The years between Graham Lambkin's tenure with the legendary Shadow Ring and his more recent improvisational duos mark a distinct period of creative production within the artist's insular career. Living with his family in Poughkeepsie, NY, from 2001 through 2011 Lambkin recorded and self-released four solo albums that valorized mundane domestic situations while reveling in the liminal spaces between the acts of listening, recording, and producing. Created through an ingenious economy of means, these solo records are as beguilingly seductive as they are uncanny. Perpetually laughing in his own duplicitous face, Lambkin breathed new life into musique concrète and sound poetry, giving outmoded forms a contemporary consciousness while setting the gold standard for a continuously unfolding canon of 21st century tape music. Poem (For Voice & Tape) (2001), Salmon Run (2007), Softly Softly Copy Copy (2009), and Amateur Doubles (2011) are now remastered and finally back in print, with Salmon Run and Softly Softly Copy Copy available on vinyl for the first time. This deluxe boxed set of Graham Lambkin's first four solo records includes an expansive 42-page book featuring unseen photos and reproductions of artworks as well as essays and anecdotal recollections providing fresh insight and divulging hermetic secrets by Ed Atkins, Mark Harwood, Matt Krefting, Lawrence Kumpf, Samara Lubelski, and Adrian Rew.

Graham Lambkin (b. 1973, Dover, England) is a multidisciplinary artist who first came to prominence in the early '90s through the formation of his experimental music group The Shadow Ring. As a sound organizer rather than music maker, Lambkin looks at an everyday object and sees an ocean of possibility, continually transforming quotidian atmospheres and the mundane into expressive sound art using tape manipulation techniques, chance operations, and the thick ambience of domestic field recordings. His Kye imprint, founded in 2001, was an instrumental platform for the dissemination of and dialogue between work by an intergenerational cast of artists using sound, including Henning Christiansen, Anton Heyboer, Moniek Darge, and Gabi Losoncy. He began showing his visual art in 2014 with Came To Call Mine, an exhibition curated by Lawrence Kumpf and Justin Luke at Audio Visual Arts in conjunction with the publication of Lambkin's children's book (for adults) of the same name, and has since exhibited his work at 356 Mission, Künstlerhaus, PiK, and Blank Forms.

"Starsailor is the sixth studio album by Tim Buckley (yes, the father of Jeff Buckley) and arguably his artistic pinnacle. This is the culmination of Tim's journey into the stylings of jazz. A breathtaking album of incredible originality and creativity. Buck Gardner, from Frank Zappa's classic Mothers Of Invention plays amazing trumpet parts on this album. All the tracks are unique in their own way and deserve praise. Songs like the title track and 'Jungle Fire' among others show his vocal versatility like never before with his legendary 5 plus octave range. 'Song To The Siren' has been covered by a variety of artists, most notably by This Mortal Coil and John Frusciante. Although hardly appreciated in 1970, this is one of the truly great modern recordings."

"Hans Dulfer is an internationally acclaimed Dutch jazz musician, known for playing the tenor saxophone. His debut album The Morning After the Third was released in 1970. Its title track features the renowned Dutch guitarist Jan Akkerman, who was known for being a member of Focus at the time. This rare, sought after jazz album is now available on colored vinyl for the first time. It's a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on transparent yellow vinyl. 180 gram audiophile vinyl."

LP version. White vinyl. Cheval Sombre releases his third album -- his first solo release for more than eight years, following 2018's critically acclaimed collaboration with Galaxie 500 and Luna frontman Dean Wareham, and the first of two new albums scheduled for 2021, both of which have been produced by Sonic Boom. Cheval Sombre is the nome d'arte of Chris Porpora, a poet from upstate New York whose otherworldly psychedelic lullabies on his self-titled album from 2009 and its follow-up, Mad Love (2012), won him a cult following. Time Waits for No One ushers in his most prolific period, and serendipitously the world has finally slowed down to his pace. This is no lockdown record, but Cheval Sombre's reclusive, reflective music is its perfect soundtrack. "I've always said that what I really want to do with music is to give people sanctuary," he explains. "Pandemic or not, the world has always felt as though it were spinning out of control to me, and so if folks have slowed down, I do see it all as an opportunity to discover vital realms which have always been there, but we've been too rushed and distracted to encounter." Time Waits for No One is also his finest and most fully realized body of work to date and, appropriately enough for a record that has taken so many years to come to fruition, across eight original songs, an instrumental and a closing cover of Townes Van Zandt's "No Place to Fall", its overarching theme is time itself; what it is and what role it inevitably plays in all of our lives. But the record is also timeless, contrasting the musical simplicity of Cheval Sombre's open-tuned acoustic guitar curlicues with the beautiful, sweeping and ornate arrangements of Sonic Boom's keyboards and Gillian Rivers' and Yuiko Kamakari's strings. The end result is something akin to Daniel Johnston backed by the Mercury Rev of Deserter's Songs. Elemental and earthbound, but simultaneously and very subtly shooting for the stratosphere.

Clermont Music announces the release of Live In New York 2010 from Khaira Arby. Recorded in August 2010 at Bard College in New York, Khaira electrified the audience giving one of her greatest performances. Her energy and spirit captured in this recently discovered album illustrate Khaira at the height of her powers. Sadly, she passed away in the summer of 2018 leaving this album as one of her only full concert recordings. Khaira Arby grew up in the Abaradjou neighborhood of Timbuktu. By age 11 she was sought-after by regional orchestras. A cousin to the great Ali Farka Toure, Khaira was influenced by the changes in music and culture of the times. She blended modern instruments and song composition with traditional melodies and rhythms. In the 1980s Khaira began to focus all her energy on music. She began to be recognized outside of Mali and by 2001 she gained worldwide recognition from her performances at the Festival au Desert. Khaira Arby lived in Timbuktu until 2012 when Northern Mali was occupied by Islamic fundamentalists. The Islamists banned secular music and Khaira fled to Bamako where she lived with her family and bandmembers. When in 2013 French forces arrived, Khaira decided to remain in Bamako fearing for her safety in her beloved Timbuktu. Khaira was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mali. In 2011 her peers awarded her the Tamani d'Or in recognition of her status as one of the great Malian voices. She appeared annually at the legendary Festival au Desert. She performed in Europe in 2005. From 2010 through 2013, Khaira and her band toured extensively in Europe, the United States, Canada, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates performing to rave reviews. Live In New York 2010 was recorded at Khaira's first performance in North America. In complete control, she received standing ovations throughout the evening. Accompanied by backup singers and her hot rock band she showed people how cultures are blended while still preserving her Malian roots. One of the first women in Mali to emerge onto the national stage as a solo artist, Khaira Arby's debut album, Moulaye, was released in 1990.

