Transparent vinyl version. First-ever official reissue on vinyl since 1975. Ash Ra Tempel is the eponymous debut studio album by the Krautrock band Ash Ra Tempel. It features guitarist Manuel Göttsching with drummer Klaus Schulze and bassist Hartmut Enke. Engineered by Conny Plank, it was recorded in March and June 1971 on Ohr Records. This 50th Anniversary Album will be released in memoriam of all the musical contributors to this release and on Manuel Göttsching´s MG.ART label.

"On our album, the track 'Amboss' represents the first layer. Conventional instruments communicate familiar music which is in part expanded through electronic means. In the second track of the album -- 'Traummaschine' -- the actual basic sound approach is dissolved into an electronic Nirvana which no longer allows the concrete identification of actual instruments. Innocent, virgin listening, free from any and every association, can finally begin -- and the music can be absorbed and processed free from the limitations of categorization. That is the purpose of our music: To convey freedom without any predetermined criteria or traditions. Thank you for your attention." --Manuel Göttsching (Taken from the original A-R-T Bio 1970)

140gram Limited Transparent Vinyl. Sticker, 50th Anniversary RE-Edition, Re-Cut carefully overseen by Manuel Göttsching. 350 gram Quadro Fold Out Sleeve that exactly replicates complex/original OHR die-cut jacket, A2 Poster, 2x (German and English) A4 Inlay with Original Bio Sheet written by Manuel Göttsching (1970). Pressed at Optimal, Germany.

A main architect of one of the most exciting and innovative groups of the last decade, Guerilla Toss, Arian Shafiee has recorded for labels as varied and iconic as Sub Pop, DFA, and Tzadik. Engines In Unity is the brilliant follow-up to his 2018 VDSQ debut solo album, A Scarlet Fail (VDSQ 022LP). The record presents a retrospective of Shafiee's singular relationship with the guitar thus far, reconciling his interest in slow, languorous music and deep sound design. Vivid and often destroyed, the pieces on Engines In Unity pan between chamber arrangements and more inherently guitar oriented songs, drawing from his love of classical, ECM jazz, "slowed + reverb" culture and new age. In the artist's usual fashion, he crafts fleeting music that escapes categorization, with every vignette showcasing a new elusive sound source (most of which are processed acoustic or electric guitars). Through hyper detailed production, Engines In Unity takes you into massive physical spaces, all the while feeling simultaneously epic and understated. Mastered by Dan Walker. Artwork by Robert Beatty. Deluxe LP edition with large size poster; heavy tip-on jackets with spot UV gloss and soft touch finishes and full color 35"x24" poster featuring artwork by Robert Beatty; pressed to high quality vinyl at RTI.

"One Sunday afternoon in 1990, I had a phone call from Keith saying that Sarah Records had received the demo cassette the two of us had recorded on a 4-track in a friend's shed and were interested in putting out two of the songs as a single. They were 'Clearer' and 'Alison'. Delighted by this news, we booked some recording time with a studio we'd regularly used in our previous incarnation as Feverfew, the White House in Weston-super-Mare. This was the first time we'd ever played a note of music that was using someone else's money, so the pressure was being felt. We recorded 'Clearer', 'Fearon', and 'Chelsea Guitar', with 'Clearer' becoming Sarah 55, the first of eight singles for the band across two labels. At that time, we were still toying with a name for ourselves and had settled with the Art Bunnies. While driving us back home from Weston, though, I declared that I really couldn't see how people would take us seriously with a name like that. Disappointed, Keith (Girdler) then got out a piece of paper upon which he'd written several other contenders. These included 'Opal Trumpet', the 'Smiling Monarchs', and (thankfully), 'Blueboy'." A Colourful Storm presents Blueboy's singles collection and the band's final retrospective release. Beautiful gatefold sleeve designed by Sarah Records' own Matt Haynes with original artwork insert, postcard, and liner notes by Paul Stewart. Gatefold sleeve, artwork insert, postcard.

LP version. Currently based in Los Angeles, Laurel Halo has spent over a decade stepping into different towns and cities for a moment or more, to the point where everywhere almost became nowhere. Atlas, the debut release on her new imprint Awe, is an attempt to put that feeling to music. Using both electronic and acoustic instrumentation, Halo has created a potent set of sensual ambient jazz collages, comprised of orchestral clouds, shades of modal harmony, hidden sonic details, and detuned, hallucinatory textures. The music functions as a series of maps, for places real and imaginary, and for expressing the unsaid. The process of writing Atlas began back in 2020 when she reacquainted herself with the piano. She relished the piano's physical feedback, as well as its capacity to express emotion and lightness. And when the legendary Ina-GRM Studios in Paris invited her to take up a residency the following year in 2021, she spared no time to dub, stretch and manipulate some of the simple piano sketches she'd recorded over the prior months; these subtle piano recordings and electronic manipulations would go on to become the heart of Atlas. In the remainder of 2021 and 2022, with time spent between Berlin and London, Halo recorded additional guitar, violin and vibraphone, as well as acoustic instrumentation from friends and collaborators including saxophonist Bendik Giske, violinist James Underwood, cellist Lucy Railton, and vocalist Coby Sey. All of these sounds were shaped, melted, and re-composed into the arrangements, their acoustic origins rendered uncanny. In short, Atlas is road trip music for the subconscious. With repeated listens, it is a record that can leave a deep sensorial impression on the listener, akin to walking at dusk in a dark forest. Its humor and sharp focus would dispel any notions of sentimentality. Completely distinct from the rest of Halo's catalog, Atlas is an album that thrives in the quietest places, rejecting bombast and embracing awe. Fitting that it's the debut release on her new recording label, whose slogan parallels the mood and atmosphere of the album: Awe is something you feel when confronted with forces beyond your control: nature, the cosmos, chaos human error, hallucinations.

