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LP
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MR 395LP
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$25.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 8/16/2019
Munster Records present a reissue of El Ritmo De Los Shain's, originally released in 1965. Talking about Los Shain's means talking about wild sounds and uncompromising garage rock. The repertoire of the Peruvian band is full of primitive screams, dirty fast guitars, tight drums, and Farfisa organ licks, an arsenal that made them one of the leading bands of the Peruvian '60s rock scene whose great influence spread over all Latin America. Although during the previous two years they had already released several singles that foreshadowed their enormous later impact, the first Shain's album came out in 1966, when they were still in their teens. In their beginnings they looked to bands such as The Beatles and The Shadows as reference artists, but soon they would begin to pay attention to other groups into harder sounds and genres like surf or even psychedelic garage. This turning point was driven mainly by two of their members: Pico Ego-Aguirre (guitar) and Gerardo Manuel (vocals). El Ritmo de Los Shain's is mainly, as it was common practice at the time, an album of covers: from the classic "Hang On Sloopy" to the wonderful "She's Not There" of The Zombies or the timeless "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" popularized by The Animals. The instrumentals alternate with songs with vocals, often just wild screams that could make us think of a sort of early version of The Cramps. "Shain's A Go Go" is pure garage madness and "The Monster" a straightforward tribute to bands like The Novas, while in "Vamos" the initial drum rolls make it impossible for the name of The Sonics not to come to mind. One can't help but wonder what those parties in '60s Peru were like... Presented in facsimile artwork and pressed on 180 gram vinyl.
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7"
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MR 7317EP
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$11.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 8/2/2019
"The group later known as Mars came together in late 1975 through a chance meeting of those involved . . . After a year of cooking up a sound, we played our first gig at CBGBs (under the short-lived name China) in January '77 with Sumner, China and I alternating on Silvertone guitars and bass through tube amps, and Nancy on drums . . . The first single (3E/11,000 Volts) was recorded and mixed by Jay Dee Daugherty under the impulse of Lenny Kaye for their label with Patti Smith, Mer..." --Mark Cunningham
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MR 7316EP
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$12.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 8/2/2019
Edinburgh four-piece The Valves were active between 1977 and 1979, playing live extensively and releasing a total of three singles. Straddling the line between high energy rock and roll and punk, their debut 7", Robot Love/For Adolfs' Only, was the first release on Bruce Findlay's Zoom Records and has become a classic of the late '70s Scottish scene, reissued here for the first time in a facsimile vinyl edition.
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LP+CD
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MR 387LP
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These previously unreleased live and studio sessions are a loose exercise in spontaneity, and sheer art, which has been lost in the mists of time. Geronimo Black, a truly underrated band from Los Angeles, had existed long before its self-titled debut album released officially by UNI Records in February 1972. Composer, arranger, keyboard player, and founding member Andy Cahan, who also part of Dr John's band at the time. Despite the fact that nearly all his players were part of the busy schedule of the evolving Frank Zappa's band Mothers Of Invention, Cahan attests that "it was a real band with every intention of getting a record deal. Of course, since Jimmy Carl Black, Ray Collins and Bunk Gardner were from Zappa's original band, that was a big selling point to record companies." Talking about the songs on Freak Out Phantasia release, which preceded the first official album, Andy mentions that The Beatles were his main influence. Also, he namechecks other luminaries such as The Zombies, Kinks, Loving Spoonful, Hendrix, Cream, Dave Clark Five, and The Beau Brummels. The live output found on this release is part of their non-stop gigging system. It's worth pointing out that around that time, they were playing gigs with The Eagles, Delaney & Bonnie, The Byrds, Eric Burdon, Joe Cocker, Ike & Tina Turner, The Standells, Canned Heat, Southwind, Taj Mahal, Little Feat, and many others. Some songs herein included were recorded in a prison. Even doing very well on their live adventures, in terms of breaking through in sales, Geronimo Black never had the same lucky destiny of many of their Californian contemporaries. Singing a record deal with Uni Records around Christmas time, they were essentially deemed a tax right-off and were billed thousands of dollars on no income. Back to the present, some highlights of Munster Records' compilation include "Topanga Canyon People" and "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" (both live recordings showing their total intensity and stoned freak-out atmosphere, recalling Zappa's sound, which obviously they were part of). "Let Us Live" is a superb song, with a bluesy-pop-twisted Southern rock vibe. An alternate version of "Siesta" is another key song, and in some ways resembles "Flute Thing", a classic instrumental by The Blues Project. Now it is time to enjoy these recordings because they "reveal the raw passion and excitement we had on stage", as Andy concludes. Includes CD with four bonus tracks.