2021 restock. "Agharta was recorded at the Osaka Festival Hall on February 1, 1975 and originally released on double LP only in Japan. Featuring one of Miles Davis' strongest lineups from his electric period, Agharta is a smoking set of jazz-funk fusion, featuring blistering live interpretations of some of his finest compositions. Davis recorded another fantastic double LP, Pangaea, on the same day proving him to be an unrivaled talent in both creativity and output." 180 gram vinyl; housed in a full-color gatefold sleeve.

Originally released in 1975; 2019 reissue. Gatefold sleeve. "If Eternal Rhythm was Don Cherry's world fusion masterpiece of the '60s, then Brown Rice is its equivalent for the '70s. But where Eternal Rhythm set global influences in a free jazz framework, Brown Rice's core sound is substantially different, wedding Indian, African, and Arabic music to Miles Davis' electrified jazz-rock innovations. And although purists will likely react here the same way they did to post-Bitches Brew Davis, Brown Rice is a stunning success by any other standard. By turns hypnotic and exhilarating, the record sounds utterly otherworldly: the polyrhythmic grooves are deep and driving, the soloing spiritual and free, and the plentiful recording effects trippy and mysterious. The various ethnic influences lift the album's already mystical atmosphere to a whole new plane, plus Cherry adds mostly non-English vocals on three of the four tracks, whispering cryptic incantations that make the pieces resemble rituals of some alien shaman. The title cut has since become an acid jazz/rare-groove classic, filtering Charlie Haden's acoustic bass through a wah-wah pedal and melding it with psychedelic electric piano riffs, electric bongos, wordless female vocals, short snippets of tenor saxophonist Frank Lowe's free jazz screeching, and, of course, Cherry's whispers and trumpet. Closer 'Degi-Degi' works a similarly mind-bending mixture, but the middle two pieces ('Malkauns' and 'Chenrezig') are lengthy explorations where Cherry's languid trumpet solos echo off into infinity. Of all his world fusion efforts, Brown Rice is the most accessible entry point into Cherry's borderless ideal, jelling into a personal, unique, and seamless vision that's at once primitive and futuristic in the best possible senses of both words. While Cherry would record a great deal of fine work in the years to come, he would never quite reach this level of wild invention again."

2021 restock. "An essential time capsule of Townes Van Zandt acoustic performances. A re-imagined collection available on vinyl for the first time in the USA. Includes classic Townes Van Zandt songs, 'If I Needed You', 'Pancho & Lefty', 'Waiting Round To Die', and 'I'll Be Here in The Morning', (duet with Barb Donovan). Include digital download containing bonus interview tracks with KUT's Larry Monroe. From the liner notes by Harold Eggers Jr.: 'These recordings are as close to the bone of Townes as you can get. They give the listener a very unique and detailed insight into and overview of his songwriting, music, and life as no other. Townes often made light of the dark, living in the shadows more than not. This album and Townes spoken words (bonus tracks) are significant because Townes personally chose each track, and in his own words revealed the private person and singer/songwriter/artist he was. These recordings and spoken words were very important to Townes for the world to hear his music and life story as he lived it, as told from the man himself.'"

2021 restock. Trading Places present a reissue of Sir Lord Baltimore's self-titled album, originally released in 1971. Fresh from their US tour supporting Black Sabbath, Brooklyn-based heavy metal trio Sir Lord Baltimore expanded to a quartet for the recording of their self-titled sophomore album, released by Mercury in late 1971. The new addition was guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Joey Dambra, brother of guitarist co-founder, Louis Dambra, adding a dual-guitar element to their hefty sound. The album begins with the epic "Man From Manhattan", a symbolic allegory of a resurrected Christian icon in a new setting; in contrast, "Where Are We Going" captured the rawness of the group in live glory and "Chicago Lives" a twin-guitar attack. Somehow, the band did not survive long after its release, though Joey later recorded with John Lennon; this reissue spins at 45 RPM for maximum fidelity. Licensed from Cherry Red. Gatefold sleeve.

2021 restock. Trading Places present a reissue of Heron's self-titled album, originally released in 1970. Short-lived British folk-rock band Heron was formed in the suburban town of Maidenhead, Berkshire, in 1967, when guitarist/pianist Roy Apps and singer Tony Pook began playing with guitarist Robert Collins, inspired by the music of Bob Dylan and The Incredible String Band. Collins soon quit the group, yet Heron solidified into a noteworthy entity upon the entry of the broadminded and perceptive guitarist and mandolin player Gerald T. Moore, a veteran of R&B bands in nearby Reading, who brought a higher level a musical dexterity, song-writing ability and arrangements; guitarist Martin Hayward was another early member that did not remain with the group for long. Once accordionist/keyboardist Steve Jones was in the fold, things leapt forward through Apps' role as Student Entertainments Secretary at the Reading College of Technology, which allowed the group to open for Ralph McTell and other established performers. Signed as songwriters to Essex Music, they were spotted by Donovan's producer, Peter Eden, who signed them to Dawn Records, an alternative subsidiary of industry giant, Pye. Their self-titled debut album, produced by Eden, was recorded in the open air at a Pook's family farm in rural Appleton-On-Thames. For the rare 12-inch single "Bye And Bye," the title track was a wistful wish for the romance of travel, written by Moore, followed by his heart-broken "Through And Through"; Moore's unusual reading of Bob Dylan's "Only A Hobo" sparked considerable media interest and Pook's "I'm Ready To Leave" was a contemplative closer, again tinged with melancholy. "Bye And Bye" received considerable airplay, but a vinyl delivery strike ultimately curtailed demand. As expanded Heron went on to record sophomore set Twice As Nice & Half The Price (1971), before Moore quit the group to back his Persian girlfriend, Shusha; he subsequently founded the world's first white reggae act, GT Moore and the Reggae Guitars. Licensed by BMG.