Minor Science -- aka UK-born, Berlin-based musician Angus Finlayson -- makes his Balmat debut with Absent Friends Vol. III, the third installment in a shape-shifting series across a variety of formats and platforms. And with it, he pushes forward his vision of ambient music as neither static vista or merely mood-setting atmosphere, but rather a dynamic matrix of textures, sensations, and even rhythms. The first two Absent Friends -- a 2014 set for Blowing Up the Workshop, and a 2017 cassette and web player for Whities (now AD93) -- were hybrid affairs, part DJ mix and part collage, mostly featuring music made by other people. Then, in 2020-21, Finlayson developed the project into a live show of his own material. Armed with hundreds of bespoke stems created in his studio -- idiosyncratic FX chains, feedback loops through cheap rack gear, heavily post-processed field recordings, found voices, etc. -- he would improvise on four CDJs, mixer, FX, and live synths, extending techniques he learned as a club DJ into a live context, accompanied by visuals by Stockholm-based artist Paul Witherden. Absent Friends Vol. III is an album of studio versions of the music developed for the live show. But in Minor Science's world, even a category as simple as "studio versions" is slightly opaque. Finlayson's organic process of ideation and realization might help explain the unusual coherence of the album, in which sounds and textures flow seamlessly from one to the next, sometimes seeming to stand still, and sometimes looping back. There are virtually no melodies, few recognizable motifs or riffs, yet the eight-track album nevertheless moves with a distinctive logic and a determined sense of purpose, from the frozen-in-time shimmer of the opening "Introduction" through the early cuts' studies of space and light; from the seemingly autobiographical "Summer Diary" through the rushing trance (yes, trance) arpeggios of "Contingency" and on to the dulcet denouement of the closing "Gather Your Party (Dispersed Mix)."

"On the cover: L'Rain. Inside: Trevor Mathison, Blevin Blectum, Piotr Kurek, Al Karpenter, Kate Gentile, Minaru, Invisible Jukebox: Paul Rooney, Global Ear: Beijing, The Inner Sleeve: People Like Us, Epiphanies: Alvin Curran, Unlimited Editions: Red Hook Records, Unofficial Channels: DaMetalMessiah, and in the reviews sections: Jessica Ackerley, Armand Hammer, Stuart Dempster, Thurston Moore, Horace Tapscott, Etran D L'Aïr, and more."

Double LP version. Compiled by Ralf Koster, DJ and curator of Hamburg's Golden Pudel Club, Where The Rabbit Sleeps is an extensive collection of tracks by Sensorama, a project comprising Jorn Elling Wuttke and Roman Flugel. Working as a production team since the late 1980s in various guises such as Acid Jesus, Alter Ego, and Primitive Painter, the pair also founded several labels with DJ Ata and Heiko MSO (Ongaku, Klang Elektronik, Playhouse). They released their debut album as Sensorama in 1995. Their music draws on a wide range of influences which reach far beyond the generic borders of techno. Sensorama released the last of their three albums in 2001, leaving us with an extraordinary body of work which still resonates today. The new compilation Where The Rabbit Sleeps offers a deep insight into the musical world of Sensorama. It is available on CD or as a double LP with a gatefold cover, remastered by Andreas "Lupo" Lubich, with new artwork by Rike Weigert and liner notes by Charlotte Goltermann, Christoph Dallach, and Andreas Dorau.

With the trio all hailing from the Pennine moorlands just above the Manc sprawl, Jon Collin and Demdike Stare's shared musical expression understandably reflects a parallax purview that follows leylines between lusher nooks of the inner city and windswept, barren landscapes. Never ones to play it straight, the Swedish Nyckelharpa -- a sort of hybrid viola/hurdy gurdy -- is deployed deep into a mix of oblique soundscaping, seeping into a swirl of field recordings, screwed spoken word and phosphorescent drones pinging with tape delay. Split into two distinct sides, the album opens with a scrape of wood and metal that introduces us to the nyckelharpa. Scratching its surface and strings, Collin reveals its peculiar tonality, while Demdike cut through its dissonant textures. Like ancient campfire rituals recorded to decaying 1/4" tape, the music on Minerals feels as if it's in dialog with the past, shuttled into the present by abstract processes. By the side's third act, resonant gongs billow around pitched wails that eventually collapse into silence. The second side is more spirited, opening with a thumbed kalimba cut through reverberant strings that recall Arthur Russell's iconic echo-drenched recordings. Through elaborate concréte techniques, Collin's ancient fiddle dissolves into a ferric gloop that's slowly pulled apart like toffee, taking it to a place where you can no longer really tell what you're listening to or how it was made. In fact, unlike pretty much everything we've heard from Demdike before, the material here feels mechanical rather than electronic, making for one of the most impactful, unusual releases in the vast sprawl of their catalogue thus far.

