer split 12" with Not Waving and Pye Corner Audio in 2017, and two fierce 12"s with Marcel Dettmann and Phase Fatale in 2018, the L.A.-based artist behind Sandwell District and Jealous God is at the apex of his game right now, combining EBM and techno in faithful but inventive new ways. If there was anything previously missing from Silent Servant's music, it's only become apparent through the seamless and natural incorporation of Ori Ofir's classic-styled but unique vocals. The two L.A.-based artists push each other down tightening alleys of EBM and industrial techno, with Ofir's stark, blunted declamations haunting and highlighting the most fetid corners of Mendez's rolled-steel productions. It's a style that works to cryptic, head-turning effect in the Voigt Kampff-like probe of "Personality Test", then with increasing dancefloor force in the Nitzer Ebb-esquer flow of "The Hunter" and the punishing, gnashing bite of "Security", whereas "Listen For Water" and the creeping figures of "Untitled" explore the esoteric powers and parameters of Sterile Hand in mesmerising psychoactive detail.

Double LP version. 180 gram vinyl. Far Out Monster Disco Orchestra returns with Black Sun, their second full-length album of 100% original, unadulterated disco sophistication, featuring all three original members of pioneering Brazilian jazz-funk trio Azymuth; a full orchestra with arrangements split between Arthur Verocai and Azymuth's late maestro Jose Roberto Bertrami; plus, members of the legendary Rio funk group Banda Black Rio, Since its critically acclaimed self-titled debut album in 2014, the FOMDO imprint has released a string of remixes by some all-time greats of dance music, including John Morales, Theo Parrish, Mark Pritchard, Marcellus Pittman, Andres, Dego, Volcov, Kirk Degiorgio, and Al Kent. To huge effect in clubs and festivals around the globe, some of the more recent remixes teased the new album material, which for the first time, is presented in its original, soul-heavy incarnation, alongside instrumental versions highlighting the album's stunning arrangements and compositional brilliance. Far from a throwback -- with disco music firmly entrenched in the modern club vernacular -- Black Sun is ecstatic dance music at its finest.

RSD 2018 release. Glass Redux release Endless Futures by Richard Youngs. White 180 gram vinyl; Limited edition of 500. Richard Youngs on the record: "Drum machine, bass guitar, electric guitar, voice. Four sounds on four tracks of tape, mixed to computer with minimal embellishment. This LP, released especially for Record Store Day 2018, is something like how I wished I had sounded when I was 12. But, I hadn't the technology, some of it didn't even exist. Nor the ability, I was still learning. Nor the voice, it was yet to break. Endless Futures is a record of two halves, yet of a piece. The sprawling title track that occupies the entirety of the first side contrasts with the short, sharp shocks of songs that comprise the second side. Both are re-imagined punk rock. But, this isn't music of the past. Re-purposing the music of my early adolescence takes me to a new musical zone, one in which the niceties of ornament are discarded in favour of directness. It isn't about being pretty, it is about saying something. With improvised lyrics, the message is of the moment. And, if all points in time are equally real, this eternal present of looking back is our Endless Future."

"Imagine Richard Youngs as the junior member of a cabal of prolific and puritanical English musician-mystics, including The Fall's Mark E Smith, Van der Graaf Generator's Peter Hammill, Martin Carthy and The Clangers composer Vernon Elliot, and still his nature will elude you" --Stewart Lee, Sunday Times.

"iconic figure of the modern UK underground" --The Quietus.