2021 repress on red vinyl. Fugazi's debut 7 song EP, originally released in 1988. Printed inner sleeve with lyrics. "This 12" EP (on black vinyl) was recut from the Silver Sonya masters in 2008 at Chicago Mastering Service."

"Originally issued as a CDR on Matt's own Child of Microtones label, the stone madness of this session was so overwhelming we begged him to let us do it on vinyl. Luckily for one and all, he agreed. Recorded here and there, with a variety of different ensembles. Galactic Ooze is one of the most fully warped missives from Planet MV, and that is saying something. While there is a certain continuity between the layered threads of MV's deeply processed vocals and amazing stunned-noodle guitar figurines, the music here is always in flux. There's lots of electronic jiggering which brings to mind the squeedle elements of Blows Against the Empire (still the apex of the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra's discography), but there's none of the dogmatic claptrap that sometimes derails that album's liberationist thrust. The music on Galactic Ooze is a sweet sideways slip into deep space. Amidst tightly forested jams, there are many beams of sound that act like sun rays, illuminating the process from within, with skeletal frameworks outlined in pure scorch. You can catch whiffs of everything from the roll of Soon Over Babaluma-era Can to the thunder-echo of Yabby You's Beware It Dub at various points in the program, but the insanely sweet angularity of the guitar lines is trademark MV throughout, no matter how wildly the deck shifts at times. And for all their cosmic detailing, the songs are as abundantly human as always, addressing the eternal mysteries of life (whether lived in the woods of on the street). And asking the kinds of questions that require something more than a snappy answer. Galactic Ooze is a beautiful mutational meditation on where we exist inside our own personal cosmos. And its secrets unfold at their own pace, layer by layer by layer. As a great man once said, 'walking on water wasn't built in a day.' You can that that to the bank." --Byron Coley, 2021

Michael Ranta has collaborated with Takehisa Kosugi, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Jean-Claude Eloy, Conny Plank, Mike Lewis, and Hartmut Geerken, just to name a few. He was also assistant to Harry Partch and performer in the Gate 5 Ensemble in the 1960s. Additionally, Ranta performed in Stockhausen's ensemble during the 1970 World Expo in Osaka. Ranta's resume also includes recordings by Helmut Lachenmann, Herbert Brün, Toru Takemitsu, Josef Anton Riedl, Mauricio Kagel, among others. Throughout his extensive recordings and live performances, Ranta has furthered the trajectories of contemporary percussion composition alongside works for tape and electronics. His works are fully immersive which evoke vast spaces, ritual, and create an expansive presence for his accompanying multimedia commissions. For this CD release, two of Ranta's longform pieces are included: "The Great Wall" and "Chanta Khat". Originally scored for the HT Chen Dance Company as a theater production, "The Great Wall" premiered in 1984 at the La MaMa experimental theater in New York. This highly detailed composition for electronics, voice, percussion, and tape offers a massive drone-based accompaniment for Chen's stage presentation of the legend of Meng Jiangnu. Yet, Ranta's composition also creates a fully formed soundtrack that stands beautifully on its own. The atmosphere is very much in the spirit of Kosugi's multimedia masterwork Catch Wave and Jean Clade Eloy's large-scale production Yo-In which also features Ranta. "Chanta Khat" was completed in 1973. An early version of this piece originally premiered as part of a multimedia installation at the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich. This powerful work for tape and electronics includes Ranta's field recordings documenting his travel in Laos during a lunar eclipse earlier that same year. The piece is a haunting and equally frantic work where the local villagers are heard responding quite emotionally and viscerally to the celestial event of the day. "Chanta Khat" was later reworked and remixed in 1973 at the NHK electronic music studio in Tokyo. This version is featured here in its entirety. Packaged in a six-panel digipak with fully remastered and restored audio. Includes detailed notes by Michael Ranta and features new artwork by Timo van Luijk.

"Since the 1990s, Bear Family has released quite a few German-language rock 'n' roll compilations: what you get to hear here has nothing to do with them! -The hard stuff, the real stuff -- no rockers trivialized to innocent hits, but pure rock 'n' roll, twist rockers, beat rockers and hard instrumentals. 33 real rock 'n' roll masters of the years 1957-65 from Germany -- no 'Sugar Baby' attitudes, they also rocked English! This music was hardly played on the radio or at the dance school -- if at all, it was played at Dampmann's caterpillar track or bumper cars at the funfair. In addition to popular artists like Ted Herold, Paul Würges and Billy Sanders, we provide lesser-known individual performers and bands that have never appeared on rock 'n' roll compilations, including the Starfighters, the Six Tornados, the Rocking Stars, the Fred Hollerbach All-Stars and Frankie & The Rockets -- hard to find and expensive in the original! Did you know that performers you'd never expect, like Michael Holm and Bernd Spier, have recorded badass rockers? We prove it. Four titles for the first time on CD The Krauts Are Rockin' -- how could it ever come to this? German rock 'n' roll from the '50s and early '60s evokes ambivalent emotions, separated mothers from daughters, brothers from sisters and fathers from sons -- the spirit of rock 'n' roll was as important as our daily bread for the youth in post-war Germany. hail, hail rock 'n' roll -- deliver me from the days of old the prophet had once proclaimed. The music industry quickly locked the wild teens in the pop cage, the really rough escapees came to the mood cannons of the funfair front. Until today, the '50s are presented to us as a pastel-colored fairy tale land, in which there is no place for rockers, teenagers and the rebellion of a generation against mendacity, oblivion and smugness. Bear Family Records presents a compilation away from the big hits, wanderlust and grotesque trivialization of youth."

The common factor linking these recordings are projects that were never fully realized. The basic recordings started in 2005, however the period of reworking and transformation (2016 to 2017) is more important. All vocal parts and general revisions were done during this period. Agnosticism was the basic idea for the vocal/musical re-working of the pieces with the vocals implanted into the basic pieces, not just as simple overdubs, but inserted in a dialectical confrontation with the basic sounds and structures. "Le Ballet" relies on George Antheil's Ballet Mecanique; "For Gerald" on a co-operation with Anla Courtis using some sounds by Ovary Lodge planned for the Gerald Jupitter-Larssen series which stopped far too early. "Without M.B." includes RLW's parts for a collaboration with Marc Baron whilst "Monotype #6" includes vocals by Dylan Nyoukis, also used for a collaborative CD-r with him. Ralf Wehowsky is one of the most respected electronic composers of our day and was also a founder member of the seminal German group P16.D4 and label Selektion whose ground-breaking releases influenced many working in today's experimental music scene. Previous releases have seen him collaborate with such well known and diverse artists such as Merzbow, Bernhard Guenter, Jim O'Rourke, Achim Wollscheid, and Lionel Marchetti. His music is impossible to pigeonhole into one simple bracket. It is neither industrial or musique concrete, nor computer music nor improvisation. In fact, it could be all of these.