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2LP
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MR 393LP
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"The Tomcats' story begins in Ealing, West London, where Tom Newman (vocals, guitar), Peter Cook (lead guitar), Alan James (bass), and Chris Jackson (drums) first began playing together as The Dreamers. When Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies opened the Ealing Club in 1962, it became a magnet for young blues enthusiasts, many of whom would go on to form their own R&B groups, including The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, and Manfred Mann. Evenings spent at the Ealing Club had a similar effect on members of The Dreamers, who soon afterwards retooled their repertoire and rebranded as The Tomcats. Another Ealing-based group, The Second Thoughts, were thinking along the same lines . . . It was inevitable that their stories would eventually entwine. In 1964 The Second Thoughts recorded some demos at a studio in Rickmansworth. However, the band parted company shortly afterwards when three of the members (Tony Duhig, Mickey Holmes, and John 'Speedy' Keen) headed for Spain to accompany the French nightclub singer Teddy Ray. When they returned to England a few months later, they immediately set about putting a new band . . . Meanwhile, The Tomcats had also broken up, so it was only natural that the remnants of the two bands join forces. Initially called The Thoughts, the new group featured Tom Newman, Tony Duhig, Mickey Holmes, Jon Field, and Speedy Keen. Soon afterwards Speedy was replaced by original Tomcats drummer Chris Jackson, at which point they decided to readopt the Tomcats name . . . Philips signed the band, which resulted in the release of four EPs in 1965 and 1966. While the majority of the songs were remakes of recent hits, The Tomcats deliver them with enough guts and gusto to make them more than worthwhile. The group also chose to cover a few Spanish numbers, most notably 'A Tu Vera', a song best known by the iconic singer, dancer and movie actress Lola Flores. The Tomcats transformed the dramatic flamenco torch song into a wild, fuzz guitar-spattered rocker. They also recorded the title song to one of her movies, 'Ay Pena, Penita, Pena', updated with a throbbing bass line, thumping jungle drums and a stinging fuzz guitar solo. A small handful of original numbers were also scattered across the four EPs, including the moody ballad 'Running At Shadows', 'It Ain't Right', and the Mersey-style 'Don't Ask For Me'. While in Spain, The Tomcats were cast in a comedy film, Operación secretaria, performing the thrilling punk R&B number 'Two Minds In Tune'. That song makes its first appearance on vinyl here, along with a fine version of Reverend Gary Davis's 'Cocaine' and a rowdy original number, 'Don't Let It Go'." --Mike Stax
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2LP
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MR 389LP
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Special 50th anniversary reissue of Pau Riba's first album in its intended double-LP format in gatefold sleeve with 12-page booklet featuring lyrics in Catalan and Spanish. Released as two separate records in 1969 and 1970, Riba was just 20-21 years old when he created this expansive and outstanding work of psychedelic folk-rock accompanied by the band Om and members of Música Dispersa. The beginning of the unique career of this essential figure of Catalan music and counterculture. Presented in facsimile artwork and pressed on 180 gram vinyl.
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7"
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MR 7315EP
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The Loons keep growing, learning, creating, evolving but never compromising. Their latest 7" presents three new and diverse creations: "A Dream In Jade Green" is an intense, high-energy psychedelic number; two parts hallucination, one part seduction. "Memories Have Faces" is a primal, percussive, jungle workout with wailing steel guitar and Yardmerizing harmonica, while "Don't Make Me Wait" is a straight-ahead, hip-shaking '60s beat number. Formed in San Diego more than 20 years ago, The Loons have recorded and released four albums.