RSD 2018 release. Machito (Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo) had arguably the most influential big band Latin orchestra of the mambo era in New York, being one of the earliest, largest, and hottest. One of the most important innovations of the orchestra was that they were the first to assemble the essential rhythmic trio of tumbadoras (congas), bongó, and timbales, which became the standard percussion lineup in subsequent Latin bands. In a bold move, Machito founded and named his orchestra The Afro-Cubans in 1940, something that was unprecedented at the time, proudly calling out his heritage long before the Civil Rights movement gained momentum or James Brown would proclaim to be black and proud. The orchestra was also the first truly racially integrated and culturally diverse band in the U.S. Machito has stated that the purpose of expanding the small conjunto into the big band format was a concept that aimed to bring the Latin sound up to the current New York standards of sophistication, professionalism, and excellence that the popular swing dance bands of the time enjoyed, enabling them to play complicated charts and attract plentiful multi-racial audiences to large venues. Progressive jazz-influenced arrangements were provided by his good friend and brother-in-law Mario Bauzá, a clarinetist and trumpeter who had learned about sophisticated jazz composition and swing time from stints with Don Redman, Noble Sissle, Chick Webb, and Cab Calloway. This dynamic union of Machito and Bauzá consequently made them key figures in the Afro-Cuban jazz/Cubop movement that came during the 1940s. What made Machito special as a vocalist was the fact that that he not only sung the "inspiraciones" (improvised sections) and lead, but he would also sing coro (chorus) in the same song. Already in his 30s when he started his big band, Machito's voice had a warm, fun-loving, pleasant sound with an old-school vibrato befitting a Broadway entertainer that by the 1950s was sounding more mature than his competitors. Yet he also was well-versed in Afro-Cuban lingo and jazz vocals and fit his authentic soneos expertly into the complicated jazz riffs and tropical poly-rhythms of the orchestra. Features Cuarteto Caney, Xavier Cugat Orchestra, M. Valdes, Noro Morales Orchestra, and Graciela, and Machito with his various ensembles: Machito's Afro Cuban Salseros, Sus Afro Cubanos, and Afro Cuban Orchestra. Some tracks are presented here on vinyl after many years. Remastered and restored. 300g cardboard.

2018 marks Heist Recordings' first step into album territory, releasing the sophomore album High Life from Detroit Swindle (HEIST 001CD/LP). This single features the album cut "Flavourism" with vocals from Seven Davis Jr. Here, the single is presented with remixes by the amazing Pépé Bradock and Boston-to-NYC house duo John Barera & Will Martin. "Flavourism" is as much a throwback track to classic Detroit Swindle territory, as it is a look into their contemporary view on soulful deep house. The vibe is set by Seven Davis Jr.'s distinctive vocals, accompanied by warm "side-chained" pads and a rubbery live synth-bassline.

RSD 2018 release. Hidden Art Recordings present a reissue of the debut Bass Communion album as a double-LP for the first time. Steven John Wilson, aka Bass Communion, on the record: "The first Bass Communion album was originally released in April 1998 by Third Stone, the same label later reissuing it under their Hidden Art Recordings imprint. It was compiled from musical experiments made during a period spanning 1994-97, all of which might loosely be termed ambient. Later on I would spend a lot more time on Bass Communion, often refining structures, processing, and sound combinations over a period of months, but at this point I was making each piece of music within only a few hours and rarely revisiting them afterwards. Several DAT tapes with filled in this way, while CDRs of various track listings were made and passed on to friends, record labels, and anyone that I thought might be receptive to the music. When the chance eventually came to release the first official CD, I listened back to the several hours of material I had accumulated by then and selected what I felt were the highlights to make a five-track disc lasting just over an hour. In retrospect it's the long version of 'Drugged' that makes the album worthwhile for me. The other pieces are perhaps less successful, but I learned something from all of them. One thing the album has in common with later Bass Communion music is that hardly any electronic sources are used, the pieces are mostly derived from processing 'real' instruments such as guitar, saxophone, piano, organ, percussion... etc. 'No News Is Good News' was recorded in 2000 in collaboration with virtuoso oud player Naseer Shamma, and originally used a background music for Grant Wakefield's audio documentary album The Fire This Time, issued in 2002. As such it dates from a few years after the rest of BC1, but as it's the only other title to have been issued on Hidden Art, it's been included here as a bonus track." Comes on 180 gram vinyl and in a gatefold sleeve. Remastered and with exclusive liner notes by Steven Wilson. Includes a bonus track not on the CD version and brand-new artwork. Edition of 1000 -- last copies.

