Electrifying heavy sessions recorded in 1997 featuring the classic Mainliner + Musica Transonic lineup of Nanjo Asahito (High Rise), Kawabata Makoto (Acid Mother) and Yoshida Tatsuya (Ruins) driving into new divergently fried terrain(s). Here, Nanjo and co. are on a quest to find new directions, and while the sessions were for an abandoned Mainliner album, a good portion of Solid Static hews more closely to the moment-to-moment deconstructions of Musica Transonic. The propulsive ten-minute opening title track is a lost gem in the canon of Japanese psychedelia and rock and roll -- beginning with one of Mainliner's bludgeoning motor-psycho riffs, it veers off into auratic space, Kawabata's snake-charming guitar weaving around Nanjo's buzz-fire bass and Yoshida's multi-limbed drumming. Musica Transonic's improvised and jazz-informed take on psychedelic rock is writ across the distended rhythms and arcing bass and guitar lines that scrawl across "Prosecutor" and "Topsy Turvy," or the slurry of distorted tone that rolls through "Rot Way." Available for the first time on LP or any physical form aside from a clutch of CDR's sold at a few live dates in the late '90s. Housed in a custom die-cut, "Uni-Pak" style gatefold with metallic ink, spot finishes and matching La Musica inner sleeve.

LP version. WRWTFWW Records presents Interwoven, the deeply moving collaborative album from Ken-ichiro Isoda and aus (Yasuhiko Fukuzono) -- now available on limited edition transparent sea green colored vinyl LP housed in a heavyweight sleeve with selective-varnish 3D print, as well as in digipack CD and digital formats. Recorded between Hachijo Island and Tokyo, Interwoven distills two visionary voices of Japanese ambient and electronic music into a single breath of feather-light and quietly luminous meditative sound. Isoda is a revered figure of New-age and environmental music whose work on Oscilation Circuit -- Série Réflexion 1 (originally released on famed label Sound Process) has long attained mythic status. He composes, notably with harp and wind instruments, produces contemporary music and video game scores, and crafts his very own brand of ambient music from the volcanic island of Hachijo-jima. Tokyo-based electronic composer and synth master aus is known for tender, melody-driven soundscapes. From the two artists comes a dialogue suspended between land and sea, bridging the generation gap and the physical distance between them. What began as a series of sketches -- impressions of water, islands, and shifting light -- gradually evolved into an exchange without explanation, a correspondence of sound that dissolved boundaries. In that anonymity, both artists discovered an uncommon freedom: a place where each could move lightly and intuitively, without expectation. The music drifts with a gentle, intuitive grace: lingering piano, soft cinematic synths, and field recordings that unfold like whispered recollections, while flute and saxophone lines pass through like occasional breezes -- a human presence felt as warmth more than form. Interwoven is music for those who cherish stillness and the delicate beauty of the everyday. It's music for admirers of Satoshi Ashikawa, Midori Takada, Satsuki Shibano, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Takashi Kokubo, Brian Eno, and all who seek a quiet refuge in sound.

"Tommy Peltier's Echo Park, compiled of unheard tapes from the early/mid 1970s, brings listeners into contact with a long-extinct creature -- equal parts slinky hipster, universal soldier of the heart and snuggly loverman -- the light-rockin' tinseltown troubadour, the likes of which hasn't been served around Hollywood since 1979! Tommy's somewhere in the tuneful tradition of Rupert Holmes, Stephen Bishop, Andrew Gold, David Batteau and of course, Captain Fantastic and the Thin White Duke. His soulful songs and high-pitched vocals are paired with the requisite chopsy, jazz-enriched LA players, entrancing the ear with grooves and performances both tasty and sweet. Mixed and mastered with great zest by Jim O'Rourke, Echo Park is an encompassing trip through a whole other time and place. A trumpet player since childhood, Tommy felt no need for pop music; he'd come of age during the west coast jazz explosion of the 1950s, hearing Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker's legendary performances at The Haig Club, just a mile west of MacArthur Park. Inspired by the departures of the Ornette Coleman Quartet, he founded The Jazz Corps in 1963, gigging all around town, including a residency at Hermosa Beach's also-legendary Lighthouse. In '68, he met aspiring singer/songwriter Judee Sill. He found her energy amazing, as she played bass in a group he was sitting in with, and it quickly became clear -- he and Judee were in tune! When Tommy picked up the guitar and started writing songs, she was there with help and encouragement. As the '70s dawned, Tommy was turning 35, but he was also turning the page, like so many others, to find something amazing there on the other side. Amazing music things flow freely up and down the tracklist of Echo Park. Inspired by Yes, Supertramp, ELO, Queen, Bowie, The Beatles and others, Tommy developed and honed his new music throughout the '70s. A handful of the cuts here were recorded between 1970 and '73, just a mile from Echo Park Lake, at an unassuming rear house set back in the hills. Other tracks were recorded at sessions in Hollywood in 1975 and '76, at now-obscure studios like Music Grinder and Heritage. Tommy's first pop band, Jasmine, appear on 'Here Today'. Tommy has continued to play music, releasing new stuff with Plastic Theatre Art Band in 1996, and a number of releases under his own name, most recently in 2011."

2026 repress. Faitiche presents a long-lost vinyl album. Since 2003, Jan Jelinek's Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, originally released in 2001 on ~scape, existed only as a download. Now the album is available again on vinyl, as a double LP with two bonus tracks, "Moiré (Guitar & Horns)" and "Poren", B-sides from Tendency EP (2000).

"Don't be misled by the title, though for there isn't a finger-snapping rhythm bebop lead anywhere on the album. Instead, Jelinek chooses to explore the visual effect moiré - two shifting patterns creating an implied third dimension - in the audio realm." --Alternative Press

"The title acts as explanation for the studio technique that provided the basis for this album, snippets of other people's arrangements deconstructed through a sampler into loops and then splashed onto an audio canvas." --ATM

"Jelinek's sound evolved out of his dislike for (and inability to play) keyboards." --RPM

"Jelinek has abstracted his sources beyond recognition, looping his millisecond samples into flickering patterns of sonic moiré laid atop a dub techno framework. . . . Jelinek might as well have sampled a horn player's hissing intake of breath - it would have been 'jazz' enough for his purposes." --The Wire

"It's a perfect inversion of conventional music, a sonic negative. Everything that would typically be foreground is moved back or pushed off the screen altogether, and the flecks of sonic debris that would normally be covered by other sounds are left to carry the melody and rhythm." --Pitchfork

"All you need to know is that these onomatopoeic non-specific songs . . . are warm, paradisiacal creations." --NME

"Listen carefully and you'll hear textures slowly unfolding and mutating. Presuming you've not fallen asleep of course." --iDJ

"At times, it's all a bit dripping tap Japanese water torture; so sedentary it drowns in its own motionlessness" --DJ

"Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records is a genuine modern classic whose re-release is anything but a cynical mortgage repayment exercise. Consider this a second chance, then pretend you had it all along." --Boomkat