"The Wire Tapper 55. Every copy of the April issue will come with a CD of the 55th volume in our ongoing series of underground music anthologies, featuring 16 new or archival tracks by Muslimgauze, João Lobo, Mariel Roberts, Maxx Mann, Carlos Niño & Friends, Nun Gun featuring Sohail Daulatzai, Gentle Fire, Craig Scott's Lobotomy, and more. Don Cherry in Watts: As Don and Moki Cherry's work is the subject of a new book, Gabriel Bristow revisits the global music traveller's roots in the post-bop milieu of Watts, Los Angeles in the 1950s. Invisible Jukebox - Mike Paradinas x Lara Rix-Martin: μ-Ziq meets Meemo Comma and Planet Mu meets Objects Limited as the two UK electronica trailblazers sit down together with The Wire's mystery record collection."

Rich in musical associations yet utterly singular in its voice, joyous with an inner tranquility, the music of Natural Information Society is unlike any other being made today. Their sixth album in eleven years for eremite records, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the first to be recorded live, featuring a set from London's Cafe OTO with veteran English free-improv great Evan Parker, & the first to feature just one extended composition. The 75-minute performance, inspired by the galvanizing presence of Parker, is a sustained bacchanalia of collective ecstasy. You could call it their party album.

This was the second time Parker played with NIS. Joshua Abrams: "Both times we played compositions with Evan in mind. I don't tell Evan anything. He's a free agent."

The music is focused & malleable, energized & even-keeled, drawing on concepts of ensemble playing common to musics from many locations & eras without any one specific aesthetic realization completely defining it.

"The rhythms that Mikel plays are not an exact reference to Chicago house, but that's in there," Abrams says. "I like to take a cyclic view of music history, can we take that four-on-the-floor, & consider how it connects to swing-era music? Can we articulate a through line? I dee-jayed for years in Chicago & lessons I learned from playing records for dancing inform how I think about the group's music. The listener can make connections to aspects of soul music, electronic music, minimalism, traditional folk musics, & other musics of the diaspora as well. It's about these aspects coming together. I don't need to mimic something, I need to embody it to get to the spirit, to get to the living thing."

For jazz fans, the sound of Parker's soprano & Jason Stein's bass clarinet might evoke Coltrane & Dolphy, even though they didn't necessarily set out to do that & they play with complete individuality. Abrams sees a bridge to the historical precedent, too. "Since we first met in the 1990s, one of the things that Evan and I connected on was Coltrane's music," he says. "I hoped that we would tap into that sound world intuitively. In this case, I think that level of evocation adds another layer of depth, versus a layer of reference."

Indeed, this is a performance in which the connections among the ensemble & the creative tension between improvisation and composition build into a complex mesh of associations & interactions. While the band confines itself to the territory mapped out by Abrams' composition, they are remarkably attentive & responsive, making adjustments to Parker's improvisations. When Parker's intricate patterns of notes interweave with the band, the parts reinforce one another & the music rockets upward. Sometimes, Parker's lines are cradled by the group's gentle pulse & an unearthly lyrical balance is struck.

Drummer Mikel Patrick Avery is locked-in, playing with hellacious long-form discipline, feel & responsiveness. Jason Stein's animated, vocalized bass clarinet weaves in & out with Lisa Alvarado's harmonium to state the piece's thematic material; the pulsing tremolo on the harmonium brings a Spacemen 3 vibe to the party. Abrams ties together melody & rhythm on guimbri, a presence that leads without seeming to. Like his bandmates, he shifts modes of playing frequently, improvising & then returning to the composed structure.

"As specific as the composition is, the goal is to internalize it & mix it up," Abrams says. "The idea is to get so comfortable that we can make spontaneous changes, find new routes of activity, stasis & byways every gig. It's like a web we're spinning. If someone makes a move, we all aim to be aware of it, make room for it. Experiencing & listening is what it's about, & Evan supercharges that."

& "supercharged" is the word for this album. With Parker further opening up their music, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the sound of Natural Information Society growing both more disciplined and freer, one of the great bands of its time on a deep run.

Mastered by Helge Sten, Audio Virus, Oslo. Lacquers by Kevin Gray, Cohearent Audio, So Cal. Liner Notes by Theaster Gates. LPs pressed on premium audiophile-quality vinyl at RTI.

Repress of this 1995 CD reissue of the all-time classic Jajouka LP, originally issued by Adelphi in 1974. Recorded by Joel Rubiner in Jajouka, Morocco during the summer of 1972, with liner notes by Robert Palmer. A conceptual 'sister' album to the Brian Jones presents the Pipes of Pan at Jajouka LP, which had attempted to initiate the Western world into this historic village music. Due to a generally perceived failure on Brian Jones' part for his insistence in adding post-production "fancy phazing and echo effects", that record was considered inadequate, but did get the word out on the potential psychedelic propulsion of this this indigenous music from a small village in the foot hills of the Rif Mountains of northern Morocco. On this self-titled album, Brian Jones isn't directly involved (his name, listed several times on the back of the CD, denotes that two pieces are in fact 'tributes', not participations), but the power and psychological intensity of their music (referenced so vividly by the likes of Brion Gysin, Ornette Coleman, William Burroughs, etc.) is finally realized to tape. "When this album was recorded, during the summer and fall of 1972, the Master Musicians were confronting the survival struggle head on. Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Jajouka had been released the year before and had done little to improve the lot of the community. The musicians were determined to reach an audience in the West and it was decided at the outset that the extended ritual music which was captured by Jones, and which is so overwhelming under a full moon with bonfires blazing, lost much of its power and purpose when transferred to records. Accordingly, the musicians collapsed their long forms (which are rather like infinitely expandable telescopes) and set about putting concise statements of their heritage on tape...the tune 'Jajouka Black Eyes' is a particularly effective example of the spiritual and psychic powers of the rhaitas. Toward the end of the piece one player hits a continuous drone (maintained by circular breathing, in which the musician blows out and breathes in at the same time, storing air in his lungs as if they were bags of a bagpipe) while the other inserts graceful, semi-improvised punctuations. The horns naturally create many partials or overtones and when two or more play together, as here, these almost sub-audible harmonics build stacked celestial structures which seem to be related to ideas of mathematical perfection deriving from ancient Arabic numerology. In fact, one rhaita piece represents 'the perfection of the factors' and would probably tell us a great deal about the sciences of antiquity if we had a Rosetta Stone to help us decipher its meaning." -- Robert Palmer.