2023 restock. "In 1987, Rafael Toral began making his own compositions and solo recordings. 30 years later, these recordings sound remarkably prescient and perfectly timeless -- almost fresher today than when they were first released. Rafael has spent the time since then developing his conceptions, with continued explorations in the many records that have followed. On the 30th anniversary of his start, we are reissuing Sound Mind Sound Body and Wave Field, his first two long out-of-print albums, on vinyl for the first time. Sound Mind Sound Body was partly inspired by exploring some of the working principles of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, extrapolated by Rafael via a unique signal path leading out of his guitar. He paid notice to the massive impact of discreet gestures, creating slow-moving tones and spacious orchestral resonances, drifting and droning with glacial majesty, hardly recognizable as guitar much of the time. The first of these pieces were recorded in 1987, and in 1994, they were released on Portugal's AnAnAnA, with material evolved in the years between, producing a remarkable equilibrium over an hour's listening. Further evidence of the necessity for gradual development exists in subsequent reissues: for the 1998 Moikai reissue, AE 1 was recorded, and for this edition, AER 7 E was rerecorded and the material for AE 2 was recorded for the first time ever -- all from original processes as noted, and none of which will cause the listener to notice a change in the otherworldly atmosphere. Wave Field, released in 1995, was a departure from the first album into new composition methods involving the dirty textures of rock guitar, sounding in the open ears of many listeners (like Jim O'Rourke, who issued the disc in the US on dexter's cigar) as a synthesis of disparate elements -- a nexus where Alvin Lucier, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Eno blend together. Here, the clangorous potential of the guitar was emphasized, giving a metallic edge to the two extended pieces and 'radio edit' coda. The jacket paid subtle tribute to My Bloody Valentine, which, along with the radio edit, suggested a harmony between musical directions as wildly disparate as minimalist experimental and rock. Today, such a paradoxical intent is more widely considered as a part of the artist's purview. This allows the sounds of Wave Field and Sound Mind Sound Body to sit perfectly among the forward-reaching music of today -- as it continues to evolve in our ears, moving ever towards the next conception of listening space."

Efficient Space publication Enthusiasms revives with Issue #03. 92 pages covering Ao-tearoa DIY folk proliferator Maxine Funke, the vocal magick of Cucina Povera, Australian devotional jazz mystery Singing Dust, Osaka portal EM Records, unsung dub specialist Sheriff Lindo and the living practice of e fishpool. View post-punk trailblazers through the lens of Rotterdam polaroid photographer Peter Graute, while Swiss artist Elise Gagnebin-de Bons exhibits her series of collages purposed for Ghost Riders. The issue also boasts imaginary mixtapes from Gavsborg, Greg Davis and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Mikey Young, Sonic Boom, and Troth. Perfect bound and illuminated by designer Steele Bonus.

The lost Belgian blueprint of Brussels based jazz fusion and how free form Franco-Flemish punk put Zeuhl school in the Classroom via the conception of COS. Emerging from behind the same clouds that kept formative Belgian progressive jazz records like Brussels Art Quintet and Kiosk's Mona Call in tangible obscurity, these impossibly rare early Euro jazz recordings shed a new ray of light on the intricate foundations of the scene that elevated COS, Marc Moulin, Placebo, Marc Hollander and Telex to Zen master status, while also capturing one of Europe's best female vocal artists in the midst of her wide eyed and uninhibited prime. Never before released on vinyl, these tracks provide a sonic chalkboard of Daniel Schell's ambitious musical equations, recalculated by precocious polymaths, then conveyed via Pascale Son's inquisitive child-like vocal explorations. For those keen to learn the Histoire De Melody COS? The classroom door is open -- prepare to be schooled!

"Skam recorded this stuff between 1982 and 1983, then broke up, leaving these songs to be released... maybe never? Or more preferably, now, to race into the bloodstream of jaded, faded today with all the vigor and rigor of Skam's eternal youth. The band that became Skam was a world apart; they were posited for the first time by 8th graders Vince Forcier and Jack Anderson at a Jackson Browne concert, and their initial rehearsals in their parents' basement were highlighted by covers of Beatles, Stones, Who and Led Zeppelin songs. It wasn't until they'd been playing a bit that they discovered The Ramones, and it was then that the die was cast and pedal pressed to the metal for another frantic couple of years. The Skam recordings from '82 have an undeniably Clash-like countenance that sets them definitively apart from the 'First Four' of dischord -- in some ways, prefiguring the pop-punk sound of Green Day at the dawn of the '90s instead -- but subsequent recordings found them quickly evolving into a personal mastery of savage riffs and tempos, as well as post-punk conceptions. But even as they were verging into this new territory, their three years together had frayed their alliance and they soon broke up. Jack joined No Trend, Vince played in Racer X and then, the second version of Second Wind. The rediscovered Skam tapes make for an incredible addendum to the more well-known music of that incredible time and place. No Name is the name, grab it now!"

WRWTFWW Records is announces the first ever release of the long-lost original motion picture soundtrack from the 1988 cult horror comedy sensation Ghoulies II by the incomparable Fuzzbee Morse. Digging deep to uncover a true gem of the VHS era, this limited-edition vinyl release (500 copies worldwide) marks history in the making as a piece of film score lore is resurrected from the depths of oblivion. The LP is packed with 39 tracks and features an exclusive artwork by French illustrator Pierre Thyss, as well an obi and composer notes. The captivating melodies that once played hauntingly in the background of Ghoulies II were long believed to be lost forever. It took over 30 years and Fuzzbee Morse's unwavering determination to dig out the legendary recordings -- and restore them for full audio pleasure! The superb soundscape of Ghoulies II perfectly captures the chilling and wacky essence of the cult movie, as well as its creepy carnival setting. Morse, citing influences such as Bernard Hermann, Frank Zappa, and Igor Stravinsky, flexes his multi-instrumentalist skills, flowing with ease between magical fairground elements (with brilliant use of calliope, tuba, flutes and sparkly sounding synthesizers), dark atmospheres and frightening attacks (tribal percussion, strings, along with dissonant, atonal gongs, bowed cymbals), and goofy moods (bassoon, bass clarinet, glockenspiel, trumpet, clarinet). It's big cinematic horror movie music with a lighter comedic touch -- the '80s live again! To complete this collector's edition, French illustrator Pierre Thyss (the man behind the WRWTFWW Records logo) lends his talent to provide awe-inspiring visuals that flawlessly encapsulate the juxtaposition of horror and comedy Ghoulies II follows the release of the full uncut soundtrack of Ghoulies (1985) which was released on vinyl for the first time ever by WRWTFWW Records in 2020 alongside soundtracks for other Richard Band-composed, Empire Pictures-produced classics: TerrorVision and Troll. All these '80s horror favorites are still available -- complete the collection now!