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2LP+CD
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MR 390LP
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OFFICIAL RSD 2019 release. If one is aware of high prices on online music sites or is a part of any worldwide record collectors' circles, albums from groups such as Ithaca and Agincourt might sound familiar. Producers, composers, singers and multi-instrumentalists Peter Howell and John Ferdinando are two English musicians who started their partnership in the mid-1960s. From 1968, with the release of their soundtrack for the play Alice Through The Looking Glass, until the release of a project called Friends in 1974, they put together a total of five albums, Ithaca (1973) and Agincourt (1970) being the two most expensive and collectable of all of them. Incredibly rare and highly sought-after for years, the records contained a magical world brimming with folk music, soft psychedelia, psych-pop and progressive overtones; their music is absolutely exquisite and truly unique. It is predominantly folk, but very far from its traditional format. The longer one listens to their legacy, the longer one is going to find peculiar elements of classical gestures plus many flourishes of soft psychedelia, idiosyncratic progressive overtones, acid-folk and a taste that one is always entering the enchanting toy world of psych-pop. It does make total sense that the word "cult" is frequently applied to describe their creations. On Ithaca, Agincourt And Other Psych-Folk Fairy Tales (a 21 track double LP accompanied by a 19 track CD of totally distinct material), one also has the chance to read their own words. Both of them were interviewed for the liner notes, where they reveal their secret influences and their simple but unexpected ways of creating and composing. Be subtle, be daring, and be immersed in the magic world of Peter Howell and John Ferdinando.
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7"
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MR 7313EP
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The Rockets were natives of London's Ladbroke Grove, and precursors of UK punk rock heroes Warsaw Pakt. They played high-energy rhythm & blues with hard-boiled street-smart lyrics delivered quick and cool against super-charged Chuck Berry guitar licks. "Two of the best tracks are presented here for the first time: the tough, cocksure rocker 'Even Money' and the explosive, Who-influenced 'Steppin' Outa Line'. While The Rockets were still rooted in rhythm & blues, their revved-up approach signaled the changes that were already taking place in the streets around them." --Mike Stax
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MR 7312EP
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"The Conspiracy hailed from Mount Pleasant, a college town in the center of Michigan. Originally formed as The Allusions, they became Nino & The Nomads before changing their name to The Conspiracy in 1966 . . . "Dream World" and "With You" were recorded at a studio in Grand Rapids and the session turned out exceptionally well. "Dream World" has a soulful lead vocal, an insistent fuzz guitar line, waves of Hammond organ, a catchy, harmonized chorus, and an insistent dance groove." --Mike Stax
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MR 7314EP
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After reissuing his 1972 psych folk/baroque pop masterpiece Years (MR 379/379-2LP) and 1992's power pop gem 12 In A Room (MR 374LP), Munster continues its collaboration with Marc Jonson with this 7" featuring two new tracks. Recorded in Cantabria, Spain with the backing of local three-piece band Compañía de Sueños Ilimitada, this is further proof of Jonson's gift for writing wonderful pop music. He talks about the new songs: "'My Girlfriend (Doesn't Like The Ramones)' and 'I Don't Wanna Go To School Today' preserve how I started out loving music with a pure teenage angst and simple melodic sensibility."
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LP+CD
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MR 388LP
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Although their official output was very limited, The Belairs were one of the key bands in the birth of surf music. They spawned an influential musical legacy, paved the way for many other surf bands and their members went on to other famous outfits such as The Standells, Eddie & The Showmen, and The Challengers. Mr Moto: The Origins of Surf Music 1960-1963 gathers their 1961 hit "Mr Moto" and other studio and home recordings. The story of The Belairs started in 1959 in South Bay, Los Angeles. The first line-up consisted of Eddie Bertrand (guitar), Paul Johnson (guitar), Chas Stuart (saxophone), Richard Delvy (drums), and Jim Roberts (piano). Surf music was in its infancy as instrumental music fusing early rock with Middle Eastern, Mexican and Hawaiian touches. Playing fast, melodic scales and dealing with the use of reverb, it was a truly innovative sound. Dick Dale, The Ventures, and Duane Eddy hit the venues and airwaves. In this context, Bertrand and Johnson honed their trademark dual-guitar sound. Creating a unique sound to make their strings reverberate, the band signed with the Arvee label, which released Mr Moto in 1961, a surf-rock song with a flamenco-inspired intro. Their sound didn't have -- at least during this first phase -- a bass player. The bass-less structure worked in their favor, giving a special character to all the guitar nuances. Their short and successful career (not in terms of sales but in opening doors for other surf groups) was destined to produce only one more official single, with a different line-up. Their second single, Volcanic Action/Runaway (included here), was not even officially released. The band had some line-up changes, including adding a bass player, Steve Lotto, and new members like drummer Dickie Dodd and guitarist Art Fisher. This collection also includes four tracks recorded while The Belairs were without a record label. Songs like the propulsive "Chiflado", the danceable rock and roll "Duck Waddle", the swinging, jazzy "The Shimmy", and the hypnotic "Squad Car" prove the quality of the band's repertoire. In 1963, the instrumental fever gave its way to the explosion of the vocal surf music and success of the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, and popsters such as Frankie Avalon and Fabian mixing the surf aura with a more pop approach. Curiously, Johnson was invited to join The Beach Boys, but he declined the offer, staying firm in his convictions. Includes CD with 12 bonus tracks.