2026 restock. LP version. 180 gram vinyl. Continually pushing the boundaries of jazz, funk, electronic music and disco, as expressed through their signature samba swing, the Brazilian mavericks Azymuth, have recreated the energy of those spellbinding seventies sessions which would launch them into international recognition and confirm their status as one of Brazil's most successful bands. Since the passing of keyboard maestro Jose Roberto Bertrami in 2012, remaining members Ivan Conti and Alex Malheiros have worked tirelessly to keep the spirit of Azymuth alive, and to continue the legacy of Bertrami's genius. But Fênix also marks a new era as the Azymuth trio is complete once again, by special guest keyboardist Kiko Continentino. A hugely talented pianist, composer and arranger, Kiko has worked with the likes of Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil and Djavan, and the fresh energy and inspiration he has brought to the group is undeniable. The album also features Brazilian percussion legend Robertinho Silva, one of Brazil's most important and influential players. From the disco-carnival title track to sunny jazz-funk head-nodder "Orange Clouds", through to the deep-space samba "Corumbá", Azymuth have drawn upon five decades of consummate craftsmanship which, coupled with their endless desire for experimentation and improvisation, has resulted in a ten-track journey encapsulating the full spectrum of Azymuth's brilliantly colored expressionist fusion. With all the cosmic energy and masterful musicianship you'd expect from the three-man orchestra, Azymuth rise from the ashes! Recorded in Rio De Janeiro in May 2016 with producers Daniel Maunick and Joe Davis.

Tragic Magic brings together Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore, two of contemporary ambient, experimental and electronic music's most celebrated composers, for a unique collaboration at the Philharmonie de Paris, with extraordinary access to the Musée de la Musique's instrument collection, in partnership with the French label InFiné. The album features seven immersive, evocative compositions guided by the human spirit -- intimate, grounded in friendship, both earthly and cosmic -- and part of a greater continuum, reflecting the solace and transformative power of artistry across generations. Co-produced by Trevor Spencer (Fleet Foxes, Beach House), Tragic Magic was created in just nine days, a testament to the "musical telepathy" that has developed between Barwick and Lattimore over years of touring and friendship. Arriving in Paris from Los Angeles shortly after the 2025 wildfires, their sessions combined improvisation with the emotions and experiences they carried, in a setting both inspiring and deeply supportive. Lattimore selected harps tracing the instrument's evolution from 1728 to 1873, while Barwick chose several iconic analog synthesizers, including the Roland JUPITER and Sequential Circuits PROPHET-5. In freeform dialogue between voice and instrument, they create a meditation on tragedy, wonder, and the restorative power of shared experience. The duo, often joined by Spencer, also explored the city, sharing meals and visiting museums and landmarks, each encounter leaving an impression on their next session. The experience allowed them to work intimately with rare instruments, blending their personal sensibilities with centuries of history, resulting in music that honors the past while remaining a deeply authentic expression of the present. Throughout Tragic Magic, Barwick and Lattimore find something beyond themselves: a sense that while everything may not be okay, beauty persists. Their approach -- transforming life into music, observing, feeling, and creating -- continues a lineage of creative expression and visionary invention, embodied in the very instruments they employed for this project. LP version (IF 1100LP) comes in forest green biovinyl and includes 30x60cm poster, printed inner-sleeves.

2026 restock. Originally released on Lovely Music in 1998. Double CD of all five of Elaine Radigue's songs in tribute to the Tibetan saint and poet from the 11th century. Two of the tracks dates from Radigue's first release in 1983, two are previously unreleased and the final 62-minute track was previously issued as a sole CD in 1987. The material is performed by Radigue (synthesizer and recording), Robert Ashley (English voice), and Lama Kunga Rinpoche (Tibetan voice). Radigue was born in France and has studied under Pierre Shaeffer and Pierre Henry; her music has an extremely organic and mystical electronics vibe, and has been previously documented on Phill Niblock's XI label, as well as Metamkine and Lovely. Milarepa is a great saint and poet of Tibet who lived in the 11th century. Through years dedicated to meditation and related practices in the solitude of the mountains, Milarepa achieved the highest attainable illumination and the mental power that enabled him to guide innumerable disciples. His ability to present complex teachings in a simple, lucid style is astonishing. He had a fine voice and loved to sing. When his patrons and disciples made a request or asked him a question, he answered in spontaneously composed free-flowing poems or lyric songs. It is said that he composed 100,000 songs to communicate his ideas in his teachings and conversations.

2026 restock. "First officially licensed release ever. 'So you're addicted to hard rock from 1972 and getting tired of LPs that don't take you for the full ride. You check out tons of 'em. Stonewall? Hmmm... only the most potent and rare stuff can get you off nowadays. Kicks intense enough to remind you why you got into it in the first place. Jams you can't wait to lay on your friends so uncontrollably alive you know it's gonna wipe 'em out. Yeah... you really need Stonewall. It's ritual time. Drop the needle into the groove. Side One. Stoned swaggering confidence, attitude and energy right out of the gate. Stonewall immediately take charge with 'Right On', an 'incite-the-audience, invoke-the-jams' renegade rocker akin to 'Are You Ready?' by Grand Funk or 'Combination of the Two' by Big Brother conceptually but taken way further. I can't say more without some sort of spoiler alert. To mess with your head, after a near cluster-fuck with the audience in the opening track comes 'Solitude'. No problem. 'Solitude, it do not bother me... drifting from mountains to the endless sea... oh, I'm flying by myself, I don't a-need nobody else'. After a savage encounter with 'Bloody Mary' the side ends with my favorite track. As soon as the guitar riff ignites 'Outer Spaced' you know you're gonna get crushed. The singer is taunting 'hey baby this ain't no come on to impress you" tossing purple planets and pure white galaxies into the mix and sneering like an outcast "I'm out in the wind and rain and snow, breaking may back!' Attitude. Climax. 'Outer space... God I'm out of my mind!' If that sounds like a rush, wait until you hear the music. It's a perfect storm. A perfect side. The band destroys, the arrangements are concise and the singer is a total trip. I hear people all over the world saying Stonewall is a 'Holy Grail'. I agree. 'Holy Grail' status for an LP requires the most extreme and exciting combination of quality and rarity. That's not all. It has to have mystery. It has to reek of humanity. There can be no other LP that beats it at its game. Top dog. It has to be a mindfuck capable of destroying anybody who hears it, including those who have previously only experienced the usual killer classics. Finding a copy must come as close to impossible as possible and remain that way even after everybody knows about it. As an original pressing, Stonewall fulfills all of the 'Holy Grail' requirements and I am jacked that a legitimate reissue finally happens some 30 odd years after it first blew me away! As far as I know, I was the first person to put an original copy up for sale on the collector scene. People were very secretive back then, so maybe a couple other copies were hidden out there in private collections. In the late '80s, I listed it in one of my 'Sound Effects' rare record catalogs for $60 mint condition after a cursory listen. Hmmm... cool hard rock, I thought, but I was mainly into weirdo records at the time. Like a numbskull, I initially failed to detect what was obviously one of the biggest monsters I ever held in my hands. A week or so later, a second listen utterly floored me. I got it. It got me. The heaviest collectors in the world at the time had a chance to grab it for $60, but no one did. Whew... close call. An unknown monster. The search was on. Find the band. Due to the Tiger Lily Morris Levy tax scam label vibes, I knew even if I found Stonewall, it was unlikely they had any LPs stashed in the attic. I knew that quite possibly (as time has shown), the band didn't even know the LP existed. I failed to find the band, so in desperation, I turned my attention to locating that mythical wall of Tiger Lily label LPs supposedly out somewhere in a rehouse on Long Island. People around here used to whisper in awed tones about that, but I think they were most likely whispering about somebody's hallucination. Long ago, my original copy landed in an underground hurricane-proof bunker on the coast of Texas. I sold it for $2000 when I needed some green. The guy who scored it clearly wanted to keep it very safe and that was huge money for even a 'Holy Grail' hard rock monster at the time. Recently an original copy hit $14,000, and it makes sense! Stuff this good is priceless so now that you can get this reissue into your life for cheap, don't be a numbskull... Do It!' --Paul Major"