Only nine months after Hedvig Mollestad momentous debut solo album Ekhidna (RCD 2215CD/RLP 3215LP), the guitarist is back fronting her trio. With their previous album, Smells Funny (RCD 2203CD/RLP 3203LP, 2019), this explosive and expansive trio experienced a breakthrough of sorts, having gone from strength to strength through five albums since their 2011 debut Shoot! (RCD 2115CD/RLP 3115LP, 2011), gathering respect from both rock and jazz camps, sharing big stages with the likes of John McLaughlin and Black Sabbath, and being equally comfortable on jazz and rock stages. Hedvig enforced this breakthrough with Ekhidna, appearing on both jazz and rock best of 2020 lists, like coming in third in Prog's "Album of the Year" poll. With the hypnotic title track, the spacious ballad "Four Candles" and generally a more varied mood, Ding Dong. You're Dead. is the trio's most dynamic album to date. That said there's still enough solid and creative riffing here to satisfy the headbangers, as well as the jazzheads, as they further explore the free and open landscapes most notably started with their Black Stabat Mater album (RCD 2183CD/RLP 3183LP, 2016) and continued with Smells Funny. As Nate Chinen wrote about Black Stabat Mater in JazzTimes: "Her trio, which has Ellen Brekken on bass and Ivar Loe Bjørnstad on drums, caught my ear then with its audacious style references: the loose swagger of early Black Sabbath; the density and prowl of peak Led Zeppelin; the expeditionary urge of Jimi Hendrix; the incantatory fervor of John McLaughlin." This trio radiates confidence and have become a surefire hit on the Norwegian live scene. And while we rightly praise Hedvig's exceptional abilities, let's not forget how important the rhythm section is to make it all work so well. Ellen Brekken is an accomplished bassist, driving the band just as hard on the electric bass as on the acoustic. Then there's Ivar Loe Bjørnstad, not your regular rock drummer, not your regular jazz drummer, but in possession of the loose swagger mentioned above.

2021 repress. "Niandra LaDes And Usually Just A T-Shirt is the first solo record by John Frusciante. Between 1990 and 1992 the guitarist made a series of 4-track recordings, which at the time were not intended for commercial release. After leaving the band Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992, Frusciante was encouraged by friends to release the material that he wrote in his spare time during the Blood Sugar Sex Magik sessions. Originally released on Rick Rubin's American Recordings label in 1994, Niandra LaDes is a mystifying work of tortured beauty. Frusciante plays various acoustic and electric guitars, experimenting with layers of vocals, piano and reverse tape effects. Channeling the ghosts of Syd Barrett and Skip Spence, his lyrics are at once utterly personal and willfully opaque. Frusciante's rapidfire, angular playing shows how key he was in the Chili Peppers' evolution away from their funk-rock roots. His cover of 'Big Takeover' perfectly deconstructs the Bad Brains original with laid-back tempo, twelve-string guitar and a fierce handle on melody. The album's second part -- thirteen untitled tracks that Frusciante defines as one complete piece, 'Usually Just A T-Shirt' -- contains several instrumentals featuring his signature guitar style. Sparse phrasing, delicate counterpoint and ethereal textures recall Neu/Harmonia's Michael Rother or The Durutti Column's Vini Reilly. On the front cover, Frusciante appears in 1920s drag -- a nod to Marcel Duchamp's alter-ego Rrose Sélavy -- which comes from Toni Oswald's film Desert in the Shape. This first-time vinyl release has been carefully remastered and approved by the artist. The double LP set is packaged with old style tip-on gatefold jacket and printed inner sleeves."

2021 repress. "The Fall returned to Rough Trade in 1983 to release a pair of singles ('The Man Whose Head Expanded' and 'Kicker Conspiracy') and Perverted By Language, their sixth proper studio album. Perverted By Language hints at the band's shift towards a distinctly pop approach, one that they would perfect via their Beggars Banquet output that immediately followed. Yet again, the force and panic of their initial Rough Trade recordings remains the foundation for much of the album. A transitional recording in the absolute best sense, Perverted By Language is The Fall both as they were and as they would become. The emergence of Brix Smith is often cited as the impetus for The Fall's move toward outward pop, and she first makes her first appearance with the band on Perverted By Language. Nowhere is her presence felt more than on 'Hotel Blöedel,' where she handles lead vocal duties alongside Mark E. Smith whose mangled violin accompaniment roots the song's cold romanticism in his unmistakable brand of strange. 'Garden' provides a new take on The Fall's stretched-out tendencies -- using ringing, clean guitars to build a nearly 10-minute epic more subtly than ever before. The opener, 'Eat Y'self Fitter,' is wholly classic Fall: a playfully circular bass line drives the album's strongest vocal spout, complete with emphatic breaks where Mark E. Smith issues the song's spiteful decree with equal parts glee and scorn. Superior Viaduct's edition is the first time that Perverted By Language has been available on vinyl domestically."