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MR 383LP
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Fernando Márquez (aka El Zurdo) (of Kaka de Luxe, Paraíso and La Mode fame) has described Charlie Mysterio as a worthy representative of the "third route", a grey and special land also inhabited, according to Márquez, by other Spanish artists such as Vainica Doble or Solera, characterized by musical coordinates halfway between the elevated, the sublime and accessible pop, maybe both things at the same time. (Charlie) Mysterio is a project in constant transformation which looks for beauty in imperfection, unbridled effervescence, honest stimulation, and with all that he creates songs in the old-fashioned way, with catchy choruses and vocal harmonies but also testing the surprise threshold of the listener. He's a singer-songwriter with a fuzz pedal and a Roland TR-606 as travel companions on this journey, which could be another one tomorrow and will probably change again on the stage. In a career spanning several decades, Charlie Mysterio has never ceased writing beautiful and timeless songs spread among a large discography on labels such as Spicnic, Walden, Elefante He has recorded with Kikí d'Akí, Papaya, and Márquez, among others, and his work has always received the support of Juan de Pablos, becoming a fixture on his national radio show Flor de Pasión. Mysterio's new album opens a new musical door for him compared to Los Caramelos, his main project over the years. This time he delivers an eponymous album bursting with anthem-like eternal melodies, songs that would reach the top of the pop charts in an ideal imagined world. At times one can imagine a hypothetical collaboration between Suicide and The Beach Boys with Giorgio Moroder producing, but there are also moments that go beyond any possible comparison where Mysterio plays with the listener using his own language. Includes CD.
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MR 386LP
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Songbook #7 is the new volume of Mattin's Songbook series, one of the most interesting works in the current experimental, improv and noise field. Songbook #7 features Farahnaz Hatam, Colin Hacklander, Lucio Capece, Moor Mother, Cathleen Schuster, and Marcel Dickhage and was recorded in November 2017 at Digging the Global South Festival in Cologne, while Europe was (still is) slowly going down. Layers of avant-garde tradition culminate into a set of songs that go beyond themselves. In times of increasing desperation emerges a strange record: a disintegrated manifesto exploring the truth of disagreement. Exactly 100 years ago Europe was really crumbling. However, there was a proposition for a collective future in process. This songbook takes two moments as historical inspiration in order to rethink the present: The first seven months of 1917 in revolutionary Russia, and the figure of Germaine Berton (pictured on the cover), the anarchist who in 1923 was accused of murdering Marius Plateau, director of the far-right organization French Action League. In a time of war and fascism, those were two very different answers: a collective attempt at social transformation and a desperate lonely gesture. Neither response really managed to succeed to overthrow capitalism but they had a motivation and a clear way to act, something that seems to be lacking right now. If previous songbooks dealt with the tension between improvisation and song structure, between an emphasis on the production of the moment and having a conceptual framework, here the tension is produced by conflating the present with the past, and in doing so the tension between communism and anarchism is also explored. Songbook #7 digs into some of the most important issues today: dissolution and disappointment of the social fabric, the rise of fascism, lack of coherence in a collective vision for the future, and the shortcomings of democracy in a capitalist system. If one wants some musical references you can imagine one of those collaborations between Red Crayola and Art And Language if it was produced by Roberta Settels, or if Rabit was asked to do a remix of Nono's La Fabbrica Illuminata, taking into account the Altoforno di Cornigliano factory's demolition in 2005. This great line-up tries to think the present through the lenses of radical historical moments and in doing so it achieves music both arcane and futuristic.