2026 repress. "Sister Nancy's 'Bam Bam' on the Stallag Riddim is arguably the most licensed dancehall track for advertising and film backgrounds with multiple uses since 2000. The song has also displayed amazing lasting power for club DJs, with its instantly recognizable hooks. This album, originally released in 1982, showcased Sister Nancy for the world on the heels of a hit that has only gotten bigger over the decades. This is the first legitimate re-issue of the album, since the death of producer and techniques label founder, Winston Riley. Demand will be strong for this rare gem."

2026 repress; double LP version. The official soundtrack to Jean-Cosme Delaloye's documentary about the life and career of Detroit techno pioneer Carl Craig, Desire: The Carl Craig Story is presented on 2x12" vinyl as well as CD. The collection, coming via his prolific and seminal Planet E Communications, features music from across Craig's vast catalog, including several tracks that have never previously seen full release. Its selections span his many aliases and projects, offering a rare glimpse into the full scope of his groundbreaking career. Among the rare and remastered tracks featured is "No More Words" -- originally released in 1991, newly reissued on vinyl and available digitally for the first time. A foundational track in the Detroit techno canon, "No More Words" captures the emotive synths and tight grooves of Craig's sound that would soon resonate across dance floors worldwide. Its reissue marks a moment of reflection on the genre's roots and evolution. Another remastered track from Craig's extensive archive is "The Truth," a deep cut from Craig's discography under his Designer Music alias, now widely available for the first time a quarter-century after its original release. The film's end credits are scored by the contemplative Meditation 4, an ambient production previously only available on Craig's 2013 Masterpiece compilation CD for Ministry of Sound. Iconic remixes such as his Grammy-nominated rework of Junior Boys' "Like A Child" is included alongside lesser-known but equally epic remixes such as his sublime 2012 mix of Slam's "Azure," which is employed for the film's title credits and had previously only seen a limited release. Also featured across the soundtrack's multiple formats are iconic Carl Craig productions under his 69, Psyche/BFC and Innerzone Orchestra aliases, and collaborations with Moritz von Oswald and Francesco Tristano. The soundtrack serves as a companion to the new documentary directed by Jean-Cosme Delaloye and produced by Sovereign Films, which follows Carl's journey from Detroit's middle-class roots to global stardom, set against the city's decline and recovery. The film explores his work at the intersection of music, art, and culture, from his collaborations with Bottega Veneta to his Party/After-Party installation, acquired by the Detroit Institute of Arts and exhibited at MOCA Los Angeles. Featuring interviews with Gilles Peterson, Roni Size, Laurent Garnier, DJ Minx, Kenny Larkin, Moritz von Oswald, and James Lavelle, Desire highlights Carl's championing of Detroit's Black creative excellence and the often-overlooked African-American roots of electronic music.

LP version. With News from Planet Zombie, The Notwist return to view after years of exploration and experiment with an album rich in both melancholy and positivity, sketched across a suite of thrilling, fiercely committed pop songs. It's an album reflecting a chaotic world, but responding with warmth and generosity, to achieve creative and spiritual consolidation. Recorded in their home base of Munich, it reconnects with the security of the local to explore the troubles of the global: a guiding impulse writ large across this album's eleven songs. For News from Planet Zombie, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck embraced the plural possibilities of writing together, bringing songs to the collective and then arranging, rehearsing and recording that material live, in the studio. The result is an album that's energized, fully in "the now", with spectacular moments where you can hear the magic bubbling up in the dynamic between the Achers, Beck, and fellow members Theresa Loibl, Max Punktezahl, Karl Ivar Refseth, and Andi Haberl. The openness to chance also takes in guest turns from friends both local and international, reflective of a cosmopolitan Munich: Enid Valu joins in on vocals, while Haruka Yoshizawa guests on taishōgoto and harmonium, Tianping Christoph Xiao on clarinet, and Mathias Götz on trombone. The Notwist aren't best known for cover versions, but News from Planet Zombie features two: a gorgeous version of Neil Young's "Red Sun" (from 2000's Silver & Gold), and a take on Athens, Georgia folk-pop gang Lovers' "How the Story Ends." They slot into the album's narrative perfectly, nestling in like old friends, revealing The Notwist as poetic interpreters.

A chance meeting in Mexico City set Points of Inaccessibility into motion. When Ibero-American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri crossed paths with Dutch media artist Jaco Schilp at MUTEK in 2024, a conversation about how technology shapes perception revealed an unexpected common ground. Schilp invited Irisarri to a spring 2025 residency at Uncloud, the Utrecht-based collective he co-founded, where Irisarri's sound began to take form amid an environment shaped by Schilp's visual research. The Uncloud studio was located inside the former Pieter Baan Centre, a forensic psychiatric prison where suspects of violent crimes were once confined. Its long history of silence and containment shaped the atmosphere in which the project developed. Within this setting, Irisarri coaxed long bowed-guitar tones through a network of pedals and looping systems. The raw gestures thickened into a vaporous and architectural field of sound. Schilp processed the material through a custom point-cloud software patch that produced images in continuous flux. The visuals flickered, dissolved and reformed like memories that resist coherence, functioning as a digital Rorschach that reflected the observer's own perception. Amid these spectral echoes, the project evolved into an examination of how the past persists within present signals. Irisarri improvised throughout the residency, generating material that allowed the visuals to develop in parallel. Once back in his New York studio, he began shaping the recordings by carving pathways through the improvisations and mapping selected passages into MIDI. This process allowed him to build outward from the bowed-guitar material with minimal overdubs, adding Prophet 5 textures, Moog bass and strings that expanded the harmonic field while keeping the original performances at the center. To refine the structure, Abul Mogard provided editorial input, working with Irisarri's stems to guide transitions and strengthen the overall pacing. What emerges is a work that examines the tension between technological systems and human presence. Points of Inaccessibility asks whether connection is still possible within environments shaped by mediation and delay, or whether we have become isolated points within the very networks that promise proximity. Points of Inaccessibility is presented on BioVinyl. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu. Artwork by Jaco Schilp. Design and layout by Daniel Castrejón.

