Parsley Sounds was the glorious debut album for Mo Wax by Parsley Sound. The album was one of the iconic label's final releases before it closed in 2003 and locating a clean copy has been extremely tricky of late, unless you're flush enough to drop 150 notes on it. Mercifully, the Be With reissue, put together with invaluable assistance from the group, should remedy this situation. It's a lo-fi, bass-heavy, blunted beat treat, warped with heat haze and dreamy soft-psych and has been criminally under-heard for far too long. As with most cult-like records, Parsley Sounds has many influential fans, far and wide. From Four Tet and Caribou to NTS's modern day breakfast hero Flo Dill, its reputation has only grown in stature. At the time, the notoriously hard-to-please Pitchfork garlanded it with a scarcely achievable 8.8 whilst the Numero Group's Rob Sevier described it as a "visionary bit of proto-Salvia Plath (or Steve Lacy)" via a Ghostly International missive. Parsley Sound comprised super-talented duo Preston Mead and Dan Sargassa. They released an early single on Warp Records as Slum, before signing to Mo Wax. Hidden behind a wall of sound -- fuzzy layers of beats, bleeps and symphonic synths -- they were convinced they made mainstream pop music. And, in many respects, Parsley Sounds really is a beautiful pop album. It overflows with memorable, gorgeous melodies and inspired songcraft. A melodic masterpiece, part Crosby, Stills & Nash, part proto-Koushik, it presents a melancholy falsetto, surging bass and blunted lead guitar. As it climaxes, gorgeous strings are ushered in to see listeners out. Under the watchful eye of Parsley Sound themselves, the audio for Parsley Sounds has been carefully mastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, with a few much-needed tweaks here and there, according to the artist's wishes. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at the always stellar Record Industry in Holland. With the audio and artwork now approaching completeness after 20 years, this long overdue re-issue could be considered its definitive vinyl release.

"In attempting to write this dispatch on the second Voice Imitator album my instinct is to pitch them as somewhat of an antidote to the current ills of what could be described as the post-noise rock landscape. I'm trying not to tread too far down the path of negativity and slander, so let's just say that while on paper they share basic characteristics with popular groups in the pigfuck to frat rock pipeline, Voice Imitator possess a tact and vision scantly seen in repetition-orientated rock. On Of How Hits, the members decades long individual and collaborative experiences in punk/rock, the avant-garde and electronic music, are further honed to form an internal logic that doesn't merely cut and paste from these experiences, but creates a distinctive and singular group sensibility. Self-conscious subcultural baggage is removed from past youth music experiences, only the molten core remains. With each listen the distinction between traditional band and synthesized modes becomes harder to distinguish, like a zoomed in Killing Joke welding itself to Robert Hood's technominimalism. Lyrics reflect the surreal banality and horrors of modern existence, like a co- worker recapping their interstate trip away to the Banksy exhibition. The album ender, 'On Cloud Nine As One Of Three Percent' can only be compared to Lou Reed and Metallica's 'Junior Dad'. In short, affecting contemporary music." --Nic Warnock

"Papa M is back, and he's talking 'bout Harry Houdini. This time, with a fresh, fine and fat-assed set of songs. Sometimes you never know when it comes to Papa M and his ol' left-shoulder angel, David Christian Pajo. After Slint's disbandment, he whiled away the '90s playing with literally everybody who asked, pausing long enough here and there to start his own band, called M. Two epic/classic albums and a forbiddingly large outstretched palm of singles (eventually collected into another epic full-length) later, David was looking a bit green around the gills. It'd been five years of Papa-ing off; time to do something/anything else for a while. Twelve long years go by before he sends in Highway Songs. Now comes Ballads of Harry Houdini. Following the path of M records from Aerial to Papa, (the just-released The Peel Sessions excepted!) David recorded Ballads of Harry Houdini on his own, receding deep inside himself and taking the time for ideas new and old, from soup to nuts, et al. Having his fun before spitting it all out onto the world -- setting down some tracks, getting lit, grabbing a guitar, getting a sound going, and soloing over 'em! With a bit of singing here and there too. Everything that's meant to be in the picture is in there. The shit that isn't, isn't. Frankly, the amount of hip-shaking sleaze oozing out of these pieces blows the idea that these are simple ad-hoc assemblies right the FUNK out of the water. Sure, when David does blues scaling, he sounds a little like Billy Gibbons. But then there's the insistent torn-n-fucked delirium that's accompanied every Papa M expression into the marketplace (with pride) since 1999. As ever, it's mixed extra-crispy, with earworms and easter eggs and lots of other surprising shit that's bound to change your whole personality. And so it is and so it does. Ballads of Harry Houdini: it can make you dance, sing or anything."

"This one to me is a time capsule more than most any of my recordings. All music is a time trapped in time that preaches timelessness -- preaching either convincingly or not. But with a radio session such as this, there is a different aspect. It's all live, all first take, no overdubs. Also I think having the BBC engineers at the controls, with their own aesthetic, not one I am bringing to the studio, that makes it more encapsulated ? 'remember that day we did that?' The circumstances and the memory of the smell of the studio makes it stand out. So it's more of a performance maybe than a usual recording, because the audience (engineer and producer) were foreign to us. British, milk in tea. So we gave them something to show them who WE were -- Dale Coopers with our black coffees. Somebody said this EP is very Twin Peaksy. Not in a Badalamenti, torch-song way -- a deeper connection. I can see that. 'Beautiful Child' has been turned into a minor key song because, well, it really should have been one in the first place! 'Cold Discovery' was a live staple then and some nights it could really catch fire. We got a pretty good one for BBC. 'Dirty Pants' here is probably better than the LP version. And then there's 'Jesus.' Sweet, sweet 'Jesus.' Here sounding like a deathbed plea shot through with visitations from the angel of mercy." -- Bill, 2024

"Four years separate the release of Stateless and we will be wherever the fires are lit. In the interim, Tashi Dorji has seldom stood still, playing and touring almost constantly, continuing to record both as a solo and in collaboration with artists including Susie Ibarra, Alex Zhang Hungtai, Bill Orcutt, Michael Zerang, Elliott Sharp, Audrey Chen, Sally Gates, Marshall Trammell, Efrim Manuel Menuck, Aaron Turner, Dave Rempis, and Joe McPhee. For Tashi, the playing of this music is always political even in its most abstract iterations. In and of itself, music can't solve political problems -- but since no moment of life is without its political context, 'strumming in opposition to the towers' is therefore a universal state, a freedom of expression made while doing all the other things involved with playing, maintaining a sense of lineage and documenting forward movement. we will be wherever the fires are lit was recorded over a period of a month on a Zoom recorder in a cabin behind Tashi's home. His music, as ever, is all improvised, using different guitar preparations -- tape for muting, and metal for buzz. Different tunings and techniques; inspirations from all over. Tashi's sound is his own, but listeners can't help but feel the sound of many nations, in all hemispheres, storming through these acoustic expressions. Who else would it be for, if not for everyone?"