2018 repress; 2006 release. Ambrose Campbell was acclaimed by Fela Kuti's generation -- by Fela himself -- as the founder of modern Nigerian music. Several of his recordings lit up London Is the Place for Me 2 (HJR 016LP, 2006), and Volume Three is devoted to his music, drawing on the 78s he cut in London over ten years from 1949. Nearly all the tracks assembled here come from recordings made for the Melodisc label and originally released as 10" 78 rpm singles. People who bought these records at the time can still recall how it was when the percussion team -- among them Ade Bashorun, Salustiano, Dos Anjos, Manny Myers and "Lati" Pedro -- built their polyrhythms in Ola Dosunmu's kingdom. With the melodic guitars of Brewster and Ambrose coming together behind Campbell's soothing voice, the musicians contrived to paint an evocative, enduring picture of palm wine Lagos nights." --Val Wilmer Features: West African Rhythm Brothers, Nigerian Union Rhythm Group, Ayinda Bakare And His Meranda Orchestra, Nigerian Union Rhythm Group, and West African Rhythm Stars.

"Genes And Spirits: herald of a new South African jazz. When pianist and composer Moses Taiwa Molelekwa died in February 2001, fans and fellow musicians alike were swept away by grief. He was so young -- not yet 30 -- and had shown such musical promise. Genes And Spirits was his second album, released a year before his death. While the composer's voice and pianist's touch are instantly recognisable from his debut, Finding One's Self, the ideas underlying the music mark a conscious step into the unknown: what he called 'finding a range of rhythmic alternatives,' inspired by the rhythmic complexity he was hearing in both pan-African music and the New Music he had been exploring in Europe; and by the possibilities of electronic club music -- jungle in London, and kwaito in Soweto. Inspired like many of his musical age-mates by the optimism of the post-liberation 1990s in South Africa, Taiwa crafted what he described as ragga with a kalimba groove; Tswana vocals over a programmed drum track; a duet with Chucho Valdez and more, across eleven tracks combining the talents of multiple South African and world musicians, including Valdez, Flora Purim and Cameroonian drummer Brice Wassy. With Genes And Spirits, Molelekwa was stepping into the kind of genre-busting territory we associate today with players such as Robert Glasper, but he was doing it almost a decade earlier: asserting a new jazz identity that was young, popular and African. This re-release also includes one additional track, Wa Mpona, recorded for, but omitted from, the original release. Remastered by Frank Merritt at the Carvery, Genes and Spirits is presented as a deluxe gatefold sleeve including new liner notes by Gwen Ansel."

Following on from his Livity Sound 12" released last year, Via Maris swings back into action with three tracks of low-slung shellers for Beneath's Mistry label. The EP shows a focused yet varied range in Via Maris's production. "Shelleys" hits hard with wigged-out stomping drums, "Toys" shows a more sultry, introspective side, and "Miasma" rolls with impeccable pacing. All three tracks are designed, refined and engineered for the dark, hazy basements -- you can almost taste that plastic people vibe.

LP version. Includes printed inner sleeve; Includes download code. Being a key figure in Iceland's music scene over the past 20 years with his bands múm and FM Belfast among others, the time has come for Örvar Smárason to release his debut solo album. Light Is Liquid is made up of eight precious electronic pop songs that show him both as a gifted songwriter and producer. It's an update of the sound that made múm one of the most revered Nordic acts since the 2000s, but it's also slightly reminiscent of Boards of Canada's pastoral beats or even the transcendental tracks of Arca and Björk. A heap of experience and a sure-footed feeling for style constitutes this record, but at the same time it feels like a young and fresh love affair with music. Besides having released roughly 20 albums with his musical projects, exploring and blurring the borders of electronica, folk, indie rock and ambient, Örvar is a poet and a writer. On Light Is Liquid, maybe more than ever before, this talent translates into his songwriting. Lyrics and song titles oscillate between concrete objects and daydreams, reference dark regions on faraway planets, scientific phenomena and unsolved mysteries. What is light made of, what does it do? If you think about it, you start drifting off to strange and amazing places. Light Is Liquid provides the fitting soundtrack. The songs have been written over the past few years, most of them before Örvar's other recent project started at the beginning of 2016: Together with Sóley and Sin Fang he recorded one song each month in only a few days time, compiling them all into another wonderful album (MORR 150CD/LP, 2018). Sóley also sings backing on a few songs on Light Is Liquid, while Sin Fang mixed the whole album. Other guests include Sillus, whose magical voice accompanies Örvar on three tracks, and JFDR, another Icelandic talent lending her vocals to "Tiny Moon". Their voices are eerie and evocative, wrapping themselves around smoothly futuristic tracks. In "Duality Paradox", a robotic voice is stuttering over heartfelt melodies. There are lots of moments on this record that feel like a kind of android pop music. But then songs like "Flesh & Dreams" assure you that it's all very human after all. Light Is Liquid has all the qualities of a truly enthusiastic debut.