By popular demand, Far Out present Estatica -- remastered edition of the classic 2010 album from the original Rio beach boy Marcos Valle. Evoking his Carioca sound -- where expansive orchestral sweep meets beautiful melody and complex harmony -- Valle mixes perfect romantic bossa-pop with cinematic brass and strings. This recording explores a six-decade career that has swung between pop, bossa nova, delicate psychedelia, jazz, and funk. Responsible for bossa classic "Summer Samba (So Nice)" Valle has collaborated with Leon Ware, Sarah Vaughan, and Chicago; seen his track "Ele E Ela" sampled by Jay Z for Blueprint 3; and his songs recorded by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Bebel Gilberto. Many of these tracks sound strangely familiar, as if you've always known them, fresher and more immediate than ever in Valle's modern renaissance on Far Out Recordings. This album -- Valle's fourth original recording for Far Out -- features standout compositions including the instant classic "Vamos Sambar," the infectious jazz of "Baião Maracatú," and the stunning duets and brass of "Papo De Maluco." Valle's cinematic orchestral "Novo Acorde" and the rich psych incidentals show that Valle is as creatively inspired -- by Rio, music, and a lifetime of travel touring the globe -- as he ever was as the original Ipanema beach poet. Produced by Daniel Maunick (son of Bluey, Incognito); recorded, mixed, and co- produced by David Brinkworth (Harmonic 33); and with Marcos' unparalleled arrangements, aided by horn and string arrangements by Jesse Sedoc Vocals, Valle is brought back with a widescreen bang. A modern classic that's been long out of print, Marcos Valle is reissuing Estatica. Originally released in 2010, Estatica saw Marcos effortlessly dive back into the sound of his golden era while upholding his long-standing openness to modern production techniques.

2026 repress. Gatefold. The legendary musical outfit Ibex Band (later metamorphosed into The Roha Band), has played a central role in defining the sound of many of the greatest stars on the music scene of Ethiopia from the mid-seventies onwards -- but their golden output has never really waned. The story of the origins of the band that provided the musical backbone for greats such as Aster Aweke, Girma Beyene, Tilahun Gessesse, backing the solo career of group member Mahmoud Ahmed as well as backing Mulatu Astatke and many others has yet to be properly told. Ibex emerged out of the ashes of the sixties group the Soul Echos band, adding Giovanni and Selamino to their ranks and taking their cues from a slew of influences, such as Motown and The Beatles, fused with traditional music. A tighter-knit unit than most bands at the time -- Ibex has remained six to seven members throughout their whole career, compared to many bands that were as large as fifteen or sixteen men strong when Ibex set out. The detailed history of Stereo Instrumental Music is in many ways unique. To begin with, it couldn't have been recorded earlier (there were no four-track recorders available) and it really couldn't have been recorded afterwards either, at least not in the years directly following, because of the toll the musical scene took from the unfavorable political climate that followed when the nascent Derg regime and rival groups tried to assert themselves, the musical equipment lent from The Voice of Gospel Radio simply disappeared from Ethiopia when the radio station folded in 1977. Whilst leaders might have professed to be revolutionary, the work ethic of the Ibex Band can truly be described as that. They never called it quits, but adapted, toured extensively abroad in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, and found ways to work even in the face of the curfew that curtailed a lot of musical life. They even played major arenas in the nineteen eighties, despite said curfew and restrictions. The whole extent of their legacy has never been told, but their music speaks louder than words, so therefore -- tune in to the Ibex Band's Stereo Instrumental Music.

Soft Echoes presents the first physical edition of In a Few Places Along the River by Abul Mogard as a limited run of 500 vinyl copies. Originally released digitally in 2022, the album now appears in its intended form, marking the label's second release. Three long pieces, composed between 2019 and 2022, emerged from Mogard's meticulous experimentation with analogue and digital instruments. Slowly evolving harmonic fields of layered drones and spectral textures drift across the record. They are enhanced by reverb from Scotland's Inchindown oil tanks, which hold the longest reverberation of any man-made structure, giving the music a haunting resonance and a sense of suspended space. "Against a White Cloud" and "In True Contemplation" open the album with their nocturnal tones that gradually intensify into dense, immersive waves of sound. Side B is devoted to the 21-minute elegiacal piece "Along the River," which flows between weight and silence, unfolding with reflective depth and moments of subtle transcendence. "Recording for this album began in 2019, when I was still living in London," Mogard explains. "The first version of 'Along the River' was created at my studio near Brick Lane. It started with experimenting around a chord progression inspired by a classical piece I had once been recommended, though, strangely enough, I no longer recall what it was. Early in 2022, I revealed the identity behind Abul Mogard and wanted to mark this new period, so I decided to release it quickly, by myself, as digital-only." After returning to Rome, Mogard created the other two pieces, working with new digital instruments alongside his modular synthesizer, and integrated recordings from the London sessions. The music reveals a patient attention to texture and space, defining his usual restraint. Described by critics as one of Mogard's most melancholic and absorbing releases, the album maintains an austere beauty and contemplative weight, leaving a lingering impression that lasts far beyond the final note. The music has extended beyond the album itself, with tracks appearing in films and contemporary artworks. Most notably, Swedish artist Peder Bjurman's "Slow Walker" audiovisual installation and French filmmaker Fleuryfontaine's politically charged animated film Soixante-sept millisecondes. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri and cut to vinyl by Lupo, the record emphasizes the clarity and depth of Mogard's frequencies, with each layer precisely balanced. The cover artwork and design are by Marja de Sanctis, who has collaborated with Abul since his first cassette release in 2012.