2024 repress. Zehra present The Trance Of Seven Colors by master Gnawa musician Maleem Mahmoud Ghania and free jazz legend Pharoah Sanders, available on vinyl for the very first time. Originally released in 1994 on Bill Laswell's Axiom imprint, and produced by Bill Laswell, The Trance Of Seven Colors is the meeting of two true musical masters. Maleem Mahmoud Ghania (1951-2015), son of the master of Gnawa music Maleem Boubker Ghania and the famous clairvoyant and "moqaddema", A'isha Qabral, and a master of the traditional Gnawa style in his own right. Mahmoud learned this craft as a youth along with his brothers, walking from village to village, performing ceremonies with his father Boubker and was one of the few masters (Maleem) who continued to practice the Gnawa tradition strictly for healing (the central ritual of the Gnawa is the trance music ceremony -- with the purpose of healing or purification of the participants). With 30 cassette releases of music from the Gnawa repertoire with his own ensemble and performances at every major festival in Morocco, including performing for the King in various contexts, Mahmoud Ghania was also one of Morocco's most prominent professional musicians. In 1994, Bill Laswell and Pharoah Sanders went to Morocco equipped with just some mobile recording devices to record Ghania and a large ensemble of musicians (a good portion being family members) in a very intimate set-up at a private house. Sanders, the legendary free jazz musician, contributed the distinctive tenor saxophone sounds that gained him highest praise as a truly spiritual soul right from the days of playing with John Coltrane and his wife Alice and on seminal solo albums, like Karma (1969). The aptly titled The Trance Of Seven Colors ranks among the best Gnawa recordings ever released, making it onto The Vinyl Factory's list of "10 incredible percussive albums from around the world". 25 years after its original CD release, it is finally available on vinyl. Remastered for vinyl and vinyl cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. 180 gram vinyl; comes in gatefold sleeve; includes download code. "One of the most important albums of Gnawa trance music released in the '90s." --The Attic "first-hand access to Gnawa healing ceremonial music" --All Music

"Through Today is the sophomore album for rising Australian band Chimers. A husband /wife duo comprising life partners Padraic Skehan (vocals/guitar) and Binx (drums/vocals). Recorded by Jono Boulet (Party Dozen) over two days at Stranded Studios, Wollongong and mixed at Boulet's Sydney home studio, produced by the band and veteran manager/promoter/producer Tim Pittman (Feel Presents), Through Today features ten tracks of tightly-coiled intensity that barely lets up for all of its 34 mins. In enlisting Boulet, the band were confident that due to his own experience of being one half of Party Dozen, they had someone who understood the confines of working within the structure of a two-piece but also the possibilities that creates. Boulet, in turn, rewarding that trust by capturing a powerful bedrock of sound that allowed the band's taught rhythms to circle and permeate and yet give full breathing space for the melody within. For Pittman's part, having a third ear on hand to devote serious listening time and critical commentary was an added bonus. It's a major step forward from the band's 2021 self-titled debut. Lyrically, Chimers maintain the intensity as they tackle the themes of love, life, death and relationships, distance from home (Padraic is Irish, moving to Australia in 2001) and the current political climate providing enough drama to fuel a forest fire. Guest musicians on the album include saxophonist Kirsty Tickle -- also of Party Dozen -- and violinist Jordan Ireland of The Middle East, both of whom were invited in on short notice, adding their respective parts in just one to two takes each without any prior knowledge of the material. Binx too showing added versatility contributing lead vocals to 'An Echo' and sharing lead across '3AM,' 'Generator,' and others. Through Today is a great album. Solid and confident from the get go. No waste. No unnecessary fat. Should it be Chimers last it would remain a defining statement of originality and intent. But it's not the last, it's just the beginning. And there's plenty more where that came from."

2024 repress. "The infamous and legendary Jah Life in Dub LP, finally released. Originally slated for release in late '80/early '81, this was to be Jah Life's first dub LP, featuring all exclusive mixes to now-classic Barrington Levy tunes. For one reason or another, the LP was never released. To confuse matters, a couple years later, some of the unused jackets were given to Germain to house an untitled dub LP of his productions. Naturally, we needed to rectify this situation. So here it is, finally released 34 years later! Featuring ten killer dubs to Barrington Levy tunes, ALL MIXED BY SCIENTIST AT KING TUBBY'S. Six out of the ten tracks are previously unreleased mixes, including a dub to the song 'Jah Life' which has never been available anywhere before. As an added bonus, the first pressing of this LP will come housed in the original jackets from 1980, which features killer artwork by Oneil Nanco."

2024 repress. The seminal 1994 double album Execution Ground, by the original Painkiller with the line-up of Bill Laswell, John Zorn and Mick Harris on vinyl for the first time. When Painkiller started in 1991, their first two albums Guts Of A Virgin (1991) and Buried Secrets (1992) (both released on extreme metal label Earache) were heavy attacks blending grindcore and free jazz that brought together the musical backgrounds of the three protagonists: drummer Mick Harris had just left grindcore legend Napalm Death, John Zorn explored new extremities with his Naked City project while Bill Laswell had as a member of roaring free jazz quartet Last Exit (with Peter Brötzmann, Sonny Sharrock, Ronald Shannon Jackson) proven that he was not only a visionary producer but also an accomplished bassist. But it is their 1994 double album Execution Ground remains the opus magnum of the brilliant trio: Zorn's unmistakable shrieking saxophone, Harris's pounding drums and Laswell's growling sub-bass lines were given heavy mixing desk treatment, resulting in extended tracks that are no less intense than their early works but display the full range of the musicians's skills. Avant-jazz, grindcore, dub and ambient melt into eerie tracks of haunting atmospheres - even more so in the "ambient" versions of the second disc. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M Berlin. Available here as a double 180 gram vinyl. Includes a download code and insert.