Alan Abrahams aka Portable returns to the label in fine form with his latest full-length LP, Augmented Dreams. The title refers to the use of everyday technological advancements to achieve what were once only dreams or visions of past generations, making this an explorative concept album that is equal parts not-too-distant science fiction, and about as topical as it gets. From the gorgeous opening string layers of "The Pull of Time" to the classy 4/4 grooves of "Begin Again" or lead single "Guiding Me", into the apropos and angular sci-fi broken beat feels of "Parallax" and "The Color of Static", fitting Detroit-influenced love taps like "Beacon" and "The Mycorrhizal Network", the politically-inspired "Are We Not Above It?" referencing the lingering effects of colonization featuring NiQ E from South Africa on vocals and L_cio from Brazil on flute, through to the futurist pop elegance of the dreamy duet recorded with Alexey Kochetkov "I Need You" and the conclusive titular track, it is clear that both the in-depth concept and immaculately-crafted musical content in Portable's inimitable style are balanced in significance and expressive effect. This also functions as a timely statement in itself, as today's iceberg-tip evolution of AI technology is currently impending over the arts and many of our existing realities. This ten-song album serves as an imaginative yet hyperrealist narrative on how humanity's fascination with and reliance on ever-advancing technology defines the times we find ourselves in, while the skillful sonic displays and present-era production techniques along with Abraham's knack for timeless emotive songwriting offer up this solid soundtrack for the ages.

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; includes download card. zeitkratzer director Reinhold Friedl and his ensemble present new compositions, grounded on Domenico Scarlatti's piano sonata F-minor K.466. Commissioned by the dance company Rubato and dedicated to Mario Bertoncini (1932-2019). Little is known about Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757). His music is, so to speak, left to its own devices: free, cheeky, playful, sonorous, surprising. Harmonically strolling again and again into unforeseen regions, the ear leads, not the theory; and also, the fingers get their right: playful and haptic it goes. Scarlatti explained, "since nature has given me ten fingers and my instrument provides employment for all, I see no reason why I should not use all ten of them." Freedom, friction, and listening pleasure instead of convention: "He knew quite well that he had disregarded all the rules of composition in his piano pieces, but asked whether his deviation from the rules offended the ear? He believes there is almost no other rule than that of not offending the only sense whose object is music -- the ear." Reinhold Friedl applied this principle and composed the music for a choreography by dance company Rubato. Dance music drawn from Scarlatti, who was so inspired by dance music. The material of the piano sonata F-minor K.466 is twisted anew in all its richness, shifted back and forth, declined, frozen, noise-ified, sound structures extracted, floating. Those who know the sonata, will more than smell its shadows. Dedicated to Mario Bertoncini (Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza) who was particularly fond of K.466, on which all the music presented here is grounded.

The musical cosmos is set to bestow upon us a celestial gem that shall set dancefloors ablaze and hearts aflutter. It is none other than the enigmatic Marco Passarani aka David Woods of Tiger & Woods, the sonic alchemist who has been tantalizing senses with his kaleidoscopic grooves. Imagine, if you will, a voyage through a wormhole that transcends time and space, landing you smack dab in the midst of a euphoric dancefloor utopia. This upcoming opus, Shuffling The Cards Again, promises to be a magnum opus of cosmic proportions. David Woods has summoned their sonic forces to curate a soundscape that defies convention, much like a comet hurtling through the night sky, leaving trails of sonic stardust in its wake!

Pavel Milyakov (Buttechno) and Aleksandra Zakharenko (Perila) unveil their collaborative debut as pmxper. Recorded (mostly) remotely between 2020-2022, but mired in a mutual interiority, their sublimely smoky venture bridges strains of spoken word, strung-out country folk, jazz and etheric kosmische with a timeless control of mood and atmosphere that amounts to one of the finest episodes in either's oeuvre. In a properly enchanted blurring of identity, they almost entirely dispense with digital tools in favor of more pastoral and timeless energies; guitar, sax, jazzy brush drums and a Rhythm Ace FR-3 drum machine, a sort of precursor to Roland's simmering CR-78. It's that sax that takes you places though, daubing accents of blushed romance over walls of guitar in various formations, all of which sidestep the widescreen cliché in favor of something more nuanced and unusual. This isn't the open road of Lynch and Badalamenti, more the careening trailblaze of Conny Plank and Holger Czukay, Angela Conway and Bruce Gilbert, The Jesus & Mary Chain and Hope Sandoval's Stoned & Dethroned, like a melted Venus in Furs, soft, and fritzed.