Northern bred, South London based duo FYI Chris announce their debut album, Earth Scum. Following 2020 EP, Black Dragon Loop, "Scum of the Earth" is a nod to the duo's Northern roots and a signal to their friends and fam ethos, featuring Watson's uncle -- Mancunian poet Thick Richard. Blending swirling synths with punk energy, on "Scum of the Earth" Thick Richard's no-frills, spoken word -- "but just remember this planet is made out of dirt, when you call me the scum of the earth" -- is peppered with broken beats and distorted vox lines. Originally a track made from a live recording of Thick Richard taken in the wee hours of the morning in the smoking area of Corsica Studios about eight years ago, he managed to re-record during the UK lockdown in 2020, adding verses from another poem, "People in Crack Houses Shouldn't Throw Rocks". A duo with strong creative vision, follow Thick Richard cycling around the canals of Manchester, tinnies in hand, in the glitchy, wigged out visuals for "Scum of the Earth", directed and edited by Dilesh Patel. Traversing post-punk, jazz, techno, weirdo house, and beyond with a psychedelic spin, across twelve tracks Earth Scum promises insight into the multiverse of FYI Chris. The duo pay homage to their strong sense of community and life as they know it in South London and the North of England, nodding to friends and family along the way. Sonically, the pair showcase their varied palettes and musicality with a darker and more rugged multi-instrumental approach, while shining a light on their gallows sense of humor. Hailing from the North, FYI Chris (Chris Watson and Chris Coupe) met in South London -- fast becoming key players in that tight-knit local community as well as the global dance music scene. Regulars at Peckham's Rye Wax and often at the helm of the Rye Wax radio show; pre-pandemic, the duo could also be found playing gigs in esteemed underground venues across the globe. With their breakthrough release No Hurry / Juliette on esteemed local label Church in 2015, FYI Chris have since released on revered platforms including Rhythm Section, Toy Tonics, Banoffee Pies, remix work for Ninja Tune. Also features Pinty, Simeon Jones, Simeon Jones, and DJ Morris.

Limited restock; LP version. "This landmark album, now being reissued in a definitive stereo edition, marks the debut of the new Cosmic Myth Records label. Cosmic Myth plans to reissue Sun Ra's Saturn Records catalog titles under official license from Sun Ra LLC, comprised of the heirs of Sun Ra. Sun Ra albums like The Magic City prove the categorical futility of 'File Under: Jazz.' When assessing the post-Chicago (1960-on) work of Ra, 'jazz' turns out to be less a genre than a journalistic and marketing convenience. Jazz has a glorious tradition. Sun Ra was schooled in it, emerged from it, and grew to transcend it (though he never abandoned it). Even the cheeky term 'Space Jazz' cannot frame the extremes to which Ra pushed his art in the mid-1960s. In this regard, The Magic City was a pinnacle. 1965 was a turbulent year for the Arkestra and its leader, and many consider The Magic City a flashpoint for that upheaval. Arkestra drummer Tommy Hunter, quoted in John Szwed's 1997 Ra bio Space is the Place, describes a typical performance of the period: 'It was like a fire storm coming off the bandstand.' On the original 1965 The Magic City LP, issued on Saturn, the monster 27-1/2 minute title track sprawled across side A. The 'Magic City' to which Ra refers was his birthplace -- Birmingham, Alabama. The term was the town's motto, emblazoned on a billboard by the train station near Sunny's childhood home, intended to reflect the city's explosive growth as a Southern industrial epicenter after the discovery of iron ore, coal, and limestone deposits. Birmingham was a place about which Sun Ra felt and expressed ambivalence: an outpost of racial segregation and grim smokestack-pocked landscapes, yet a city for which he felt twinges of nostalgia and affection. (His heirs still live in the area.) Ra customarily supervised the Arkestra's improvisational process via keyboard cues or hand signals. He was always in charge -- hence critic Simon Adams describing the title track as '27 minutes of controlled freedom.' 'The Magic City' was never performed in concert; saxophonist John Gilmore said it was 'unreproducible, a tapestry of sound.' Although shorter in scope than side A's magnum opus, the four works on The Magic City's flip side reflect the same improvisational approach, spatiality, and lack of structure. One session outtake, 'Other Worlds,' an alternate version of 'Shadow World,' is included as a bonus track on side B. For this definitive edition, historical and technical liner notes are provided by noted jazz historian Ben Young, who restored and remastered the album with his Triple Point Records partner Joe Lizzi. Both men have been recognized for their extensive work on the Grammy Nominated Albert Ayler boxset, released on John Fahey's Revenant records in 2005."

Frankie Armstrong is considered the "godmother" of the natural voice movement. She began singing professionally in 1964 and came to wide notice in 1972 with her cult classic record Lovely on the Water (Topic Records). She has gone on to work with historic and contemporary legends alike -- including Anne Briggs, Dave Van Ronk, Peggy Seeger, Leon Rosselson, Alistair Roberts, Stick in the Wheel, and Lankum. Frankie's long and impressive career was recently marked with the Gold Badge Award from the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Frankie is now releasing her twelfth record Cats of Coven Lawn to mark her 80th birthday. The album was recorded over a couple of weekends in Brighton with critically acclaimed producer Tom Pryor and consists of mainly live takes with minimal overdubs, creating a warm lo-fi, almost anti-folk aesthetic. This is a brave record sonically -- traditional on one track, then verging towards outsider art on the next. It's bare-boned with eerie harmonies, raw unapologetic vocals, minimal instrumentation, and at times startling a capella performances. The song selection is daring and incredibly varied -- traditional songs ("Lizzie Wan", "Willow Song"), songs written by her friends ("Dead Funny", "Marcy's Guest House"), and songs that demonstrate Frankie's longstanding commitment to social and political issues ("Where I Live on the Map", "Song of Strength", "We Are Women", "Bread and Roses"). This album strives to represent the many intriguing facets of one of the UK's most important folk singers. Frankie is joined by her friends throughout the record, lending vocals, writing and instrumentation. Guest performances come from Martin Simpson, Bird in the Belly, Brian Pearson, and Bread and Roses. The warm lo-fi aesthetic, combined with the group performances from Frankie's friends creates an intimate, charming album -- an album akin to sitting around the dinner table with Frankie and her friends and reliving her memories through song. An incredibly personal album -- at times, sad, funny, odd, eerie, joyful, but always authentic.

"Salvatore Sciarrino's oeuvre is the preserve of silence. It can be encountered in the sound spaces of night, in nocturnal trickles, creaks, creepings and wings; filigree sounds disappear into silence and re-appear abruptly and in short bursts, in large, irregular forms. The soundscapes of his music continually probe the thin line between life and death, recollection and oblivion, light and dark, growth and decay. In these transitory realms, the scans of a magical originality find their very own space. This album is part of Klangforum Wien's Solo five-CD series of recordings of pieces for one performer, which is the ensemble's response to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic."