2024 restock; originally released by Lovely Music in 1981. In this fascinating exploration of acoustical phenomena, Alvin Lucier slips from the domain of language to that of music in the course of 40 minutes and 32 repetitions of a simple paragraph of text. In I Am Sitting In A Room, several sentences of recorded speech are simultaneously played back into a room and re-recorded there many times. As the repetitive process continues, those sounds common to the original spoken statement and those implied by the structural dimensions of the room are reinforced. The others are gradually eliminated. The space acts as a filter; the speech is transformed into pure sound. All the recorded segments are spliced together in the order in which they were made and constitute the work. I Am Sitting In A Room was composed in 1970 and was first performed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City that same year. A second version was made in 1972 to accompany the dance, Dune, performed by the Viola Farber Dance Company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Since that time, numerous versions of this composition have been realized in various ways by other musicians, including a Swedish radio broadcast version. This recording was made by Alvin Lucier on October 29th and 31st, 1980, in the living room of his home in Middletown, CT. The material was recorded on a Nagra tape recorder with an Electro-Voice 635 dynamic microphone and played back on one channel of a Revox A77 tape recorder, Dynaco amplifier, and a KLH Model Six loudspeaker. It consists of thirty-two generations of Alvin Lucier's speech and was made expressly for Lovely Music, Ltd.

You Never End is the third album from Valentina Magaletti, Tom Halstead, and Joe Andrews (Moin) out via AD 93. Its title alone expresses the teetering and shifting nature of both the album and band. This record marks the Moin's shift into a new phase with vocal collaborations across the album from Olan Monk, james K, Coby Sey and Sophia Al-Maria. The album's collaborators all have voices that are alluring in their own right whilst hard to pin down: from james K's ethereal, reverb drenched vocals, Coby Sey's words that bounce and echo across London's concrete streets and Olan Monk's emotive songwriting, while artist Sophie Al-Maria's voice and thoughts are known to stretch across her multidisciplinary practice as an artist, filmmaker and writer. The unique mystique of each collaborator is maintained throughout the record while simultaneously opening Moin up to new possibilities, in a gentle shifting alchemy. Continuing their enigmatic re-configuring of the traditional band, Moin use a mix of conventional and unique production and compositional techniques. Subtly re-framing the current conversation about what the band in 2024 needs to be, Moin walk the line between what's reassuringly familiar and what's unsettling and inquisitive. You Never End is a more sensitive record in sentiment, it re-contextualizes grunge, shoegaze and indie rock with a weirdly comforting melancholy while still sounding direct and alive. Showing Moin at their most accessible, the vocal collaborations bring the most articulate moments and lucid emotion while still remaining uniquely within Moin's established world. Alongside this, the record fine tunes the elements of electronic production that have always been a feature of the band's unique sound in a deeply subtle way. Elements are simpler and more direct, offering robust functional support as well as textural and emotional resonance. Together they show the potential for both practices to intertwine. You Never End is both produced and mixed by Tom and Joe, demonstrating the extended range of control the pair have over the band's sound, and their ability to truly hold together Moin's intricate world.

Limited restock, last-ever copies. "Yodeling Astrologer (aka: Color By The Number) could be considered an anomaly, a one-off or a miracle of circumstance in the history of psychedelic pop music. Mij, a.k.a. Jim Holmberg was discovered by ESP-Disk owners while playing in Washington Square Park in the summer of 1968. His style and persona mesmerized the label heads, and he explained to them a recent auto accident had fractured his skull but left him changed. He perceived sound, color and vision differently and he had funneled this new world of perception directly into his music. All this was enough to warrant getting Mij into the studio to lay down a record of his rambly, cosmic folk songs. The entire album was recorded in three hours, first-takes and impromptu production intact, then pressed up and introduced to the world shortly thereafter. To focus on the yodeling aspect of the Yodeling Astrologer would miss some of the depth of this album. Not just a hippie novelty act of the time, this is a truly thoughtful and somewhat frenzied document. Like Buffy St. Marie's Meditations, Linda Perhacs' Parallelograms or Cold Fact by Rodriguez, this is an album of sincere folk songs colored with subtle psychedelic touches. Uneasy reverberations and soft echoes glide over Holmberg's breezy songs, creating a consistent sonic environment as spontaneous as it is intriguing. Available on vinyl for the first time since an incredibly limited original pressing in 1969 on ESP-Disk."

"On the cover: AR Kane. Overlooked in their late '80s Mk 1 era and unsung for years after their 1994 split, the duo of Alex Ayuli and Rudy Tambala heralded many landmark developments in '90s music: most famously dreampop, shoegaze and post-rock. Through their embrace of dub, soul and club-forward forms they also impacted the development of trip hop, ambient dub and even, obliquely, house music's explosion into the charts. With last year's release of the AR Kive box set and a return to live activity, they talk to early supporter Simon Reynolds about what to expect next. Inside the issue: Yatta, Sun Yizhou, Cuntroaches. Invisible Jukebox: Sun Araw."

2024 restock. 12th volume in the BYG Actuel series; 180 gram vinyl. "Super-session recorded in Paris on August 17, 1969. Alan Silva collected here many of the top free jazz players of the time, an incredible 11-piece ensemble featuring, among others, Grachan Moncur III, Archie Shepp, Anthony Braxton, Dave Burrell, Leroy Jenkins, and Malachi Favors. As a result, this is a very free record and a historical document of Pan-African high art music. Two tracks."