2026 repress; LP version. Obi; includes four-page insert. Wewantsounds present the first official release outside of Japan for The Mystery Kindaichi Band's The Adventures of Kindaichi Kosuke, originally released in 1977. The "imaginary" soundtrack to the cult detective book series by writer Seishi Yokomizo is on many DJ want-lists. Arranged by soundtrack master Kentaro Haneda and featuring a mysterious group of the best '70s Japanese Funk musicians, the album is pure undiluted disco funk. Writer Seishi Yokomizo is an institution in Japan. He could be compared to Agatha Christie with his series of novels based on the adventures of detective Kosuke Kindaichi. The fictional character was born in 1946 with Yokomizo's first novel in the series and solved mysteries until the late '70s under Yokomizo's pen before the death of the writer in 1981. Yokomizo's novels have been a prime source for film and TV scenarios, so when, in 1977, Japanese label King Records decided to record a concept album based on the Kindaichi novels, it made complete sense. The writer was slightly surprised though. The concept album was arranged by pianist Kentaro Haneda, a key TV and film composer who has worked on many anime films and is also famous outside of Japan for composing the music for the video game Wizardry. For the album, he assembled a supergroup of some of the best Tokyo funk and city pop musicians. The long list includes jazz pianist Hideo Ichikawa who played on the 1971 Joe Henderson In Japan album, drummer Jun Moriya, who is on Joe Hisaichi's cult Wonder City Orchestra album (1982), percussionist Tadaomi Anai who played with disco singer Eri Ohno, trumpeter Koji Hadori who's featured on Haruomi Hosono's Pacific album (1978). Also present on the album are saxophonist Takeru Muraoka who plays on many Tatsuro Yamashita cult albums including For You (1982) and Spacy (1977), Kimiko Yamauchi (koto) who's on Akiko Yano's landmark 1976 album Japanese Girl (WWSCD 017CD/WWSLP 017LP), and last but not least, French hornist Koji Yamaguchi who plays on Yazuaki Shimizu's Kakashi (1982). Together they lay the funk on ten instrumentals filled with pure disco and funk breakbeats, making the album one of the highly-coveted Japanese LPs on international cratedigger scene. Remastered from the original tapes. Faithfully reproduced original artwork; Artwork by renowned illustrator Ichibun Sugimoto. New introduction by Anton Spice.

Double LP version. Following Léve Léve Vol. 1, this second volume continues a long-term exploration of the popular music of São Tomé and Príncipe, with a clear focus on rhythm, movement and dancefloor energy. Curated by Tom B., Léve Léve Vol. 2 brings together emblematic recordings from the 1970s and 1980s, carefully restored and remastered, designed as much for close listening as for DJ use. The compilation deepens and completes the first volume by returning to key groups such as Sangazuza, Conjunto Equador, Africa Negra, and Pedro Lima, while also unveiling previously unreleased or hard-to-find tracks. Across the record, puxa and socopê rhythms unfold with remarkable intensity, capturing these bands at the height of their powers: tight arrangements, driving grooves and a strong sense of collective momentum. Beyond celebration, Léve Léve Vol. 2 also reflects a precise cultural and political context. Several songs reference Luso-African independence struggles, spirituality, love and everyday life, anchoring this music in a history shaped by resistance, circulation and hybridization. Recorded in São Tomé, Luanda or Lisbon -- often with the involvement of key figures from the Lusophone diaspora -- these tracks reveal a modern musical landscape that has long remained under-documented. Conceived as a living record rather than a static archival object, this compilation speaks equally to DJs and curious listeners. It once again affirms Bongo Joe's approach: bringing powerful, popular and complex music back into circulation, without nostalgia or exoticism, and making it fully present today. Also featuring Sum Alvarinho, Tiny das Neves e Conjunto Sol d'África, Conjunto Mindelo, Bulawê N'Guli Fala, Quinta das Palmeiras, and Os Úntuès.

WRWTFWW Records presents the release of Renga, the new collaborative album from Gak Sato and Tadahiko Yokogawa -- available on limited edition LP (300 copies worldwide) housed in a heavyweight sleeve with inside out print of a beautiful artwork by Aoi Huber Kono. Renga is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ku, of 5-7-5 and 7-7 morae (sound units or syllables per line) are linked in succession by multiple poets. Inspired by the traditional Japanese poetic form of linked verses, Renga unfolds as a fluid ten-track journey spanning ambient, jazz, breakbeats, electronica, environmental music, techno, cinematic, library music, and musique concrète. Much like its literary namesake, the album is built on intuition and shared momentum, each piece emerging from what came before while opening new paths forward. Beats appear, disappear, then reassemble, while textures shift between organic warmth and electronic abstraction. The result is music that resists fixed categorization, existing somewhere between known subgenres and free-form exploration. The album's visual counterpart, created by Aoi Huber Kono, mirrors the sensibility of the music. It's elegant, modern, and quietly expressive, extending the idea of linked forms from sound into image.

LP version. Laurel Halo returns with an album of original soundtrack music, composed for the film Midnight Zone by visual artist Julian Charrière. Following the path of a drifting Fresnel lighthouse lens as it descends through the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone -- a remote abyssal plain in the Pacific Ocean, rich in rare metals and increasingly targeted for deep-sea mining -- the film traces a descent into one of Earth's last untouched ecosystems. Charrière's film reveals the deep not as void, but as a luminous biome teeming with fragile life: bioluminescent creatures, swirling schools of fish, and elusive predators. The suspended lens becomes an abyssal campfire, attracting species caught in the tides of uncertainty, their futures hanging in the balance. Echoing this tension, Halo's compositions evoke a sensory freefall, where gravity falters and light and sound flicker in uncertain rhythms. Midnight Zone is a sonic drift through the space between what we seek to extract, fail to understand, and must protect. Halo's score evokes the life that exists beyond a physical airbound capacity. The material features long, subtle passages of electro-acoustic ambient, drone and sound design, slowly flowing and unfolding with rich detail. The music, composed largely on a Montage 8 synthesizer and Yamaha TransAcoustic piano at the Yamaha studios in New York City, possesses an uncanny quality: that of synthetic waveforms being amplified and sung through the stringboard of the physical body of the TransAcoustic piano. Combined with stacks of violin and viol da gamba, the music on Midnight Zone possesses trace elements of a human hand in an otherwise sunken landscape. Patient, submerged, and alive. The album will be the third on Halo's imprint, Awe. The film is central to Charrière's current solo exhibition Midnight Zone. The exhibition engages with underwater ecologies, exploring the complexity of water as an elemental medium affected by anthropogenic degradation. Reflecting upon its flow and materiality, profundity and politics, its mundane and sacral dimensions, the solo show acts as a kaleidoscope, inviting us to dive deep.

2026 restock. Trost Records presents the latest release in its ongoing cooperation with Berlin's legendary FMP label, with the long overdue reissue of two classic live albums by the singular alto saxophonist Noah Howard, a key figure in New York's free jazz revolution during the 1960s. Berlin Concert was recorded live in the titular city in January of 1975 with a quartet featuring pianist Takashi Kako, bassist Kent Carter, drummer Oliver Johnson, and percussionist Lamont Hampton. It was released on the SAJ sub label in 1977. It deftly captures the full diapason of Howard's fiery art. Fueled by the propulsive swing of the great Oliver Johnson, bassist Kent Carter -- both Americans who spent many years living and working in Europe, including long stints with Steve Lacy -- and percussionist Lamont Hampton, Berlin Concert nonchalantly toggles between modal workouts, where Japanese pianist Takashi Kako invokes the ironclad drive of McCoy Tyner, and the needling fury of "New York Subway," summoning the all-out fury of the '60s New Thing. This album reinforces the scalding passion of Howard's playing, while simultaneously highlighting a stylistic depth and lyrical grace that's often overlooked in his music. Howard, who suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage in 2010, at age 67, has been duly celebrated for his work in the 1960s, but the return of this gem makes it plain he had plenty more to say. Recorded live by Jost Gebers on January 30th and 31st,1975 at the Quartier Latin in Berlin. Cover design by Wolf Walt. Photograph by Roberto Masotti. Produced by Jost Gebers. Originally released and published on FMP in 1977.