LP version. Edition of 300. Jac Berrocal and David Fenech have been recording music together for more than ten years now... After albums with Ghédalia Tazartès (RIP) and Vincent Epplay, they shared the stage with musicians such as Felix Kubin, Jean-Hervé Peron, Jean Noel Cognard, and Thierry Müller (Illitch)... Now they are now joined by the American improviser Jason Willett (Half Japanese) for their first album as a trio. Built around a recording session in Paris, the three musicians created Xmas In March, an album of seven new peppermint-striped favorites. The tracks are like smoldering embers, mixed with the excitement and anticipation of Santa's arrival. Jac Berrocal's sound has never been so smooth since the Hotel Hotel album -- his trumpet like a sleigh in a jet stream. Willett plays bass with a rubber band and creates an impossibly huge sound from such a tiny "instrument" (like Charlie Haden played from a matchbox). He also plays this rare wooden synthesizer called Cocoquantus. Fenech sings, plays electric guitar, turntables, and is responsible for the recording as well as mixing all the tracks. With special guest Vincent Epplay on the closing track. This is the album you will want under the tree... skirt. Joyeux Noël! Cut by Andreas "Lupo" Lubich.

LP version. "Fleetwood Mac, also known as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, is the debut studio album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 24 February 1968. The album is a mixture of blues covers and originals penned by guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, who also share the vocal duties. It is the only album by the band without any involvement of keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie. The release of the album brought the band overnight success; in the UK, the album reached No. 4 and stayed on the charts 37 weeks, despite the lack of a hit single."

Shrouded in myth, Save Your Software is the long-lost album by Der Plan. Back in the mid-1980s, Moritz Reichelt, Kurt Dahlke (Pyrolator) and Frank Fenstermacher initiated the Fanuks project with the aim of making themselves immortal as Mensch-Maschinen or Man-Machines. "Fanuks" would produce music for all eternity, embarking on a never-ending world tour. By the end of the decade, the Fanuks, or their respective human alter egos, had crafted six pieces. These were only rediscovered in 2020 during a thorough inspection of the Ata Tak/Der Plan archives. Reichelt, Dahlke, and Fenstermacher augmented their six visionary masterpieces with three tracks based on compositions from the year 1989. In cooperation with the company "Second Life Inc", who had worked on similar ideas for George Lukas and Kraftwerk, they developed designs scratching the limits of technological possibilities. At the same time Japanese cutting-edge robot producer FANUK opened an office in Düsseldorf. The plans included not only the technical aspects of the hardware of the robot musicians, but also similarly sophisticated software. For this area of the project Der Plan asked a man with an excellent reputation of experience, the mysterious Nigelius Senada, a Bavarian philosopher and musician, who had developed a Theory of Obscurity, that fitted the ideas of Der Plan perfectly. Senada had a history of developing a non-existing band for a Californian supergroup. Senada's projections were based on the idea, that in the future man would transform into robots as much as robots would adapt characteristic human qualities. Under permanent supervision of Der Plan the first prototype under the internal name LP3 could be finished by 1988. For test purposes the robot was sold to a household in Italy, where he served as a house-keeper and loneliness companion. 12 months later conclusions could be drawn: despite great expectations and the use of expensive materials such as molybdane and carbon, LP3 turned out to be not reliable enough for the use on a stressful band tour. Meanwhile the production of robot music in the Düsseldorf studio of Der Plan continued. The ambitious goal was music made by robots -- and it was pretty successful, actually more successful than the processing of the hardware. A good half a dozen of songs were recorded, determined to be send on tour with the robots. The FANUK project was the last great concept of Der Plan before the band split up two years later. It is buried in history and memories and seemed to be bound for oblivion. This is the first time the public will hear six original tracks, plus three newly recorded ones, based on compositions from 1989.

"I've had the pleasure of being a [The] Fall fan since I was a teen. I was lucky enough to have some guidance from my local record shop stoner-lords. They turned me on to many of my heroes, but once I heard my first slanted and barky Fall song, I was part of the army for life. The word prolific gets tossed around a lot. It almost seems like a slag-off in the press, as if they wish the artist would produce less so they wouldn't have to do their self-imposed job of judging releases for the rabble. The Fall is subjected to this lazy word often. Yet I can honestly say that I am so thankful for any nugget of Fall that lands at my feet and in my brain. Live Fall performances are always a pleasure because they seem to take what already made the Fall great and push it even a bit more into the rough and bloody uncharted wasteland that is drug scorched proto-punk and heady political poetry. So, it is with great pleasure that we introduce this Fall bootleg soundboard recording to you. Recorded during one of the many strong points in the bands vast and mighty history. They really burn bright here and bring every ounce of what you expect from this formidable force. We have reached out to every surviving member of the band, the sound person, the bootlegger who recorded it and the photographer and received their blessings and help piecing it all together. Castle Face will be donating 50% of our profits to Centrepoint, which helps the homeless in the Manchester area get back on their feet, so the local and deserving Fall fans get a little, and give a little back, too. Nothing but the hits here folks and as raw as you dig it. This one really is exceptional in terms of live sound for The Fall. All the stars were aligned over St. Helens that eve. And it wouldn't be complete with a bit of Fall fan saltiness so, fuck you too, Jason." --John Dwyer

"The only time that Bradford, Carter, Newton and Tapscott have all played on stage together, along with Robert Miranda! Roberto Miranda's Home Music Ensemble Live at Bing Theatre: Los Angeles, 1985, personnel: Roberto Miranda (bass, congas), Bobby Bradford (cornet, tpt), John Carter (cl), James Newton (fl), Horace Tapscott (p), Thom D. Mason (a and t sax, b cl.), Louis R. Miranda Sr. (voc, perc), Louis R. Miranda, Jr. (drs), David Bottenbley (guitar, elec bass, perc, voc), Elias "Buddy" Toscano (drs), Cliff Brooks (perc)."