2023 repress. Erkin Koray and Sublime Frequencies are pleased to present this collection of rare tracks and lesser-heard singles. All tracks were recorded and released in Turkey between 1970-1977 and culled from Koray's personal vinyl collection. Includes exclusive photos and remastered audio. What more is there to say about Erkin Koray? An iconic guitar and songwriting genius. A voice of gold. Having founded the country's first-ever rock and roll group in 1957, he is regarded worldwide as the father of Turkish rock. Forging Western sounds with his own inimitable musical mastery, he self-produced singles and LPs throughout the 1960s and 1970s that shook and altered Turkish society. Erkin didn't stop at rock and roll. Over time, he began to find inspiration in folk sounds from Turkey's Anatolian interior, and radio broadcasts received from Egypt and Lebanon. He looked to the East from his West-leaning Istanbul perch, and began incorporating these sounds into his own work. This amalgamation was as unprecedented and unorthodox in Istanbul at the time as rock and roll itself had been in the 1950s. The resulting hybrid sound ignited what became known as the Arabesque music movement in Turkey -- which continues to this day. While Erkin has recorded and performed tirelessly throughout the years (both as a solo artist, and with the powerful groups he formed), his extensive back catalog only began to be explored by the international community in the 1990s. He is now recognized as one of the foremost global leaders of psychedelic, folk rock, pop and balladry. His music has stood the test of time more than many of his Western contemporaries and influences have managed to, and his prolific work ethic has not ceased. He continues to live and breathe music, performing epic concerts, and continuously plotting new recordings and strategies. His vision and integrity, coupled with his pronounced world views and inherent musical greatness, have made him the unique and magnificent living legend he is today. This collection features tracks not found on the many unauthorized Erkin compilations and LP reissues that have emerged in the West over the years. Ranging from the sublime to the surreal, these tracks offer an essential glimpse into the extensive repertoire of the great Erkin Koray. --Mark Gergis, July, 2011

Mystic choral beauty drifting far into the outer cosmos, this other worldly traditional music ensemble creates a contemporary-sounding avant-garde vocal fusion combined with strange instrumental accompaniment. The HANI are linguistically derived from the YI branch of the Tibeto-Burmese and number a million and a half in the southern part of Yunnan province in China above Laos and Vietnam where smaller Hani communities also live. As with many other ethnic groups of the area, an original traditional singing pattern is used with each singer adapting the words to the context. The choir that gathers all singers at the same time is considered to be a very unique style of vocal polyphony or heterophony. The cascading, mournful feel of this music is powerfully transcendent and you've never heard anything like it. Many of these songs express intimate strong emotions that bring tears to the performers while they are singing. Instruments used by the ensemble include the BABI (single tree leaf) and MEPA (rolled up tree leaf in a shape of a horn or mirliton), a CHIWO (3-stringed bowed instrument), a LABI (6-holed bamboo flute), a LAHE (3-stringed small lute) and a MEBA (vertical reed instrument). All tracks featuring singers and musicians from the Hani tribe in Yunnan China. Recorded by Laurent Jeanneau in 2011, this Limited-Edition vinyl LP includes a two-sided insert with photos, liner notes, and names of all the vocalists and accompanying musicians.

Mats Erlandsson is a composer and musician, part of the vibrantly reemerging field of drone music in Stockholm, Sweden, associated with practices characterized by the extensive use of sustained sound. Erlandsson presents his work both as a solo artist and in collaborations, most notably together with Yair Elazar Glotman and Maria W Horn. The music on this recording is performed by a kind of fictitious chamber ensemble situated in an imaginary room outlined by textures that alternate between gestural foreground and passive landscape. The three pieces contained within this release are tied together by sharing similar harmonic material and instrumentation and could ideally be perceived as parts of one long performance stretching through the two sides of the record. The textural room in which this musical performance operates is unreliable, unstable, constantly shifting in size and activity from sparse and open to dense and claustrophobic. Inside this non-euclidean performance space a chamber ensemble made up of zithers expanded through analog tape transposition, harmonium and organ, double bass, digital FM, feedback-convolution and Serge modular synthesizer perform a music made from justly tuned intervals arranged in a way that blurs the distinction between traditional minor and major tonal harmony in favor of harmonic progression within an essentially modal framework. The material used to make these pieces included non-harmonic sounds and contaminated field-recordings that have gone through a sort of feedback process between digital and analog, or acoustic, processing where the recordings were edited, processed and re-amplified and recorded again in acoustic spaces to shape their character and imprint acoustic identities on the recordings. The tonal instruments were treated in a process analogous to this -- harmonic material built from recordings and digitally generated synthesis recorded, transcribed, rearranged and overdubbed again with additional electronic or acoustic instruments to form a composite electroacoustic instrumental sound.

XKatedral Anthology II is the second instalment in a series of archival releases dedicated to presenting music by composers affiliated with XKatedral working within the realm of slowly evolving harmonic and timbral music. This double-vinyl set contains an array of pieces dating from 2018 to 2020. This collection of pieces focuses on the use of synthetic sound and algorithmic composition languages as tools for precise work within the realm of spectral exploration. In addition to this, the electronic instrumentation in many of the pieces is augmented by acoustic instruments. Featuring: Kali Malone, Jessica Ekomane, Mats Erlandsson, Theodor Kentros, Wilma Hultén, Maria W Horn.

LP version. 180 gram vinyl. Flocks is a new duo, formed by drone specialist Werner Durand and Uli Hohmann. Musical landscapes that move between traditional as well as experimental sounds with influences from Krautrock and Jon Hassel's "fourth world" aesthetics. Werner Durand has made himself a name with various projects with Dhrupad singer Amelia Cuni, playing with Urban Sax, Arnold Dreyblatt, Henning Christiansen, David Behrman, Ellen Fullman, Catherine Christer Hennix, as the co-founder of The 13th Tribe, Armchair Traveller and Tonaliens (with Robin Ayward and Hilary Jeffery) plus numerous solo albums, released on labels like Black Truffle, Unseen Worlds, or Edition Telemark. Having studied saxophone as well as Indian/Persian flutes, the Berlin based Durand is a highly reputable protagonist in the drone scene, famous for his self-built wind instruments like buzz-clarinets or his PVC neys and horns. His partner in Flocks (and longtime personal friend) is Uli Hohmann whose early encounters with music from Asia, India and Africa led to studies with the Ghanaian master drummer Mustapha Tettey Addy and later Tombak and Daf with Nemad Darman (Iran). Hohmann played in a couple of projects that explored the language of classical Persian music, and started building his own stringed instruments (being an educated carpenter). In 2014, he joined Durand and Amelia Cuni for the album Clearing, and 2018 Duran and Hohmann decided to continue as a duo: Flocks was born. On their self-titled debut, they shape drone-y soundscapes based on their self-built wind- and stringed-instruments, Persian percussion and subtle electronics, drawing additional inspiration from krautrock (listen to the irresistible, hypnotic groove of "Quicksand") as well as Jon Hassel's "fourth world" aesthetics, placing the duo nicely between tradition and experiment.