LP version. Explosive. Urgent. Wildly inventive. Everyday Timebomb captures Dog Faced Hermans at their most fearless -- fusing punk intensity, free jazz chaos and political fire into a sound that defies genre and time. Long out of print and increasingly difficult to find, this lost classic is finally back on vinyl and for the first time on its own CD -- for a new generation to discover. Formed in the vibrant European post-punk scene of the late '80s, Dog Faced Hermans stood apart for their raw energy, charismatic vocals and an instrumentation that inspired artists from The Ex to Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Their fearless spirit and DIY ethos turned noise into art and protest into rhythm. This limited reissue stays true to the original analog sound while the fresh remastering gives the original tracks new depth and punch. Each copy includes carefully reproduced artwork and archival notes celebrating the band's unforgettable legacy. For fans of Chumbawamba, Rip Rig + Panic, Fugazi, and anyone who believes that music should sound like liberation itself. Everyday Timebomb is more than a record. It's a reminder of how revolutionary sound can be. LP limited to 500 copies; CD is mini-LP-format housed in Stoughton tip-on jacket. Cut at Schnittstelle Mastering and pressed at Optimal in Germany.

2026 restock. This is the demo recording sessions from Television in 1974 under Brian Eno's guidance. The A side demos were recorded at Good Vibrations Studios in NYC with Richard Hell on bass, and produced by Brian Eno and Richard Williams of Island Records. It also includes three live tracks from CBGB's in 1975 including the unreleased "(I Look At You And Get A) Double Exposure", the band never recorded in studio. An abrasive 13th Floor Elevators number and the iconic Richard Hell "(I Belong To The) Blank Generation". It is fascinating listening to the early versions of these songs that eventually appeared on Marquee Moon. Each version is distinctly different having a "harder edge" to them and closer to the final released editions. Sound quality: very good stereo.

"I have been fascinated by the sound and potential of gongs since I first heard Stockhausen's 'Mikrophonie '1' in the late 1960s. When I moved to Oakland in 1999 I discovered the work of Karen Stackpole, one of the few percussionists in the world specializing entirely in gongs, and attended several of her performances. I always tried to imagine how I could combine my own sonic vocabulary with her incredibly rich array, and we enthusiastically agreed to a musical meeting which somehow kept being postponed, year after year. These recordings are among his most precious ones. Finally, as my teaching career at Mills College was winding down, we succeeded in making an appointment to record together at Karen's home studio in the Californian hills. As a seasoned professional recording engineer, she had her vast and beautiful collection of gongs meticulously placed and amplified. It was a joy! Guitar as gong, gong as harmony and everything in between, an interweaving that left me breathless." --Fred Firth

Double LP version. This musical journey pays tribute to René Daumal and his enchanting world of mysteries and magic. The album shares its title with Daumal's novel, Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing, published posthumously in 1952, eight years after the author's untimely death. Mount Analogue is a classic allegorical adventure novel. The novel describes an expedition undertaken by a group of mountaineers to travel to and climb the titular Mount Analogue an enormous mountain on a surreal continent, that is invisible and inaccessible to the outside world and can be perceived only by the application of obscure knowledge. The central theme of mountaineering is extensively explored through literary and philosophical lenses. Daumal died before the novel was completed, providing an uncanny one-way quality to the story, which ends abruptly in the middle of a sentence. The first disc features a fifty-minute composition divided into six chapters: "Introduction," "Meeting," "Supposition," "Crossing," "Arrival," and "Conclusion." This album weaves together a rich tapestry of diverse instruments, sounds, and voices that collectively tell the story of this conceptual work, loaded with a synesthetic multitude of colors, aromas, meanings, textures, and moods. The second disc presents five improvisations for solo electric guitar by Henry Kaiser. The first solo, Jodorowsky's "Peradam," draws its inspiration from Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 film The Holy Mountain, which was inspired by the Daumal novel. Kaiser's initial forty-eight-minute guitar solo serves as a foundational guide for his four subsequent, Rashomon-esque, solo musical interpretations of Mount Analogue, as seen through the psychedelic labyrinth of Jorodrowsky's cinematic masterpiece. Contributors to this musical poem include Bill Laswell (bass), Henry Kaiser (guitar), Anna Clementi (vocals), Percy Howard (voice), Hideo Yamaki (percussion), Graham Haynes (cornet), Dorian Cheah (violin), Nils Petter Molvaer (trumpet), Peter Apfelbaum (keyboard), and P.ST (concept, electronics), who all lend their talents to a series of excerpts from Daumal's text.

Saxophonist and producer Ben Vince presents his sixth album, Street Druid, the first in almost six years via AD 93. Street Druid merges acoustic, manipulated, and electronic sound. It has saxophone, synth, voice, guitars and drum machine, and features drum kit from Moses Boyd. It features artwork by Byzantia Harlow. It is at once tender, psychedelic and fierce. It is not interested in genre or category, and lasts just under 45 minutes. Ben Vince is a striking composer and performer, known for his live improvised saxophone explorations and inventive techniques in creating new rhythms, textures and moods. Through live improvisation, sonic manipulation, reprocessing and looping, his spontaneous yet intuitive approach and collaborative nature surpasses the seeming limitations of his primary instrument. His energetic and immersive solo shows encapsulate an artist at the height of their powers and is now a prominent player among a new breed of experimental artists, as well as having performed with improv ritual EP/64, Charles Hayward, Coby Sey, Valentina Magaletti, and as part of experimental post-punk band Housewives. Vince has also notable studio collaborations with electronic producer Joy Orbison, Oscar-nominated experimental pop artist/composer Mica Levi, and many others spread across the musical spectrum including El-B, Astrid Sonne, Sugai Ken, Louis Carnell, Mark Sanders, Alpha Maid, Gigi Masin, Rat Heart, Cucina Povera, and Moin.