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LP+CD
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MR 384LP
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Los Jets were one of the most important bands in the emergence of rock and roll in Argentina, and were also pioneers in fusion, recording Argentine and Latin American folk songs with a rock beat. The group was formed in mid-1961 and started out with four members: Héctor Ziblat (bass), Jorge "Jackie" Álvarez (vocals), Guillermo Fuertes (guitar, vocals), and Héctor "Memmo" Campione (drums). After a few months, Martin "Chivo" Echemendi, an excellent drummer who played alongside Memmo, joined, creating the first group in Argentina with two drummers. In September 1962, the line-up of Los Jets changed again, adding a new lead vocalist, Jorge Omar Vidal. Their first LP, La Pecosita, was released in 1963; the title track was the group's first hit. The group's second LP, Twist Y Gritos was released at the height of their success, in mid-1964. This album contained three versions of Beatles songs: "Ámame" ("Love Me Do"), "Quiero tener tu mano" ("I Want To Hold Your Hand") and "Twist y gritos" ("Twist And Shout"). It also included the band's biggest hit, "Lana" and "Shuripep", a song composed by Los Jets when that still wasn't common practice. Although some describe them as one of the first bands to "imitate" The Beatles, the truth is that Los Jets were part of that period that anticipated the famous "British Invasion". After The Beatles conquered the United States in February 1964, Los Jets' label commissioned them to record three Beatles songs in Spanish, anticipating the release of the original tracks. This meant that Los Jets became the first band to perform The Beatles' music in Argentina (and possibly in South America). Recognizing that The Beatles were to change the pop landscape radically, Los Jets tried to evolve with the times and their third album changed direction in terms of quality of execution and production. Regrettably, it wasn't released; shortly after recording the master tape was erased. According to members of the band and their friends, this was how the group's most powerful recording disappeared. In these lost recordings there was a new band member, the guitarist Óscar Islas, former member of Los Ciclones. Later, in May 1965, Vidal left the group and Óscar joined permanently, while Guillermo became the lead vocalist until Los Jets disbanded in February 1966. Leccion De Twist gathers tracks from their two LPs, singles and their only surviving live recording, recorded in January, 1966. Includes CD with 15 bonus tracks.
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LP+CD
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MR 381LP
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Breve Encuentro is the new Kikí d'Akí album, nine years after No Mires Atrás (2009). This awaited comeback developed over several parties and tribute shows in the last few years where María José (Jose) Serrano and Sergio López de Haro were invited to take part. The songs included here belong to different periods and authors, but they are all akin to Jose and Sergio's spirit. They see themselves reflected in them and have tried to give something back in this encounter. Almost unintentionally, these songs asked to take shape together. In order to achieve it, Jose and Sergio chose a succinct format of just vocal and guitar, plus the occasional contribution of a few friends on vocals. For the production and mastering they enrolled Ramón Leal, who captured the intimate and straightforward sound they were after. The result is eleven close and captivating performances of titles from the repertoire of Vainica Doble, Bernardo Bonezzi, Fórmula V, Carlos Berlanga, Françoise Hardy, France Gall and Charlie Mysterio. These eleven close and captivating performances form the return of one of the most personal voices of Spanish pop music, absent for too long in the form of fleeting songs and characters, like glances on a train platform, which arrived to stay. Includes CD.