Double LP version. 180 gram vinyl. Printed inner sleeves. 2023 marks 35 years since the first single by The Brand New Heavies. Never Stop (Best of) contains twenty-one seminal tracks from acid jazz royalty, The Brand New Heavies, who transcended London's local funk scene to become to enjoy global success across with hits such as "Sometimes", "You Are The Universe", "Dream on Dreamer", "Midnight at The Oasis", and more. This new compilation brings together all the singles from the band's time with London Records, featuring 15 Top 40 UK, five Top 20 UK, and one Top 10 UK hits. Liner notes from producer and long-time fan, Mark Ronson. Presented on double heavyweight vinyl with 21 hits -- all their biggest hits plus four US Singles. "Bonafied Funk" features Main Source and Large Professor.

GAF are back! This time under their Estrella de la Muerte configuration and with a gateway musical behemoth double album into the cosmic unknown. The prolific project, helmed by local Canarian anchorman Mladen Kurajica, dwells deep into esoteric rock genres and this time, they waste no time in plunging the listener into their brave new type of cosmic rock with a deeply influenced krautrock voyage of '70s jamming and psychonautic exploration. Recorded over three days in the cultural space of El Tanque, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, at the height of the covid pandemic of 2020 and during one of the hottest summers to date, the band entered the space with no plan in mind deciding instead to approach the recording sessions without any preconceived ideas or pre-composed songs. Clean out of external influences and ready to experiment they loaded in all their available gear, including an array of modular synths, in order to create a new approach to song writing and flesh out some ideas for a future album in situ. The very process of that search, through pure improvisation and jamming, became the album we're presenting here. No overdubs or subsequent edits were done, except for cutting some songs so that they could fit on the album. Almost five hours of recordings in total, finally reaching a seven-track, 69-minute double LP. All the reverb heard on the record is the natural reverb of El Tanque, a 16-second tail natural reverb recorded with several room mics at different locations in the venue. Eventually this became the first fully instrumental album by the Estrella de la Muerte configuration, with a line-up of seven musicians (Gaf y Estrella de la Muerte are normally a sextet). Enter then, this inspired selection of psychedelically damaged tunes, '70s space rock, psychoacoustics, and Kosmishe inspired jamming. This is healing music for your mind-altering journeys. The titled "Pyramids" here serving not only as a gateway to the cosmic unknown but also as an exploratory symbol of the bands willingness to freely embrace their subconscious inner flows into a cosmic collective. Ecstatic music for these times.

2023 restock. R.I.P. Milford Graves, 1941-2021. Please watch the amazing Jake Meginsky documentary film "Milford Graves Full Mantis" if you haven't had the chance (streaming freely in the world). Corbett Vs. Dempsey presents a reissue of Milford Graves's Bäbi, originally issued in 1977 on Graves's own IPS label. This is the first reissue of one of the most legendary albums in the history of free music. Recorded live in concert in 1976, when Graves' trio with saxophonists Arthur Doyle and Hugh Glover was at the height of its powers, Bäbi is a testament to the absolutely unique approach the drummer had established for himself. He had reconfigured the drum kit, removing the second heads on all the drums and replacing the snare with two toms, which allowed him a much more nuanced sense of indirectness in his multi-directional adventures in time. The track "Ba" remains one of the most astonishing feats of percussion alchemy ever waxed, as funky as ten slap bassists and as free as an exploding grenade. Doyle and Glover are incendiary, too, inspired by Graves to new and shocking heights of achievement, their hoarse cries and whistling split-tones carried to thrilling plateaus on the energy of Graves' hands and feet. The original tapes for the session have been lost, so the reissue was lovingly remastered from virgin vinyl, itself now worth a mint. In 2017, Graves discovered a previously unknown tape in his archives featuring the same trio at its inception, in home recordings made seven years earlier, in 1969. Graves pummels a huge gong while Glover plays an instrument that, after sounding like none ever known, turns out to be bass clarinet. Extreme music recorded up close and very hot, it is among the most searing sessions never heard, until now. Rounding out the two-CD package are three previously unpublished photos by Gérard Rouy, and the original LP cover design by Graves himself.

Len Faki has always been a defining character of the techno underground. His unique approach to DJing, the consistent work as a producer and the quality output of his label Figure has all shaped the current environment. Finally faced with the opportunity of a long overdue creative break from touring, Faki decided tackle the life-time venture of releasing an album with the necessary dedication and focus. Naturally the result emerged as two parallel experiences. Both still carry all the signature features of Faki's style but with added layers of depth and detail. There's that special contrast of dark and heady grooves, paired with dreamy melodies that transport the listener to places beyond the mind. But we also see all strains of his previous work being incorporated, mixed and molded into something new altogether. While the first disc focuses on the kind of techno, which Faki has been brought up by and given back to for so many years of his life, the second is looser and more experimental, with forays into house, ambient and broken beats -- the sounds he has always kept very passionate about. It creates two distinct experiences, showcasing the entire breadth of Faki's cosmos. Many songs even exist as pairings, with their respective counterpart on another disc. Faki has given us a complete artistic statement, one that proves him to be as curious and driven now as ever, taking his sound to all-new realms.