RSD 2018 release. First time vinyl reissue. More than four decades after its original release, a minor album by an obscure artist from the Vanguard catalog is finally reissued on vinyl. There are recordings on the Vanguard label by more famous artists than Marc Jonson, and discs that far outsold Years (1972) -- but this collection has stood the test of time. Years is not only a stunning debut, but a harbinger of the promise of a young artist. "Rainy Dues" kicks off Years with a tersely honest statement and proceeds to expound on that with a series of observations and claims about a relationship whose literal nature is nebulous but whose emotional reality is dense. "Mary" is a musical sequel to the opener which treats with wonderful lyrics as well as powerfully evocative singing. "Mother Jane" remains a mystery after 30-plus years, but you don't need to understand it to enjoy it -- the pondering is a prize in itself. Side A ends with "Fly", an existential lament depicting alienation from others and self. Listen for the additional voices coming in near the end of the song on the word "fly" with a simultaneous harp flourish. "A Long Song" is the metaphoric and literal centerpiece of the album, falling precisely at the midway point. It's sweet and tender, with a narrator sure of himself. The brief "Autopsy", with its five lines, sung twice, carries a hefty poignancy with a melancholic tune. "Return To The Relief" is a lyrical and musical adventure. The carnival ride of this song finishes with a musical reference to Jackie DeShannon's 1969 popular single "Put A Little Love in Your Heart". "Munich" is the only song on the album which feels "dated" in any way -- one can hear the influence of "Revolution 9" from The Beatles' White Album (1968). The title could obliquely refer to the hostage taking at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany -- the havoc of that event mirrored by the fragmented song. The final track is "The Tredmill" which features a constrained and dulcet voice singing in front of a muted piano, interpolated with occasional drum. In Years, Marc Jonson deftly inserts brilliant production values to songs already possessing beautiful melodies and poetic lyricism. Presented in facsimile artwork and pressed on 180 gram vinyl; Includes 7" with four extra tracks.

LP version. Includes download code. DJ Raph is an electronic musician, producer, and DJ from Nairobi, Kenya. He is an outstanding figure in the growing Kenyan underground electronic scene. His debut album Sacred Groves is a rare gem of a record; considered, emotional, and contagious. DJ Raph builds rich, textured electronic music from pan-African ethnographic field recordings. Sacred Groves opens up a timeless musical universe, that is both ancient and futuristic; a deep mélange of modern electronic bass music, African chants, and traditional rhythms. This is essential dance music. It is fundamentally not kitsch or clichéd. What makes DJ Raph's approach unique within the abundant production of African electronic music is a keen interest in the meanings and contexts of the original field recordings. Sacred Groves emerges from weeks of research in the extensive music archive of the Iwalewahaus (Bayreuth). The music, rhythms, and chants which he builds from are not just to expand his sound palette; his work is a considered homage to the traditions which he borrows from. The archive is revered rather not researched. The respect that DJ Raph, a Nairobi-based producer, has for a broad African cultural heritage is deeply visceral and palpable in this music. Long samples allow the field recordings to breathe, to open up an innovative and vital electronic soundscape. Sacred Groves is simultaneously traditional, contemporary, and deeply sacred. All music was produced by Raphael Kariuki in Nairobi, Kenya and Bayreuth, Germany. All ethnographic recordings used on this record are part of the UNESCO World Heritage with friendly support of Klassik Center, Kassel. Additional mixing by Hannes Teichmann. Mastered by Mike Grinser at Manmade Mastering, Berlin.