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MR 380LP
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The Stars Are Ours is the debut album of Spanish band Voolva, featuring the first-ever rock opera in outer space. It follows the adventures of a beautiful and harebrained couple on their unplanned quest to unwittingly save the cosmos. The varied styles render a tiled patchwork that defies categorization, where echoes of pop, rock, punk, reggae, funk and electronica can be heard among a wide array of influences, from Frank Zappa to The Kinks and nods to Hiroshi Sato, Jean-Jacques Perrey, King Crimson, and Oskar Sala. The Stars Are Ours is boldly recorded in retro stereophonic sound. Written as a stage musical, the album narrates the (moderately) epic voyage of Linda and Toto, a young, gorgeous, and flighty couple who, after an unfortunate - albeit predictable - stunt at the casino, find themselves abducted by an alien spaceship. Overly hormonal by all galactic standards, the earthlings will undergo zero-gravity surgery, visit alien taverns of ill repute, fight menacing yet snazzy robots, and get VIP tickets aboard the planet-starcraft Absurdia. Aided by a cohort of singing and dancing extraterrestrial sidekicks, our confused heroes will inadvertently save the cosmos from a villainous overlord that just barely refrains from stroking Angora cats, avoiding cliché by the skin of his teeth. Leader Rafael Merino is a Spanish musician currently settled in Paris. He has also lived in New York, Boston and London, all places where his lawyers firmly declare that he has no outstanding warrants. Previously a member of such bands as Orgasmical, Motherglue, and Payola Victims, he's been a well-known character - especially to debt collectors -in Madrid's underground music scene for over 20 years. Voolva reunites some of the finest musicians in Spain today, as well as notorious international guest stars such as Theremin master Dorit Chrysler and Thomas Suire (from the French combo Infecticide). This oddball project has also aroused the interest of other luminaries like Tim Blake (Gong, Crystal Machine), who provided hospitality and advice, and world-class science-fiction illustrator Chris Moore, who generously provides the brilliant artwork. The album has been awarded the first prize at the "Festival des Idées" of the Sorbonne University in Paris. Download includes 101-page script.
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MR 385LP
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Los Angeles' late 1970s punk rock didn't enjoy the same recognition as the New York and London scenes, and many great LA bands couldn't sniff out major label deals. The Gears' 1980 album Rockin' At Ground Zero was one of the very best of the new DIY punk rock indie releases. With powerhouse vocalist Axxel G Reese, the high impact guitar of Kidd Spike, bassist Brian Redz and the late, great Dave Drive on drums, The Gears roared out hard hitting, irresistible songs with a driving energy wrenched from the gut of Los Angeles. Influenced equally by the Sex Pistols and the old school rock & roll they grew up with, The Gears' peerless songs are fraught with classic themes -- adolescent anxiety ("Teenage Brain"), restlessness ("Keep Movin'"), desperate romance ("Baby Runaround," "High School Girls") and defiantly rockin' through the end of the world ("The Last Chord" and "Rockin' At Ground Zero"). This record captures one of the most underrated, highest quality groups of the era -- a solid, classic set of pure Los Angeles punk & roll.
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7"
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MR 7309EP
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Formed in Auckland in 1962, The Blue Stars only managed to release three singles but their 1966 track "Social End Product" has since become one of the holy grail records out of New Zealand. Its snarling vocals, fuzzy guitars, pounding rhythm and defiant attitude have made it legendary among freakbeat and 60s punk fans. It's backed on our reissue with the raucous "I Can Take It," another scorching freakbeat nugget.
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MR 7311EP
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Munster Records present a facsimile reissue of Let's Go To The Beach, the debut 7" by legendary Los Angeles punk rockers The Gears, originally released in 1979. While The Gears embraced the fast and loud part of punk, they also added 1950s rock 'n' roll, surf music and garage into the mix, which made their sound a killer blend of punk speed and fury tempered with greaser cool and swagger.
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7"
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MR 7310EP
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Munster Records present a reissue of El Ritmo Del Go Go/El Grito De Los King, the only single by Delai Alamos con Los King Stay. Originally released in 1965 on Discos MAG, around the same time as the first recordings by Los Saicos and Los Shain's, this EP is proof that teenage rock'n'roll energy was sky high in mid-1960s Peru. The ability on these two tracks wouldn't get these guys any music school, but it makes them utterly brilliant in a wave of ramshackle rhythms, a singer that shifts between Elvis-like moments and wild screams, and sloppy surf guitars.
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MR 379-2LP
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Munster Records present a reissue of Marc Jonson's Years, originally released in 1972. 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.
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LP+CD
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MR 374LP
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Munster Records present a reissue of Marc Jonson's 12 In A Room, originally released in 1992. Self-recorded and produced, Marc Jonson's second album came out in 1992, two decades after his debut, the psych folk/baroque pop masterpiece Years (MR 379LP). 12 In A Room was another brilliant display of his gift for beautiful pop music, now available on vinyl for the first time. Includes CD.