"Fifty years after I first encountered the music of Orchid Spangiafora, it is a pleasure to be listening to new work by this most bonny of modern sound manipulators. Like Flee Pasts Ape Elf (FTR 096LP), which we reissued in expanded form in 2013, Eel Asp Flays Feet (the title of which is an anagram of the earlier set) is an assemblage of immaculate invention. It manages to produce a unique splotch of confusing analog surrealism in an increasingly digital world, and Robert Carey (aka Orchid himself) deigned to provide these notes on creating the music: 'This album is a combination of some new material and ideas and some older stuff that had not found its way into a tangible (non-online) form.' 'Syllabus,' 'Dyad,' and 'Retroscope' were an attempt to return to an older style of electronic music. I put these on bandcamp, but they did not attract much attention. In mid-2021 David Greenberger provided me with the voice recordings he had made for the 'Everybody's Home' project he did with Tyson Rogers. He asked if there was something I could do with them. I put together 'Holding Pattern' and 'In A Fog.' These two pieces might be considered the 'dub version' of 'Everybody's Home.' I put them on bandcamp as 'Nobody's Home.' The rest were originally made up of typical Orchid snippets. When I first took an electronic music course in 1972 one of the things that struck me about tape loops was how readily they produced interesting rhythms. Since then I got more into selecting them for the rhythm, but rather than repeating I tried to convey it in a single shot followed by slightly modified versions. In a number of these pieces I tried returning to actually repeating phrases enough to hear the natural rhythm of each loop. The mechanical sounds combined with vocal loops in, for example, 'Interlude One,' probably were influenced by the collaboration with Seymour Glass on Cous Cous Bizarre. The rapid streams of syllables in the 'Ur Sonata' came from playing around with an audio batch processing program. I used it to cut up regular loops into very short bits and string them together. Then, as with most electronic or 'tape' music, the real work consisted of removing the parts that didn't belong. The title comes from Kurt Schwitters because I felt the piece shared some of the same motivation or aesthetic, although the implementation is not at all alike.' Well, those are the component parts, but to truly grasp the whole, you must hold your brain tight and jump right in. There is just nothing like an Orchid Spangiafora album. Tell your friends." --Byron Coley, 2024

Edition of 300 copies. Gold foil printed sleeve. Includes 12-page booklet and two leporello inserts printed on translucent paper. On the centenary of the birth of Luigi Nono, the Maurice Quartet -- Georgia Privitera (violin), Laura Bertolino (violin), Francesco Vernero (viola), and Aline Privitera (cello) -- reinterprets the composition for string quartet by the Venetian composer: Fragmente: Stille, An Diotima, dedicated to LaSalle Quartet on the occasion of the thirtieth Beethovenfest in Bonn, in 1980. The driving force of inspiration must have been Beethoven, understood as a radical innovator of the conventions of his time. This same definition was attributed to Nono after composing this work, so much so that the critics of the time spoke of the "turning point work." An extreme chamber music work, at the same time private and political, which Nono himself summarized as follows: "I have not changed at all. Even tenderness, the private has its collective, political side. Therefore my String Quartet is not the expression of a new retrospective line in me, but rather my current position of experimentation: I want the great, rebellious affirmation with the minimum means." The edition includes a set of evocative photographs of the Giudecca in Venice -- which follow the aesthetics of the fragment -- realized by Sophie-Anne Herin and a precious musicological contribution by Francesca Scigliuzzo. The Maurice Quartet -- active for more than twenty years in the field of experimentation between contemporary music, electronics and multimedia -- joins the numerous homages that the world of music pays to Nono one hundred years after his birth with a recording work of great philological and interpretative relevance, aimed at capturing the most intimate and feverish side of one of the most significant composers of the last century.

Double LP version. Synth pop trio Bronski Beat's 1984 debut The Age of Consent is a rarity in musical history -- an album that both defined a generation and challenged the status quo. Its four singles, and particular lead single "Smalltown Boy," have endured with astonishing resonance, offering home to all listeners dreaming of escape from their familiar surroundings and situations. Every track on the album places the listener "in the room:" they are in it, living it, rolling inside each song's thematic meaning. Through the blue-eyed wonder of singer Jimmy Somerville's vocal pirouettes, they too take the punch of hate in "Why?," question the bible with alongside a male voice choir on "It Ain't Necessarily So," and watch the same crappy TV advertising on "Junk." They are part of the trade-off between lust and commerce in "Love and Money" and the heated near climax of "Need A Man Blues." 40 years later and The Age of Consent remains as prescient and vital as ever as it did on its original release; truly transgressive -- defiant, queer, and laden with hooks. To celebrate this important anniversary, London Records revisit the album across a series of expanded formats, uncovering sonic archival gems, new mixes, essays and more. Includes 24-page booklet featuring rare and unseen photos, and essays by: Tom Rasmussen, Lesley Chow, Lucy Robinson, and Barnaby Ashton-Bullock. Also available as 4CD/DVD (LMS 1725202) and 2LP (LMS 1725203).

Formed in Cambridge in 1969 by Tim Souster and Roger Smalley, Intermodulation started out as a four-piece group with the addition of Robin Thompson and Andrew Powell (who soon moved on to other Cambridge projects, including a pre-Chris Cutler Henry Cow). Powell was replaced by Peter Britton, and this incarnation of the group remained for the duration of their existence. Having released a box set of works by Gentle Fire, it felt necessary to do the same with Intermodulation and thus complete the other half of this missing chapter in British experimental music. Intermodulation had quite a different line up than Gentle Fire, most notably with Peter's percussion, Robin on bassoon and soprano sax, and the shared use of VCS3's and electric keyboards. Nonetheless both groups covered similar ground, appeared at the same European festivals, travelled together with Stockhausen to Iran, and they were generally concerned with a similar repertoire of experimental scores. Although Intermodulation released no records during their existence (and Gentle Fire only the one LP), both groups did appear side by side on the recording of Stockhausen's Sternklang. This four-CD set aims to cover a wide range of their work. CD one contains the entirety of their 1971 concert at Ely Cathedral (a six-minute excerpt of which appeared on the Not Necessarily English Music compiled by David Toop). CD two focuses on their BBC recordings including excerpts from two Prom performances, one of which is the famous 1970 Prom which had Soft Machine taking the stage in the second half. CD three features material held in the archives of three German radio stations and the fourth disc consists of one work; "World Music" by Tim Souster, the 72-minute opus written for the four players plus tape. In summary, Intermodulation plays five Stockhausen pieces (four of which are realizations of his intuitive text pieces), two Terry Riley pieces and one by Cardew. They also play two compositions by Tim and one by Roger, as well performing two group improvisations. The set comes with a 48-page booklet detailing the groups history. This is a numbered edition of 500.