LP version. Far Out Recordings presents Ladeiras De Santa Teresa, the debut collaboration between Rio-jazz maverick Antonio Neves and carioca percussion master Thiaguinho Silva. In what could well be the first ever Brazilian jazz album centered around two drummers, Ladeiras De Santa Teresa is an uncompromisingly groove-rich recording, steeped in trad-samba roots and brass power. Since his acclaimed 2021 album A Pegada Agora E Esssa Antonio Neves has remained a mainstay of the international facing Brazilian scene, performing both as a trombonist and drummer. His instrumental contributions to contemporary classics like Ana Frango Eletrico's Little Electric Chicken Heart, Bruno Berle's No Reino Dos Afetos 2, and Bala Desejo's Sim Sim Sim will be marveled upon by future generations. His partner in crime Thiaguinho Silva happens to be the son of percussion icon Robertinho Silva, who has played on more or less every canonical Brazilian record. Thiaguinho himself has worked with Marcelo D2, Gal Costa, Liniker and Alice Caymmi, and upon listening to Ladeiras De Santa Teresa, it's clear that Thiaguinho is more than a worthy successor to carry the Silva family torch. This synergized combo continues across the album, notably on "Fendas Vocais" with Neves doubling up on drums, exhibiting his inventive and fearless skill as an arranger. The album also features street-artist, musician and rapper Joca, adding vocalized dynamism and swagger to an otherwise entirely instrumental record on "Viagem de Trem". The album's title Ladeiras De Santa Teresa (The hills of Santa Teresa) is named in tribute to Rio De Janeiro's famed Santa Teresa neighborhood, a bohemian enclave with scenic views of the iconic cityscape. The spirit of Santa Teresa with its expansive city views and bustling energy is embodied in the album which encapsulates the jazz and samba histories felt within the neighborhood's windy alleyways and cobbled streets.

"A hidden gem of late-'70s soft rock and AOR sophistication, Craig Dove is a quietly radiant self-titled album that lives at the crossroads of singer-songwriter soul and West Coast studio craft. Originally released in scarce numbers, Dove's lone full-length statement has become a sought-after cult favorite -- a record defined by warm analog textures, mellow grooves, and a voice that carries both vulnerability and ease. With understated arrangements, melodic hooks, and the smooth polish of peakera album-oriented rock, Craig Dove captures a moment when soft rock, blue-eyed soul, and jazztinged pop converged effortlessly. This newly restored edition, licensed from the Numero Group catalog, brings the album back into circulation in faithful presentation, offering a rare chance to experience one of the era's most overlooked treasures in full depth. For fans of private-press soul, AOR deep cuts, and timeless songwriter albums that reveal more with every listen, Craig Dove is a long-overdue return."

"Al Manfredi is the father of hip-hop producer Exile, and Blue Gold is his little-known West Coast rock masterpiece from 1973. Manfredi's dreams of securing a record deal with this album faded, but he spent the rest of his life recording music. This version of the album was overseen by Exile. Born into a musical family Al Manfredi started writing songs when he was child. As a teenager in 1965, he formed the Nuts & Bolts in the small beach town of San Clemente, California. Inspired by the Kinks, the Beatles and the Byrds, the group separated themselves from the pack by also performing original material written by Manfredi and band mate Mike Ingram. In late 1966 they changed their name to the Lost & Found and relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, where they cut a rare single, 'Don't Move Girl' b/w 'To Catch the Sun,' which now commands high coin from '60s garage collectors. When they returned to San Clemente in early 1967 their music had taken a more psychedelic direction. The Lost & Found were riding high that year, until tragedy struck. Ingram was found hanged under suspicious circumstances and soon after Lost & Found drummer Mike Ryer died of cancer at the age of 19. Heartbroken, Manfredi gave up on the band scene completely and moved to Garden Grove to teach at his family's music store. But alone, behind closed doors, he kept writing songs and working on his music, recording hours of tapes, often tracking all the instruments himself. In 1973 he chose six of his best songs, some of them written back in the Lost & Found days, and had them custom-pressed as an LP. Only a handful of copies were pressed, and most of these were sent out to various record companies in the hope of landing a deal. Despite the outstanding quality of the music, there were no takers. But decades later, collectors discovered the Al Manfredi album and hailed it a West Coast rock masterpiece. This little-known West Coast rock masterpiece was rediscovered and celebrated by Acid Archives founder Patrick Lundborg and others around the time that Manfredi died in 1995. This version of the album, overseen by Manfredi's son Exile, and with Manfredi's story told by Ugly Things' founder Mike Stax, presents the complete package of an incredible lost and found artist. Contains the album, as originally issued, on side A with unreleased music on side B."

Mats Gustafsson met Jan St. Werner in Berlin when they both performed with Peter Brötzmann and a group of prolific improvisers. Mats and Jan share a passion for performing not just inside rooms but also with them, activating space and shaping sound via diversion. Mats introduces Johan Berthling who adds complex bass structures to the nervous jitter of Mats' saxophone and pedals and Werner's digital machinery. The trio instantly agrees on sound as a physical material which can bend and move anywhere within seconds. With this material they establish musical forms which they immediately dissect and reassemble again. It's a nervous ride, a hyperactive conversation keen on detail and open to argument. Although IFANAME's sound is instantly graspable it is also hard to pin down. Nothing seems stable yet it lasts, holds like some kind of catchy glue and disappears as quickly as it came to life. IFANAME is question and concern. It is music as much as it is movement. It is attention, care, curiosity and disaster. Wherever IFANAME came from there is much more waiting ready to burst and reshape in front and inside of our ears.

"In the pantheon of classic free jazz, Noah Howard's The Black Ark looms large. Recorded at Bell Sound Studios in New York City in 1969 -- just prior to the alto saxophonist's relocation to Europe -- the album was eventually released in 1972. The Black Ark exhibits not only the power and imagination of Howard's playing, but also his breadth as a composer and bandleader. Listeners expecting unrelenting blasts of 'energy music' might be surprised to find a cohesion atypical of free jazz; amidst the wild, impassioned solos, Howard weaves in Latin rhythms and fat-bottomed grooves. The first side, consisting of 'Domiabra' and 'Ole Negro,' sets the album's tone. Both tracks sound as if they could have appeared on some of Blue Note's proto-spiritual jazz, groove-heavy releases -- evoking the likes of Horace Silver or Bobby Hutcherson -- before ceding the floor to the horn players' anarchic firepower. Trumpeter Earl Cross' guttural, vocal effects complement Doyle's take-no-prisoners approach, while the estimable combination of Muhammad Ali (Rashied's brother) on drums and Juma Sultan on congas adds an ever-shifting propulsion. The septet is rounded out by the enigmatic pianist Leslie Waldron, who anchors the group with imaginative accompaniment and occasional boppish flourishes. Every bit worthy of its reputation as an 'out-jazz' holy grail, The Black Ark only sounds better with age. It remains the ideal record to convert the remaining free-jazz skeptics."