"... 'A melody comes into my head 'da-da-dah-da, show me some mer-cy' and I start thinking is that some Motown song from the Sixties? And I go uh-oh, no it isn't, it's mine. I gotta write it down.' So he runs into a candy store and buys a Bic pen and a pad. And then he goes up there to his room, the timeless teen-space where everything stops, where he does his dreaming and his scheming, laughs at yesterday and puts it on tape. From the ELOish opener to the cosmic 'Love Radiates Around', from the Bardo-haunted love ballads to the drowning 'Larry Stein', from the dire conditions of "Cold Weather" to the dire straits of 'Desperate', all the songs on this album were written, recorded and produced in that little 11x14 foot room high above Cornelia Street on a four-track TEAC. It's a little like making your own movie and playing all the parts. Clouds go by -- no clock ticking --night comes down -- guitars strumming -- pulse of the street -- drums smack -- reverb -- mix down to two track -- crash 'till late afternoon -- call up to play it over the phone -- can you hear the words? I'm hungry -- wanna get a bite with me and walk around? But there's a little of the mad scientist, too. 'It's where I get in touch with the thing.' Marc at the controls -- turning all the knobs -- he's everybody in the whole universe and he's blasting off. Head exploding 'till it fits the whole room. Head is room. Room alive! 'A song is a collection of the way a certain period of time feels,' he says. That's where the real weather is, inside." David Dalton
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7"
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MR 7307EP
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"In the second half of 1966, The In Crowd -- singer Keith West, guitarist Steve Howe, bass player John 'Junior' Wood and drummer John 'Twink' Alder -- were undergoing a radical musical transformation, replacing their soul and R&B covers with more innovative original material. . . . The two songs The In Crowd recorded for Blow Up [by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni] were shelved and remained unissued until the late 1990s. They encapsulate a thrilling moment of metamorphosis as a uniquely gifted group emerged from its mod chrysalis and unfurled its psychedelic wings for the first time." --Mike Stax, Ugly Things
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2LP
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MR 378LP
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Double LP version. In the early '80s, futuristic music existed that triumphantly anticipated another musical era for a number of groups that worked on alternative circuits in Spain. Tradition, trajectory and future: these three words sum up a movement that was castrated at birth and sought to bring plurality and nuance to a monolithic cultural scene that was too predictable, commercial and stale. The musical texture of synth pop, experimental electronic music, and the incipient primitivist industrial sound of groups like Esplendor Geométrico or Orfeón Gagarin came up against a lack of social participation that supports a popular and broad-based culture. Both volumes of Interferencias seek to do their bit in the odyssey to disseminate rarities from the Spanish musical heritage dating from the '80s, when the dictatorship was over. In this era, there was a conflict between those who wanted to break with the past and those who preferred designer camouflage. In this second volume of Interferencias the series continues to explore the interest and attraction of the new sounds back then, which were a kind of pressing need for these embryonic gurus of techno pop, who held on tight to their next-generation instruments as if they were symbols of the post-Francoist advance party. These bands appeared in the middle of the transition to democracy, a strange small breakaway movement, but popular with the minorities on the margins of the dominant and official artistic system. This new movement was anointed by one key idea, namely, moving beyond the discrimination surrounding the use of synthesizers in order to recreate emotions. Adopting a modern attitude, they hung out outside major record label circles but keeping an eye on the media, which was already putting their music out there, exemplified by their sporadic appearances on television programs such as Musical Express or La Edad de Oro. Interferencias closes this analytical search for our synthetic and minimalist musical heritage; adopting a respectful, historically accurate, heterodox and undogmatic approach. These sounds embody the perplexity, paradox and confusion of those years, which disconcerted audiences through the use of innovative musical language and discourse and provoked a lack of understanding and enthusiasm in equal measure. Features Muzak, Diagonal, TV Soviética, Orfeón Gagarin, Esplendor Geométrico, Logotipo, Jan, Claustrofobia, De Picnic, Fanzine, Q, Demian, Flash Cero, Flácidos Lunes, Betty Troupe, Manía, Minuit Polonia, Heroica, V Generación, and Programa. Includes extensive booklet with liner notes by Sergio Sánchez (Jazznoize) and artist photos.
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