LP version. Blue color vinyl. One of the most iconic albums to hail from Merseyside. H.M.S. Fable was the third LP released from Shack following 1988's Zilch and 1995's Waterpistol. A collection of majestic storytelling in guitar form, written by two extraordinarily talented brothers, Michael and John Head. Originally released on Laurel Records/London Records in 1999, the band at that time comprised of Michael Head, John Head, Ren Parry, and Iain Templeton. Now released on the band's newly-formed label Shack Songs, H.M.S. Fable encompasses many musical styles, from orchestral guitar pop to psychedelic-tinged folk and even elements of Britpop. The Shack story is one of music's greatest legends. It incorporates hardship, bereavement and chaotic misadventure, but above all it tells the tale of beautiful music triumphing over trouble and tragedy. In the '80s, the two brothers from the notorious Kensington estate in north Liverpool were singer and guitarist with The Pale Fountains, an effervescent pop group which imploded under the weight of two albums in 1986. The Heads returned in '88 as Shack and a debut album Zilch. In 1991, Shack made Waterpistol, an inspirational guitar jewel that would have proved just as influential as any British album in that era had the studio not burned down, taking the master tapes with it. Four more years passed, but by the time it was finally released on Marina it had developed "lost classic" status. The Heads battled on. They toured as their hero Arthur Lee (RIP) of Love's backing band. In '97, they created a new group called The Strands and recorded the delicate, dreamy masterpiece "The Magical World Of The Strands."

Double LP version. In April 2023, the first part of the Fluxus edition called Stolen Symphony was released. Now, in 2024, there is the second part, called Keep Together. At the center of this edition was a broken piano, acquired by the Opening Performance Orchestra for the purpose of making live and studio recordings. During this time other new works for this broken piano were written by diverse Fluxus and non-Fluxus composers. In the spring of 2022, the Opening Performance Orchestra and the broken piano participated in an event hosted by Mieko Shiomi. This was a new version of her early work Spatial Poem, documentation of which was presented at the 2022 Aichi Triennale in Tokyo. At present, the broken piano lies in the open air in Prague and is subject to gradual decay. This edition contains new and old pieces, live and studio recordings, finished pieces and scores to be performed, solos and pieces for ensemble, using classical and special instruments from 33 Fluxus artists, which have been played by ten soloists and four ensembles. There are new essays and articles from 15 writers on the theme Fluxus, as well as original photos and other documentation in the booklets. The Belgian label Sub Rosa provided technical support and a good place for the grand-scale release. The audio restauration and mastering were done by Gabriel Séverin at Laboratoire central, Brussels, and Kakaxa, 3bees, Prague. Archivio Conz in Berlin provided access to their extensive archives and Edizioni Conz provided co-production. Ursula and René Block made possible the realization of John Cage's historical composition "Mozart Mix" from the Edition Block archive. The photographic material comes from Marie Knízáková and Milan Knízák's private archive, the German photographer Wolfgang Träger, Archivio Conz's Fluxus archive, the private archives from diverse Fluxus artists and Opening Performance Orchestra's digital archive. Milan Knízák, Henning Christiansen, La Monte Young, Philip Corner, Bengt af Klintberg, George Maciunas, Takako Saito, Toshi Ichiyanagi, John Cage, Geoffrey Hendricks, Nam June Paik, Sara Miyamoto, Ken Friedman, Yoko Ono, Josef Anton Riedl, Giancarlo Cardini, Ay-O, and George Brecht.

The first ever publication of the original soundtrack composed by Alain Pierre for the Belgian cult film Vase de noces, directed by Thierry Zeno in 1974. Limited edition of 400 copies with screen-printed sleeve. Vase de Noces wasn't released in Belgium. The only distribution Thierry's films might have accessed here was the "Swedish distribution," a code for distribution around adult movie theaters. Films by major directors such as Bergman or Polanski were released this way. In memory of Alain Pierre (1948-2024).

"Vase de noces was made with very little money. Thierry used 16mm reversal film, utilizing the ends of reels he obtained from friends who worked as TV cameramen. Similarly, I salvaged magnetic tape from my workplace, the Équipe sound studio. Film professionals looked down on him because he filmed everything on his own, without relying on technicians. The remarks became even more disparaging when they saw the quality of the result. Thierry shot this film gradually, just getting by, progressing intermittently, but he had a precise idea and memory of the framing and sequences. He really did a great job, as if he had the entire edit in mind from the start. The first shot had to be the right one. He showed me the film sequence by sequence when the editing was over. This was how he worked, and that's why it took him so long getting the right splices, the right light, etc. Thierry handled the framing and the lighting himself. His black-and-white work is unique; he operated within constraints, which is how creativity often flourishes. Thierry had a story in mind, and in the end, he achieved exactly what he wanted. The performance of actor Dominique Garny, for instance, and his aptitude -- it helped a lot. They spent hours together in the cold, in the mud. As the shooting progressed, I suggested samples of sounds obtained from my machine. This was what he wanted: bottle sounds. There isn't a single direct sound in the film -- it's all dubbed. I never distinguished music from the rest of the soundtrack. The idea of a 'sound object' never left me, and I've always kept that direction in mind when composing. One day, Thierry stopped by while I was working on a documentary about Saint Augustine, for which I was using a tune by Monteverdi. He told me about a certain sequence from his film, and I had the feeling that this music would work wonderfully with that sequence if I slowed it down to the extreme, to the point that it would be unrecognizable. Very rudimentary special effects. I had manipulated music sung by castrati this way for O Sidarta (FKR 107LP), and he liked it. My suggestion was accepted." -- Alain Pierre

Music for Lovers is the new solo outing of multi-instrumentalist Samuel Rohrer (playing a combination of percussion, modular synthesizer and keyboard-based instruments on this recording). The album's title, which has been used for other albums in unrelated musical genres, might be deceiving: those who expect overly sentimental, fluffy pieces full of levity from start to finish, or sarcastic and cynical attempts at rejecting such "easy" listening, will be surprised by the emotional and tonal complexity on display here. In Rohrer's own words, it is dedicated to "those brave lovers, who are ready to not only find, but eventually become truth," and as such is an exploration of an evolving process rather than an idealized state.