2023 repress. "It's safe to say that hip-hop has never seen an album like Ol' Dirty Bastard's 1995 solo debut Return to the 36 Chambers. The brief glimpses of ODB's unhinged genius provided by Wu-Tang Clan's landmark Enter the Wu-Tang album two years earlier were begging to be expanded on to a larger canvas, and, with RZA guiding production, the album promised to give Dirty the creative license to make one of the most bizarre, entertaining and original LPs in hip-hop history. With his raspy, drunken flow and dark sense of humor, Dirty fearlessly attacks from all angles, throwing himself fearlessly into punchy rhyme attacks ('Damage,' with GZA), drugged-out party jams (the monster singles 'Brooklyn Zoo' and 'Shimmy Shimmy Ya') and bizarre, grimly hilarious fantasies of sex and violence ('Don't U Know' and the R&B-tinged 'Sweet Sugar Pie'). Backed by RZA's appropriately gritty, dissonant beats and appearances from the Clan, Return became an instant hit, selling over 1 million copies and earning a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album in 1996. The album stands as a high water mark in the Wu Tang Clan's collective creative output and was selected as one of the Best 100 Rap Albums by The Source magazine in 1998. In honoring the legacy of one of hip-hop's most innovative releases, Get On Down is proud to present this incredible and unique special edition of Ol' Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers as a double LP which contains the complete original album, remastered for optimal sound quality." Includes 18"x24" poster.

LP version. Building off of the themes of identity, storytelling and experimentation on her critically acclaimed debut album, Khonnar (2018), Deena Abdelwahed's album Jbal Rrsas is the next chapter of a reimagining of what club music could be. The album spans seven tracks of bass, techno, and experimental music, with Abdelwahed consulting with masterminds like Tunisian composer and multi-instrumentalist Khalil Hentati, aka Khalil Epi, and Iraqi-British multi-instrumentalist, composer, and researcher Khyam Allami, as well as Egyptian mastering engineer Heba Kadry, to help realise her vision. Jbal Rrsas starts with the seductively apocalyptic opener, "The Key to the Exit," a deconstructed sha'bi production. With tracks like "Six as Oil" and the delightfully intense "Violence for Free," Abdelwahed leads users to a desert rave, where industrial rhythms are left unbridled. Abdelwahed's vocals on "Complain" and "Pre-Island" are powerful and exposed, confidently placed on dizzying avant-garde productions. The Wire previously said "[Khonnar is] an assured debut that sits on the edge of a whole swathe of possibilities, not only sonic but also geographical, social and political." With Jbal Rrsas finds Abdelwahed deftly navigating through those possibilities, frequently pushing against genres, labels, and social identifiers, while elevating club music to otherworldly heights.

Cassy returns with E.T. Ascension, a mini journey through the sounds of house and techno which she adores. With this release she revisits the simplistic methods she used when making music in previous years when living in Berlin with her then husband, where he helped build her home-studio in the living room. With him being an established sound engineer she learned a lot from him through the process and by using predominantly just an 808 and a PC, the pair produced the main parts of these tracks together, with Cassy finishing them off herself last summer. It reminded her of the weirdness that makes her productions so great, which is what she has pinned on this release, enjoying the feelings of freedom by using the machine again, and revisiting the feelings she had when using the machine for the first time, how fresh, new and particular the sounds were.

Number one in the charts in more than 20 countries with more than 2.6 million physical singles sold, a mythical video clip that is shown H24 on all TV channels, nominated for an MTV Award & Victoire de la musique, the most broadcast French song in the world for two years in a row... 20 years later, Starlight still arouses an unfailing love. The opportunity to revive this classic with a "20th Anniversary" collector's vinyl reissue. Starlight exploded and broke all records when it was released at the beginning of the millennium. 20 years later, the industry has completely transformed but the track is still popular! A classic that is all the more notorious for having been part of the advent of a new genre that would mark the history of music: the "French Touch", shaped by Daft Punk, Stardust, Cassius, Etienne de Crécy, Modjo, and thus The Supermen Lovers. The opportunity to revive this icon with a collector's vinyl reissue; new mix, new master, new disco version, all engraved on a numbered white vinyl as well as a poster (60x90cm) and maybe the chance to find one of the 10 hidden golden tickets, allowing lifetime access to all the artist's dates.

Approximately three years after the release of their debut album, Etnobotanika are back. Leśne Duchy is yet another joint release from the Silesian duo, coming out on the collaborative efforts of Superkasety Records and The Very Polish Cut Outs. These are still the sounds of a dusty old cassette, however this time the digging didn't take place in the allotment gardens, but rather somewhere in the woods, within a thick layer of moss. Hauntology and nostalgia still play important roles yet they are no longer in the foreground. Certain associations with primordial magic, wild backwoods and unspeakable mysteries come to the fore. The ambience encapsulated in these tropes is the key to understanding this album. One can, of course, mention that sonically the producers are once again flirting with dubtechno, ambient and sampled collages, but all these genre clichés are only tools resulting from the individual inspirations and experiences of Alergeek and Uwdar (i.e. the two halves of Etnobotanika), and are meant to build the right mood, not to put Leśne Duchy into the tight framework of, say, club music or trip-hop. If this album is to be pinned down to anything, it is probably library music. The 80 minutes of music spanning two vinyl records and a chunk of cassette tape make for quite a long record, Etnobotanika however make sure there is absolutely no dullness, precisely thanks to the variety of moods.