RSD 2018 release. "David Axelrod delivered one of the great psychedelic albums with 1968's Song Of Innocence, based around the poetry of William Blake. It is considered by many his masterpiece. Song Of Innocence is this weird hybrid that no one, not even Axelrod himself, could ever really describe. The listener is pulled in by his melodies, simplistic at first blush, but colored by odd chord progressions and turn arounds, grounded by the drummer Earl Palmer and Carol Kaye's funk, torn between the juxtaposition of musical elements -- a jazz vibraphone solo here, a fuzz guitar tear here, a nod to the baroque in Don Randi's clavichord comps -- and put at ease, always, by Axe's arrangements, which utilize brass and strings in a way that no 1960s arranger did. It's worth noting that there are really count-on-your-hand examples of anything that might even be compared to Song Of Innocence. Perhaps Arthur Verocai's self-titled and only artist album, issued on the Brasilian Continental label in 1972, or the collaborations between Serge Gainsbourg and Jean Claude Vannier, which found their epitome in 1971's Histoire de Melody Nelson. But even these albums, superb, in any thinking music fan's canon of the best from this era, perhaps in their lives -- and perhaps in line with Song Of Innocence -- are one-offs. Axelrod's Song Of Innocence set in path a series of artist albums on Capitol and other labels and influenced the world countless times over, from The Verve to DJ Shadow to Madlib to J.Dilla. Remastered from the original tapes in a new transfer, with extensive liner notes and unpublished photos."

Another fierce and unique act from the depths of the Glasgow underground appear on Optimo Music with their debut four track EP. Keyboard player Jim McKinven was previously in Altered Images, worked for many years in Martin Rushent's Genetic Studios, was in One Dove, and previously appeared on Optimo Music as one half of Organs Of Love. He is however but one component of this transgenerational band. They describe their music as "seedy electronica, consisting of two basses, electronic drums, synths, and dark vocals. Inspired by the avant-garde that influenced the electronic music scene of the late '70s and early '80s."

DJ Koze presents the second single from his album Knock Knock. "Pick Up" is 100% pure groove, doubly so in the extended 12" version. Flipping samples of Gladys Knight & the Pips "Neither One Of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)" and Melba Moore's "Pick Me Up, I'll Dance", it creates something completely airborne. B-side "The Love Truck" recalls 2000s minimal techno, but this time absolutely nothing is generic.

Jon Dixon, member of Underground Resistance's live band Timeline, pays tribute to legendary Detroit jazz trumpeter Marcus Belgrave. The EP features Belgrave himself (recorded before his passing in 2015), alongside additional contributions from Detroit musicians: UR/Timeline's Mike Banks & saxophonist De'Sean Jones, and jazz trumpeter, composer & educator Kris Johnson.

Boli Group is a new ensemble spearheaded by Copenhagen-based composer and producer Asger Hartvig. Responsible for some of the most fearless and intriguing works to come from the city in recent years, Hartvig is as imposing as he is mysterious, and his debut release for Posh Isolation makes no concessions. Hartvig is perhaps best known for his work with the group Synd Og Skam. And though less known, Brynje 1&2 is just as exceptional. Taking both technology and classicism as allegories, each group charts routes in and out of pop music, somehow arriving at an observer's distance to the distinct stylistic choices in the process. The label Visage has published the best of this, and the logic has certainly been carried into Boli Group LP, the latest offering from Hartvig and his distinguished ensemble of Nina Cristante, Holger Hartvig, Thea Thorborg, and Cæcilie Trier. N.P.D.S. is willingly dramatic, though it never plateaus into melancholia. Hartvig pirouettes at the edge with the sorrowful string arrangements and the pristine timbre of the piano, the immediacy of the acoustics always binding the listener tightly to the risk. Pastoral and meditative, the electronics don't tamper with the delicate fabric being woven. They always register as supportive and understated. The synthetic hum, occasionally yielding a doleful melody as it does, manages to imbue a naiveté to this contemporary and subtly idiosyncratic chamber music. The album's secret, barely kept through the minimalism, is its distinct folk noir quality in holding it.

"Boli Group creating new chamber folklore embracing the playing of instruments, not the played, but that which is playing for the sake of future focus and edit into the very minerals of instrument, intuition, emotion, fragility underlying, the warning, always pulsating acts of drama, wet leaves, asphalt, pan to right, agriculture and electricity poles a container ship, lonely in horizon hoping for a clear thought, but everything existing as conspiracy the sound of a search, uncertain and always asking, for certainty is false, showing sceneries changing permanently and forever narrating, like a panorama of grey clouds, keeping humidity levels high, heating up before the release of water and lightning investigation for folk instruments."