"Jacob Long's fourth full-length for Kranky began as a notion to reimagine Earthen Sea as a 'piano trio,' inspired by a year-long immersion in the ECM label catalog, but the compositions soon grew more complex. Elements were chopped and resampled, then layered with bass, drums, percussion, and additional keys. The result is a fusion of live band acoustics and downtempo loops, sculpted into nine smoke-and-mirror dubs of fractured jazz, soft-focus noir, and trip-hop dust: Recollection. Like the title implies, Long's playing and production share a mood of pensive movement, shuffling and rippling like uncertain memories at strange hours. From looming fog ('Present Day,' 'Neon Ruins') and shadowy breaks ('Another Space,' 'Cloudy Vagueness') to rosy glows ('Clear Photograph') and smeared reverie ('White Sky'), Recollection deftly wields its palette of gradient color and subdued states of beauty. His is a music of reduction and reflection, kinetic but oblique, attuned to the silhouettes of sound."

"The Clean broke up (for the first time) in 1982. After a break, the Kilgour brothers pursued a new aesthetic and started recording on a four-track at home. Poking fun at their past, they called themselves The Great Unwashed. Clean Out Of Our Minds was made in two months at the beginning of 1983 and released on Flying Nun Records. The Kilgour's glorious pop hooks are still at the heart of everything but supplanted with a laid-back charm and maybe some of the spirit and mystery of '60s psychedelic folk. However, rather than hippie cosplay, the vibe is more akin to fellow New Zealanders The Tall Dwarfs and/or Syd Barrett. Beautifully remastered by Tex Houston. Vibrant 3D sound allows you to hear everything better than ever before. Housed in a Stoughton tip-on sleeve and available on vinyl for the first time in years. Don't miss out this time!"

Crawling Wind was released in 1981 on the Japanese Chaos International Series label and features the tracks "Toujours Plus à l'Est," "Before The Heat," and "Central Belgium In The Dark." This is the first vinyl reissue of this legendary EP. "Toujours Plus à l'Est," as the title suggests, is heavily influenced by the traditional music of Eastern Europe, particularly Bulgaria. It also pays tribute to the iconic catchphrase of Professor Calculus (Tournesol), the character from the Belgian comic series Tintin. "Before The Heat," played live a few times, is an ambient composition by Andy Kirk, who is part of the EP's lineup alongside Daniel Denis, Guy Segers, Alan Ward, and Dirk Descheemaeker. "Central Belgium in the Dark" is a live improvisation from a period when Univers Zéro dedicated part of their concerts to complete improvisation. What makes this recording unique is that one of Andy Kirk's effects pedals picked up and emitted the sound of a mysterious radio signal, seemingly coming from "nowhere," especially noticeable at the end of the piece. The title of this improv is a nod to contemporary composer Charles Ives' work "Central Park in the Dark." "Central Belgium" refers to the concert venue where the piece was recorded (Haine-St-Pierre). This EP was named one of the greatest Belgian albums of all time by MOFO magazine in February 2000, a rock magazine from the '80s. The original cover artwork has been beautifully redesigned by Thierry Moreau. Univers Zero represents one of the longest-living bands in Belgium. It was established in 1974. Drummer Daniel Denis had the brilliant idea to gather together a team of professionals sharing the same taste for music. The band has adopted an instrumental progressive style. Over the last couple of decades, the band has also implemented a series of influences from chamber music -- most commonly, chamber music from the 20th century. Even if the line-up changes a lot over the years, the overall sound of UZ remained fairly consistent.

LP version. On Beautiful Days is Winter Family's fourth album. It tells a lot of stories; that of the musicians themselves and their loved ones, those of their territories, of their life in Jerusalem, Paris, or Lorraine; that of women, "witches," conspiracy myths; that of capitalist and colonialist Europe; that of the blindness and violence of Israeli society and the indoctrination of its population; that of the occupation of Palestine; that of eternal lockdown and a laboratory rat; and maybe yours, too. The duo from Jerusalem and Lotharingia formed by Ruth Rosenthal and Xavier Klaine has been developing for around fifteen years a unique universe, to say the least, alternating synthetic punk sounds and dronic prayers of a society on the edge of the precipice. Nourished by metal and baroque music, multidisciplinary theater and African-American culture, they continue to trace a unique path by defending a radical discourse that is aware of its contradictions. They play across the world in clubs, galleries and churches, music that is minimal, dark, political and abrasive, between magic, chaos and melancholy. Winter Family also create documentary theatre performances produced by major European theaters. Sometimes their daughter Saralei plays with them. Listeners hear layers of pump organs and harmoniums, an old piano, distortions and celestial white noise, sirens -- the sound of marching boots -- breathing during sleep -- stun grenades at checkpoint 56 in Hebron recorded by Xavier, the flows of Saralei's flutes, beats played on an iPhone and Ruth's voice. Listeners dive into all these contemporary stories haunted by history, feeling of a leap into the void, a state of dissociation or a feeling of liberation.