"This record shouldn't, strictly speaking, be possible at all. It's not just that Autechre's music is electronic and Shane Parish's is acoustic. It's not just that Autechre come from electro and techno, while Shane's solo guitar music is rooted in jazz, folk, and the blues. Those borders, between mediums and genres, are as porous as you want them to be. But Autechre are synonymous with difficulty, opacity, inscrutability -- known for unparseable rhythms, cryptic riffs, and shapeshifting timbres. Even on their early records, before they'd begun building out the mind-bending software systems that have defined the past quarter-century of their music, the duo of Sean Booth and Rob Brown were working at the very limits of their machines: eking melodies out of drum sounds, programming intricate polyrhythms of superhuman complexity, and writing sequences that defy attempts to decipher them. The origins of Autechre Guitar run deep. Translating shades of pewter and graphite into something resembling a 12-tone scale. And, most importantly, finding ways to distill Autechre's seemingly limitless details in ways that could be played by just 10 fingers without losing the soul of the song. The material on Autechre Guitar is drawn entirely from the 1990s. The reason is simple: That's the melodic golden age of Autechre, when Booth and Brown were writing hooks that would go down as some of the most enduring, and emotionally satisfying, in the past three decades of electronic music. Shane has done a remarkable job of capturing those melodies and translating them for the steel strings of his Taylor 214E-G. Listening to Shane, you intuit the way he's had to reach deep inside each song, working by feel alone, to grasp its contours and come back with something that communicates its ideas, even if it sounds all but unrecognizably different. Ultimately, Autechre Guitar works on multiple levels. It's a celebration of Autechre's music, shining a spotlight on the durability and flexibility of their songwriting. At the same time, it's an invitation to listen deep inside the music, to take part as active listeners in the process of translation and interpretation. And while it hardly needs to be said, it's an invitation to simply get lost in Shane's astonishingly fleet playing, which takes these songs of unfathomable difficulty and makes them seem practically effortless."

LP version. "Music in Continuous Motion, Bill Orcutt's latest entry into his 21st-century repertoire of quartet guitar music, pointedly steps away from the cut-and-paste constructivism of Music for Four Guitars into a sonic stratum that's yearningly melodic, resolutely human, and built for performance. Conceived for a 2026 NYC concert, Music in Continuous Motion shares the concision of its predecessor -- but rather than the discrete, mechanistic precision of Music for Four Guitars, the tracks on Music in Continuous Motion unify -- each song weaving four gleaming threads into the warp and weft of an evolving, complex texture that employs simple, repeating motifs to build new melodies from counterpoint itself. It accomplishes this in the most efficient manner possible: most of these 12 tracks hover around two-and-a- half minutes, each iterating first the substrate, then the melody and its variations, then slamming shut like a clockwork music box. Based on previous recorded evidence, Orcutt is fond of boundary conditions for his studio guitar records. Much of the time, his launchpad is obvious; with others, it's intentionally obscured. When recruiting me to write about each release, he might send me a clue. Although any given dispatch is a potential red herring, up until now, each has implied an Oulipian conceit (however obtuse) that at least somewhat determines the outcome. Thus, I was a bit surprised by his statement on Music in Continuous Motion. Whatever overarching form the recording process may have mapped out, the path of the finished album is explicitly poetic. Echoing its predecessor, the song titles, read in sequence, paint fleetingly-glimpsed forms -- but in contrast to the distant shapes described in Music For Four Guitars, the present narrative spotlights the dance of polygons momentarily grasped (and then lost) as they spin through space. Ultimately, the key difference between the albums (and what places Music in Continuous Motion in the realm of poetry) is its celebration of movement over immutability, of melody over form, of music as a hot wire to the heart rather than another upped ante in an arms race of inscrutability." --Tom Carter

'Luciano Cilio was born in Naples, Italy, in 1950. He studied music and architecture and, in the late '60s, collaborated with local artist Alan Sorrenti, American expat Shawn Phillips and various avant-garde theater groups. A virtuoso guitarist and self-taught composer, Cilio released only one LP before his untimely death at the age of 33. Dialoghi Del Presente (1977) is a work like no other, one that sounds both ancient and ahead of its time. Produced by Renato Marengo, it features a series of muted tableaux for strings, woodwinds, guitar, chorus, piano and percussion. Cilio carves out a space where subtle, repetitive phrases yield -- almost imperceptibly -- to breathtaking silence. As Jim O'Rourke writes, 'These recordings sound as if they were to please no one but himself; they feel self-contained, introspective, and determined. You can feel in the music a sort of necessity that can be rarely found, like in This Heat's debut or Nick Drake's Pink Moon.' While each subsequent 'quadro' grows slightly more abstract, Cilio draws the listener into an expansive, pastoral soundscape. The closing piece, 'Interludio,' begins with a plaintive guitar, which is joined by haunting strings and woodwinds before concluding, poignantly, as the album began, with Cilio and his guitar, alone once more. Superior Viaduct's edition reproduces the original sleeve design. Sourced from the original master tapes."

"Julius Hemphill's debut record, 1972's Dogon A.D., was self-produced for his Mbari imprint, and it was issued with a beautiful black-and-white cover. Very DIY. The label's name writ large along the bottom edge, like it was the band's name. It's a quartet record featuring Hemphill on alto and flute, with Baikida Carroll on trumpet, Abdul Wadud on cello, and Phillip Wilson on drums -- a classic jazz front line/rhythm section format, but nothing conventional about the way the music sounds. The long track -- from where the LP takes its title -- is one of the key epic statements of new jazz in the era. Among its remarkable distinctions, it manages to draw on Wilson's schizoid experience having been a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the first drummer for the Art Ensemble of Chicago, in making an 11/8 rhythm into a staggeringly funky thing of joy. Over the course of fourteen and a half minutes, Hemphill builds a nearly continuous solo, his spiritual blood brother Wadud sawing the cello with a deep blues soulfulness that is raw and mantra-like in its repetitive incantation. It feels right and wrong in equal measure, the theme carrying its own piquancy with honked barnyard dissonances and some contrary motion between the horns and string. Most of all, it takes its own sweet time, in no hurry to get anywhere in particular, but out for a righteous stroll." --John Corbett

DVD is NTSC format. Region code 0. "Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story is not your regular rock doc. After all, brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald were never a regular rock band. They were the group with the eleven-year-old bass player threading their way through the hardcore punk scene only to reappear, just a few years later, as masters of power pop hooks and bubblegum fun. They were Partridge Family fanatics who influenced the entire grunge crowd. They were long-haired punks with stage costumes that would have put even the boldest glam rockers to shame. These sound like contradictions, but Redd Kross is the unfettered expression of two brothers and their rock'n'roll dream so exclusively informed by a visceral love of music and pop culture that it couldn't help but defy genres and conventions, evolve without pause and survive both the music industry and a kidnapping. A line-up of talking heads straight outta Lollapalooza tells stories you would swear were made up. But Jeff and Steve McDonald were already larger than life when they were in their teens, and the adventures that followed reflect just that. Through more than four decades Redd Kross have been nothing but happily, outrageously and courageously themselves. Director Andrew Reich (Emmy Award-winning writer on the hit TV Show Friends) conducted dozens of new interviews and had unfettered access to home movies and archival footage featuring The Runaways, X, Nirvana and Guns N Roses and members of the Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, The Muffs, Melvins, Go-Gos and Black Flag. This is the definitive story of the most eclectic, unpredictable, thrilling and heartwarming band you never knew."