Blue vinyl. "Owen Maercks's Teenage Sex Therapist LP is one of the forgotten twisted pop masterpieces of the Twentieth Century. Owen had been in Monster Island with Henry Kaiser, who proposed he do a solo album or his songs. Henry had moved back west by this time, so Owen went out and recorded this album there. Henry produced, and added amazing horn parts by Jon Oswald, Larry Ochs, and John Gruntfest. In 1978, the album was mixed, pressed, and distributed exclusively to radio stations, record labels, and the like, in hopes of getting Owen signed. The music didn't fit any extant pigeonhole, however, so no deal was in the offing. About the only note of its passing was made by an A&R guy at Elektra, who swiped the arrangement (and lyric rearrangement) of 'Little Black Egg' (originally by The Nightcrawlers) for use by his protégées, The Cars. Well, fuck them. Teenage Sex Therapist is ripe with jaw-drop moves. Flashes of Eno, Beefheart, Lou Reed, The Bonzos, and various of Owen's other obsessions fight each other for air time. And everyone goes away a winner. If this one doesn't make your teeth wiggle, you need a new jaw." --Byron Coley, 2014

2021 rerelease; 2004 release. King Tubby, the "Dub Master" who's output was as prolific as it is sought after and whose presence is surely missed. Jamaican Recordings take you on another dub excursion. This time through some essential cuts made for the producer/DJ Tappa Zukie. King Tubby always added something a little special to the tracks he worked on. Producers would often bring their already recorded tracks to his home studio at 18 Drummlie Avenue in the Kingston district of Waterhouse. The backing tracks which were laid at various other studios around Kingston. Like Channel 1 and Randy's Studio 17, would then be voiced/re-voiced at King Tubby's. Tubby and his team which included Prince Jammy and Philip Smart would be left to create the version cut. Having listened to the track it would be striped back to the bone of bass and drums and rebuilt. Sprinkling his magic over the track by dropping the bass in and out, adding echo and emphasizing various elements of the song. In some cases, dubbing the cut into something unrecognizable from its original sound. The tracks would be aired on Tubby's Hometown hi-fi sound system. Which acted much like a pre-release for the record to gauge the crowd's reaction, before the tracks would be unleased on the public. Another fine collection of Tubby Cuts, comprising work with Mr Tappa Zukie. Lost cuts to some of his own tracks like "First Street Rock", alongside productions he undertook with the great Prince Allah, Junior Ross, and the Spears. Also, the much-overlooked vocal group Knowledge. Some great rhythms, some great tracks, worked over by the greatest dub mixer of them all.

"Eric Random is a British pioneer of post punk electronica. Born in 1961 Eric soon joined the Buzzcocks' road crew. At the age of 17 he became a third of a group called The Tiller Boys, the other two being Pete Shelley and Francis Cookson. They played their live debut in 1978, supporting Joy Division at Manchester's Factory club. For Pete Shelley The Buzzcocks were his main concern, so The Tiller Boys soon fell apart. Eric founded Free Agents with Cookson and soon met Richard Kirk and Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire. Thus, he got involved in the Sheffield scene as much as the Manchester one. Despite the two cities being only an hour's drive apart, their respective music scenes were very different. Manchester was the number one spot for postpunk with band like Joy Division/New Order, The Smiths, James, Magazine or A Certain Ratio. Sheffield went a very different way. It is birthplace for groups like The Cabs, The Human League, Clock DVA, ABC or Heaven 17, all influential European acts of electronic music. Eric Random felt home in both scenes. His first solo efforts were recorded and produced at Cabaret Voltaire's Western Works studio. A change in sound became obvious. Eric later merged his electro funk with ethnic influences. Playing with people like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan sparked an interest in Sufi music. He travelled extensively, regularly to India where he once even spent eleven months in a row. Random also fronted Nico's band until her untimely death in 1988. They recorded and album together, Camera Obscura, produced by John Cale. Random then went on a long hiatus. In 2014 he made his comeback -- since then three purely electronic albums have been released, the fourth now being No-Go. On this new long player, Eric goes further into an electronic dance direction, leaving his ethnic influences further behind. Think Wrangler, think Kraftwerk and you get the idea."

Yuko Araki is one of a number of young female artists emerging from Japan that are redefining the outer boundaries of noise, post-industrial techno and experimental electronics. Raised as a pianist, Araki's teenage obsession with metal opened a gateway towards various types of intense sonics. Exploring a range of diverse music projects over the past decade, her solo work resolved in 2019 after she developed an approach to freeform analog noise. Working with a reductive set of tools, her methodology was to create work that created a sense of timbral density and complexity through a weaving together of competing elements. End Of Trilogy pushes this approach outward, taking in almost kosmiche sensibilities, creating a sound that glints with the unsteady radiation of a dissolving pulsar. The album is an offering of competing states of tension and release. It merges polychromatic pulses against waves of sheering noise and uneasy ruptures of sound. End Of Trilogy is a record of unpredictable momentum and tempered ferocity. Even at its most intense. Yuko Araki's work maintains a sense of playfulness, and a determination not to succumb to mere sonic nihilism. Drawing on techniques borrowed from 70s prog-rock and even free jazz, she dissolves expectation and, in the process, reveals an utterly personal approach to noise and experimental electronics. End Of Trilogy is not merely a conclusion, but rather an interrogation of what comes next.

Multi-instrumentalist/composer based in Tokyo, Yuko Araki started playing piano when she was a small child and in her teenage years was inspired by hardcore and metal music, but she soon became really eclectic and took on a diverse range of projects, including drummer of the oriental/tribal dream psych band Kuunatic and founding members of the neo classical noise duo Concierto de la Familia and her solo project: harsh noise drones layered by analog synthesizers, cymbals and samples of Japanese traditional instruments creating abstract rhythms and dissonant harmonies that sound like a noise orchestra. Her exceptional sensibility in processing extremely heavy and dense sounds makes the result sounding like nothing else you heard before: a thousand leaves oscillation sound at the same time rooted in Japanese noise but also totally different. Intergalactic noisescapes.

Steppas Records present Center of Gravity, the new album from Korean-German producer JahYu. This heavyweight instrumental dub album breaks all convention taking the listener deeper into the world of mystical and ethereal soundsystem music. Exploring and fusing the realms of dub, world, and electronic music. The enigmatic producer blends contemporary bass music with the sounds of his ancestral homeland, playing and recording traditional Korean instruments; kayagum, geomungo, haegum, daegum, hun, yanggum, and janggu via his own hand. Center of Gravity is another truly eclectic, profound and exciting album from Steppas Records not to be missed. "A perfect fusion of meditative Eastern instrumentation with 21st century sound-system vibration" --Mixmag. In partnership with onetreeplanted.org, there will be a tree planted for every record sold.