Masonna, the brainchild of Yamazaki "Maso" Takushi, holds a revered place within the Japanoise scene alongside peers like Merzbow, Incapacitants, CCCC, Violent Onsen Geisha, and Hijokaidan. The project, named Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé, epitomizes the extreme end of the noise spectrum, intertwining cascades of electronic disarray with a distinct psychedelic touch and violent vocalizations. The new limited edition vinyl reissue of maso+onna=masonna, originally released on cassette by the Coquette label in 1989, breathes new life into this landmark recording, which has long been the subject of underground lore for its intense, almost mythical presence in the world of noise music. This reissue, limited to just 199 copies, captures Masonna at one of his most pivotal moments, offering two tracks that span roughly 20 minutes each. This format, with one piece per side, creates a compelling dynamic, allowing the listener to fully immerse themselves in the sprawling auditory landscapes that Masonna weaves. Side A delves into the tumultuous depths of distortion and feedback, showcasing the bracing intensity for which Masonna is famed. Here, Takushi's vocal manipulations become ferocious outbursts of sound, transformed through extreme distortion and delay into frantic bursts of static. The noise is relentless, taking the listener through a labyrinthine journey of high-pitched screeches, electronic burbles, and blues pulsations with disturbing whispers and hallucinating screams. Side B, in stark contrast, starts on a different trajectory. Opening with an incredible clutter of guitar and vocal, before the mayhem dissipates, buried under thick blankets of feedback and electronic distortion. This side is more organized yet still unrestrained, reminiscent of the controlled chaos in Steve Reich's minimalist compositions. The side's progression towards increasingly intricate and textured environments makes it a compelling counterpart to the more immediate assault of Side A. This album is not just an essential listen for seasoned aficionados of Japanoise but also for anyone beginning their journey into the world of extreme sonic art. Historically, maso+onna=masonna holds a monumental status, not just within Masonna's amazing catalogue but also within the broader genre of noise music. This vinyl reissue honors that legacy, offering a carefully remastered version that maintains the raw energy and emotional breadth of the original recordings. This limited-edition vinyl is a rare opportunity to experience Masonna's groundbreaking work in its full, remastered glory, and it is a must-have for any serious collector or enthusiast of noise music.

Solmania's limited-edition vinyl reissue of the Re-Rurr LP is a monumental work of avant-garde noise music that immerses listeners in a sonic experience unlike any other. Led by the visionary Masahiko Ohno, who founded Solmania in 1984, this reissue serves as a testament to the boundless creativity and technical brilliance that have established Solmania as a trailblazer in the Japanese music landscape. Ohno's unconventional approach to crafting electric guitars from spare parts has not only yielded unique instruments but has also paved the way for a musical journey that is as innovative as it is captivating. Originally released on cassette by Fatagaga Tapes in 1985, the two expansive tracks featured on this vinyl reissue invite listeners to embark on a transcendent voyage through experimental soundscapes and uncharted musical territories. Ohno's mastery of multi-neck guitars and harp guitars, with their unconventional body shapes and peculiar pickup placements, creates a sonic tapestry that is both haunting and sublime. Drawing inspiration from various musical genres such as progressive, punk, metal, noise, and drone music, Solmania's compositions not only defy conventional boundaries but also elevate the art of free improvisation to new and exhilarating heights. On side A of the album, listeners are taken on a mesmerizing voyage through a mystical landscape of shimmering chords and intricate melodies, each note resonating with a sense of ethereal beauty and enigmatic allure. As the music unfolds, Ohno's exceptional technical prowess and profound musical sensitivity reveal themselves, guiding the audience through a sonic journey that is not only introspective but also truly awe-inspiring. As the album transitions to side B, the exploration of free noise sculpting reaches new heights, plunging the listener into a realm of raw, unfiltered sound that challenges perception and sparks a spirit of adventurous exploration and discovery. Ohno's command of improvisation and experimentation takes center stage, as intricate layers of sound intertwine and collide in a cacophony of sonic innovation. Through the progression from side A to side B, the Re-Rurr LP reissue becomes a transformative sonic odyssey that not only challenges traditional notions of music but also invites listeners to embark on a deep and introspective journey of self-discovery. Whether you are a dedicated follower of Solmania or a newcomer to the world of experimental noise music, this vinyl reissue promises a transformative and enlightening experience that will leave a lasting impression on all who dare to immerse themselves in its captivating soundscape.

Artist, composer and producer James William Blades' score Pare De Sufrir is presented via AD 93. Pare De Sufrir (translating to 'End of Suffering') is the official soundtrack to A.G Rojas' film of the same title. Spanish-born, Southern California-raised filmmaker AG Rojas is known for creating videos and working with the likes of Jamie xx, Gil Scott Heron, Kamasi Washington, Spiritualized, and Mitski. Rojas' sensitive eye and subjectivity has brought him from the world of music videos to creating his first independent film: a 48-minute featurette following three people as they navigate the liminal space between life and the afterlife in an attempt to heal themselves and each other. Rojas reached out to Blades after coming across his score for Keeping Time (dir. Darol Olu Kae). An intimate and unusual process unfolded. Rojas explained to Blades the personal narrative of the film, the two sharing unfurling conversations on the nature of loss and the human spirit. But Blades did not watch the film and instead worked on instinct to build out a conception of how the score would unfold, shaping its operatic, textural and granular tone. Blades went on to record the score in full, with orchestra and choir, without going back to Rojas for feedback, aware that he was taking a complete risk. The score's pull is reflective of the process of grief itself, how its moods and memories oscillate up and down into the past and lost futures, Blades hitting all those spaces with diverse and stretching notes. The piano holds the memories of Blades and Rojas' grandmothers, who both had out-of-tune pianos sitting in an empty room. The Silogo-De-Oro choir sing throughout, reminiscent of the broken phonetics of grief, the build-up and release of tension and the inability to articulate complete sound or words. The harmony stabilizes and then becomes distant, taking the griever away from the lushness of life and into the realms of loss, death and dream-like realities, as mirrored in Rojas' layered vignettes. As the score closes, the harmonies become richer and fuller, marking a return to life. Understanding the power of sound to both respond to and drive narrative, Blades' score weaves together field recordings, half-remembered conversations, choral movements, string arrangements and electronic fragments into a nuanced and evocative whole.

Metal.wet is the new album from mercurial avant-pop shapeshifters Soft as Snow. Ten tracks of beat-driven synth-pop featuring analogue synths, samplers, live drums, and processed guitars, with Oda Starheim's evocative and layered vocals at the center of it all. Recorded in Berlin and Marseille, the album is an ambitious and atmospheric step forward for the duo, exploring themes of vulnerability and sensuality with a confident and uncanny approach to experimental pop production. Includes insert with lyrics. Mastered by Heba Kadry. "Whip" features London-based MC Brother May.