RSD 2018 release. The Telescopes were founded in England in 1987 by chief member Stephen Lawrie and released several recordings in the late 1980s but it is in 1990, when the band signed to legendary label Creation, that they hit their stride and helped to define a decade of UK rock music. Fusing elements of psychedelia with noise-rock, and dreamy pop, The Telescopes were near the forefront of the early shoegaze scene and hugely influential on the next wave of early 1990s Brit-pop. This crucial collection complies all four of their 12" singles on Creation as well as a 1991 John Peel session and other bonus tracks. Deluxe double-LP includes double-sided poster insert; 180 gram vinyl; Limited edition (numbered).

LP version. Radiation Roots present a reissue of U Roy's The Originator, originally released in 1990. Ewart Beckford, aka Daddy U Roy, changed the focus of Jamaican popular music by turning the sound system deejay from an incidental figure that told jokes in between records and made announcements about where the next dance would be held, to a major star whose rhyming toasts were as important as the lyrics for any singer. U Roy's command on the microphone on sets like Dickies Dynamic and Sir George the Atomic paved the way for his influential residency on King Tubby's Hi Fi. Keith Hudson, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and Bunny "Striker" Lee were some of the first producers to bring him into the studio, but the breakthrough hits came for Duke Reid in 1970, with Roy toasting over old rock steady rhythms. Work for Prince Tony subsequently brought him international fame through a contract with Virgin, but he continued to record grassroots efforts at home. The Originator gathers some of the greatest tracks U Roy cut for Striker, voiced as usual at King Tubby's studio over hot hits by Johnny Clarke, Cornell Campbell, Gregory Isaacs, and others; "King Tubby's Skank" celebrates Tubby himself.

Recital present the newest record by Canadian composer Sarah Davachi. Currently working on her PhD in Musicology at UCLA, her trajectory has been unorthodox. Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, which, if you've never been there, doesn't really scream "avant-garde" (Calgary is the rodeo capital of the world). It is important and interesting that she chose to study esoteric music; as Sarah could have easily been a cowgirl or a concert pianist had her ingrained love of synthesis and sonic phenomenology not taken the wheel. There are few people that have the diligence and resolve to take their time with music... especially in a live context. Recital label head Sean McCann: "The first time I saw Sarah perform, I presumptuously told her that her music reminded me of my favorite Mirror albums (the exceptional project of Andrew Chalk and Christoph Heemann). Sarah was not familiar with Mirror, so the compliment was initially lost on her. Years back I was in the same situation when a review compared my music to Andrew Chalk, who was unknown to me at the time. So I felt a kinship in our magnetic drift towards unspoken and clustered beauty." Let Night Come On Bells End The Day follows the release of her "sound-wheel" LP All My Circles Run, which examines the isolation of different instruments. Let Night Come On, recorded mainly with a Mellotron and electronic organ, feels like a return to the nest. Burrowed in the studio, Davachi was the only performer on this album. She both splays her compositional architecture and re-contextualizes the essence of her early output. She chiseled careful and shadowed hymns; anchors of emotion. Two pillars of this album are "Mordents", which may hints of her love for progressive rock music -- and "Buhrstone", comparable to a somber funeral march of piano and flutes. These two examine punctuations of early music, gently plucking melodies and movements. The three other compositions are tonal works, blowing slow jets of lapping harmonics. Includes three 9"x9"photo-prints by Davachi; Includes CD; First edition of 600.

Sean McCann: "I find it hard to separate 'At Hand' from filmmaker Paul Clipson, who made a melancholic film for this piece of Sarah's. A fitting title for Sarah and Paul's relationship -- frequently working in orbit of each other, meticulous and tactile. I cherish this track as a memory of Paul."

Kagami is the duo of Jared Blum (Vision Heat, Gigante Sound) and Maxwell August Croy (En, Root Strata). Their eponymous debut, recorded between 2014 and 2017, finds the pair navigating a bracingly wide range of niches with aplomb and precision. Evoking summertime ambience, widescreen electronics, anthemic pop instrumentals, and windswept romantic gestures, Kagami is a charming and dramatic record that at times recalls the soundtrack to some lost title from Nintendo's golden age or perhaps a spiritual successor to the miniatures of Yasuaki Shimizu's Music for Commercials (1987). Original cover art by Brenna Murphy; Layout by Konrad Jandavs. Mastered by Helmut Erler; Cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Includes download code.