2023 repress. Wewantsounds release Sharayet El Disco a selection of Egyptian '80s disco and boogie tracks curated by Egyptian DJ Disco Arabesquo from his vast collection of cassettes. Most tracks have never been released on any other format and are making their vinyl debut with this set. A journey through the funky sound of '80s Egypt, Sharayet El Disco (which can be translated by "Disco Cassettes") features Simone, Ammar El Sherei, and more obscure names from Cairo's cassette culture. Sharayet El Disco is part of an important mission for Moataz Rageb aka Disco Arabesquo. The Amsterdam-based Egyptian DJ has been collecting cassettes from Arab-speaking countries and its diaspora for many years and has amassed a vast collection of Egyptian music concentrating on the '80s, the sound he grew up listening to. His goal has been to search for these rare sounds and make them known to a new vinyl-hungry audience. During this decade, the rich Egyptian music industry, which had seen such stars as Oum Kalthoum, Abdel Halim Hafez, and Warda take the Arab world by storm in the '60s and '70s, was going through a new phase and the cassette format was the cause. This radical change enabled many young musicians and producers to spread their music directly to consumers duplicating cassettes themselves. A new vibrant music scene erupted in Cairo blending their sound with trends coming from the US and Europe including, of course, disco, soul, and funk. The cream from this scene was soon picked up by the most daring labels, including Mohsen Gaber's Alam El Phan, Sout El Hob, and Americana. Sharayet El Disco gives you a glimpse of these great tracks which -- for most of them -- were only ever released on cassette. The set is a unique insight into the diversity of the Egyptian disco sound, from the pulsating disco of "Hezeny" by Hany Shenouda's Al Massrieen band to the boogie of Simone's "Merci", via Firkit El Asdekaa's tongue-in-cheek "Eklib el Sheriet" ("turn the cassette to the other side"), produced by legendary Egyptian musician Ammar El Sherei. The music is both inventive and funky and played with both Western and Arab instruments proving that quality of Egyptian music. Audio remastered for vinyl by David Hachour/Colorsound Studio in Paris. LP artwork by young Egyptian graphic designer Heba Tarek. Includes two-page insert featuring artwork of the original cassettes plus insightful liner notes by Moataz Rageb. Also features Afaf Rady, Dr. Ezat Abou Ouf & el four M, FIrkIt el Ensan, Eman el Bahr Darwish, Firkit Americana Show, and Lebleba.

"A thrilling account of life with Sun Ra's Arkestra and New York's avant-garde jazz scenes of the 1970s-90s. In this memoir, Harlem-born trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah recounts decades of national and international touring with the Sun Ra Arkestra and charts the rise of the New York loft jazz scene, offering a fascinating portrait of advanced music in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan from the 1970s through the 1990s, including thrilling stories about the politically important Bed-Stuy venue The East and the author's tutelage under composer and long-time Archie Shepp collaborator Cal Massey. Along the way, Abdullah covers his spiritual development as a Buddhist, battles with addiction, tribulations as a father, lessons from Sun Ra and working life as an educator and cab driver. Trumpeter and educator Ahmed Abdullah was born in Harlem in 1947. An important figure in the New York loft jazz movement, in 1972 he formed a group called Abdullah, two years before joining the Sun Ra Arkestra, with whom he played for more than 20 years. He is a founding member of the bands Melodic Art-Tet, The Group and NAM, and of the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium. Abdullah is the music director at Sistas' Place in Brooklyn, and teaches music at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan and an elementary school in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn." 512 pages. 6.25(w) x 8.25(h) x (d). Paperback

2023 restock. "A vinyl re-release of the debut-album by legendary krautrock avant garde band Agitation Free, starring Lutz 'Lüül' Graf-Ulbrich on guitar, who late became part of Ash Ra with Manuel Göttsching."

"When the band Agitation Free came together in 1967 as a result of the merging of two Berlin rock groups, one of the most interesting groups in a dawning independent German music scene was created. With their improvisations between rock, jazz and new music, Agitation Free -- soon relegated to the not so flattering category of 'Krautrock' -- made musical forays into areas that few of their fellow German musicians had ever penetrated. At a time when most in Germany were still orienting themselves as closely as possible to Anglo-American musical formats, Agitation Free found a completely new and very original form of musical expression. Starting with their debut album Malesch, Agitation Free delivered a fascinating sound, influenced not least by the manifold impressions from a Near East tour. The band moved toward a form of meta-music, a weaving of exotic-sounding compositions. The album has been justly regarded as a milestone in the genre, especially abroad. Looking back, it's evident that the Agitation Free was one of the most important bands of the experimental circle known as the 'Berlin School', and a career springboard for a whole slew of musicians. At the same time, this policy of changing personnel also meant risking that the band couldn't keep itself together over the long run. Agitation Free consciously took this risk in order to remain as close as possible to their own concept -- free from commercial pressure or concessions to the latest trends and modes."

Limited 2023 restock. In March 1969, the Velvets (with Doug Yule now on bass) embarked on a nationwide tour. One of these included a stint at the "End Of Cole Avenue" club in Dallas -- one of the Velvets' few live performances where a professional sound engineer was actually on hand to record the sets. Some of the songs recorded over those few nights showed up in 1974 on their 1969: Velvet Underground Live album, but the sound quality was not great due to the use of third or fourth generation tapes. However, the first-generation tapes have since resurfaced, and the difference in sound quality (heard here) is a welcome one.