LP version. Roberto Laneri (Prima Materia) further radicalizes his formal research path in the field of harmonic singing, with a highly rigorous compositional practice of scores and rhythmic placement of overtones. At the dawn of Western counterpoint and the birth of polyphony, he imagines as in a dream the famous Magister Perotinus (XII century) in ecstatic contact with higher entities (Jedi Masters) who would introduce him to those secrets of the vocal art, further developed in later centuries. Among the mysteries of subtle acoustic phenomena such as resonance, phasing and interference, the criterion of harmonic convergence (i.e. the convergence of different fundamentals on common overtones) emerges as a powerful compositional tool. The strength of this music lies in the vibrational power of sound, in an expanded archetypal liturgy, where lights and shadows of ancient Gothic cathedrals infinitely amplify the imaginative transformation of the real, as in the vesica piscis-shaped crevice of Noura Tafeche's sensational cover.

Probably in another life David Edren (DSR Lines) was a visionary biologist or chemist. In this new sound adventure, he becomes the narrator of anatomical and cellular symphonies, catharsis of invisible biochemical processes, painting the micro-dimensional flows of the subtle body or imaginary geographies of hidden micro-bodies. Here, his organic electronic music is enriched with new lymphs that also vaguely recall the influences of non-European music, especially Chinese and Japanese music (stick and chimes percussions) in an intimate and twilight dimension, poised between exotic ambient and cinematic suggestions. A militaristic description of liquid currents, labyrinthine veins, weaving streams, molecules and particles in multi-orbital dances, muscular chords, drowning bubbles, light waves; all in a confident compositional overview that is absolutely unique and fascinating.

These recordings were made in Bombay in 1968 by Bengt Berger (Bitter Funeral Beer Band) during a stay with Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, who was primarily responsible for the revival of the Rudra Veena as a solo concert instrument. His home in the suburb of Chembur was at the time the magical haunt of a plethora of fantastic musicians, including Ritwik Sanyal and K. Sridhar, who took part in the session. In perfect and stern Duphrad vocal style, these two Raga lead listeners to different atmospheres and perceptions: "Malkauns" is the contemplative state of the evening, of the abandonment of the senses before the breaking of the silence in the night; "Miyan Ki Todi" is the first breath of the morning, the gentle awakening of the limbs before a puja. The two Dagar brothers, Mohiuddin on the Rudra and Fariduddin on the chant, complement each other, become ocean and fire, stillness and storm, in an intimate and tight dialogue of exploration and expressive subtlety, in which the purity of an Indian summer becomes the highest symbol of beauty and freedom of spirit. Originally released on CD by Country & Eastern.

Through the course of time, DSR Lines (David Edren) never loses his intimate and profound connection to the universe of modular synths. These recordings, made during 2014 in a residence at the Cem/Worm studio in Rotterdam, represent a further magical compendium of his Organic Electronic Music. In particular, here he draws from his expressive arsenal the cosmic and galactic potential of the Arp 2500, which happily floating throughout. A rigorous magician of vaporous, oscillating patterns, sidereal frequencies, nebulous dust; an explorer of inter-zonal paths, he unveils new dreamlike dimensions en-route to unfold planets. Between Kraut-Kosmische accelerations and a personal approach of gentle minimalism, he always forges rare atmospheres of rhythmic pulsation, full of enveloping, spherical and spiraling sounds, luminous and radiant in their hypnotic aura, or magnificently ecstatic and ascending. Originally released by Ultra Eczema.

2024 restock. Double LP version with printed inner sleeve. Born Bad Records presents the music of Cameroonian musician Francis Bebey, circa 1982-1984. "The first time I saw a sanza (a type of African 'thumb piano'), it was just sitting there on a piece of furniture in my family's living room/dining room -- a space that our father also transformed into a recording studio every day. It seemed more like a box than a musical instrument: a mysterious instrument, which arrived at our house, like many things, in a somewhat miraculous way. The sounds it produced seemed particularly bizarre; to my young musician's ears, trained in Western classical music, it sounded out of tune. That's because, like my brothers and sisters, I had been trained on the piano. I had trouble understanding how anyone could endure these tones and, honestly, our father's passion for 'unusual sounds' did not interest me. I was in secondary school at the time (the very late 1970s) and was not at all oriented toward musical projects. I planned to graduate, and then become a chef. In the early 1980s, my interest in music picked up. I was still undecided about my career. I was content to pursue my 'serious' English studies while hanging out at jazz clubs at les Halles in Paris, where I sometimes joined jam sessions. Next, I put together my first band with professional musicians; I had hidden my age and lack of experience from them. France was just beginning to accept 'world music.' Musicians of every nationality were performing in Paris. It was a wonderful period. My father asked my brother Toups and me to accompany him for a few concerts. In particular, we toured Tunisia together at the time of the 1983 Carthage International Festival. Back then, my father was renowned across the French-speaking world. Everyone looked forward to hearing his humorous songs, like 'Agatha' and 'La condition masculine.' But, behind the scenes, he continued his research concerning electronic music, the sansa, pygmy polyphony, etc. One day he put a sansa in my hands, without saying a word. He was sending me a message: 'Let's see what you can do with it!' That's when I really discovered something. Exploring the instrument and playing, I transcended the 'imperfect' aspect of its sound and began to discover its fascinating potential. Playing the sansa, you enter a world that enraptures you in a very serene and mesmerizing way. I think its sounds evoke a rainbow, with rain falling while the sun shines. A very peaceful feeling. It allows you to make music that truly sounds like life. The sansa is also the instrument that my father and I shared the most because I am a pianist and he was a guitarist. I also share this eminently African instrument with my musician brother, Toups. Our father loved to tell us one of the legends of the sansa: how it even managed to dispel the boredom felt by... the Creator himself! This instrument gives life to the world, to beings and things. I did not participate in the production of the various records that my father devoted to the sansa. He did it himself, you might say, in his 'laboratory.' Yet today, I cannot imagine playing a concert without using a sansa. The piano remains present so that listeners don't become disoriented and wonder about the weird sounds invading their ears! However, I find the eccentric and disturbing side of sansa interesting. And the sansa always affects the audience: in reality, it excites them. The secrets of this instrument are surely its beneficial powers and... its magic!" --Patrick Bebey