Browse by Label: HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)

Artist:	BROOKS & THE LIGHT OF SABA, CEDRIC 'IM'
Title:	Lambs Bread Collie/Free Up Black Man
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 004EP

You may know Cedric Brooks from the Soul Jazz Dynamite series. He was a serious sax player who left Jamaica for the States in the mid '60s, became heavily influenced by Sun Ra and went back to Jamaica to express his own vision of Ra's message, fusing Rastafarian drumming with Afro beat, funk and Latin. This is a sampler for a compilation of his own Light Of Saba record label. All the originals go for big bucks and are impossible to find. The EP itself consists of a wonderful instrumental and dub and a roots vocal on the B side, with a DJ version.

Artist:	BROOKS & THE LIGHT OF SABA, CEDRIC 'IM'
Title:	Africa
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 006EP

A second helping from the Light Of Saba compilation. This time the sound is Afro-funk with a Jamaican edge, coming across more like an early Kool & The Gang or Cymande. This is reggae with a disco beat and flailing Nyabinghi drums. The extended remix is exclusive to this 12". The B-side, "Sabebe," is an equally wonderful Afro-JA disco funk workout. Comes in Honest Jon's house bag, emblazoned with the Light Of Saba logo.

Artist:	ORN, EINAR
Title:	Ghostigital
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2x10"
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJP 009EP

From former Sugarcube Einar Örn, featuring Sensational from the Jungle Brothers, this is an exhilarating configuration of hardcore, bass and hip hop, Ornette, Suicide and Pere Ubu. Album tracks alongside live recordings and an old-school electro remix by fellow-Icelanders NLO. "With its mottled, ever-shifting textures of electronics, rock guitars, programmed beats, vocals, dub effects and horns, the sound recalls such sonic explorers as jazz-punkers The Pop Group, early Cabaret Voltaire, Pere Ubu, Suicide, and, in the way it teeters on the brink of chaos, pulling back at the last possible moment, the swirling space-jazz of Sun Ra. To me, it sounds pretty close to godhead." -- The Independent

Artist:	MOONDOG
Title:	Playing Moondog's Music
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	10"
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	HJP 017EP

2011 repress of this 2004 reissue. Recorded in 1955, released on his own short-lived Moondog label. 4 tracks of manic saxophone and snare drum mayhem. You will not find an original of this anywhere. Blind from the age of 17, classically trained in music, Moondog aka Louis Hardin left the countryside in the late 1940s to busk on the streets of New York, playing percussion instruments of his own creation. He later became the darling of the NY arts and music set. He also recorded for Folkways, Woody Herman's Mars label, then Prestige and CBS.

Artist:	WAREIKA HILL SOUNDS
Title:	One People
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 021EP

Calvin Bubbles Cameron is the veteran trombonist of Tommy McCook's Supersonics, Count Ossie's Mystic Revelation, The Light Of Saba, and The Skatalites. Since the old days, he has resided above the headquarters of The Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari, in the Wareika Hill district of Kingston, Jamaica. This lineage is perfectly expressed for 2004 by these cuts. The uptempo A-side should rock any dancefloor to pieces, reggae or not, with full, bones-heavy horns, swirling organ and blood and fire nyabinghi drumming; and it comes with a storming dub. The B carries an instrumental, and another reminiscent of The Light Of Saba classic "Lambs Bread Collie."

Artist:	MOONDOG
Title:	Moondog And His Friends
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	10"
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	HJP 024EP

2011 repress. 7 track 10" release, originally released by Epic! "Originally released in 1953 -- a fantastic collection of recordings from the eccentric genius that was Moondog. This mini-album features Moondog's pioneering techniques in tape overdubbing -- he harmonises with himself on voice, double bass and home-made drums. Touches of his classical music education are underpinned by his signature and irresistible Native American rhythms. Epic, prophetic, naive -- seriously lovable music. 10" vinyl only release." Tracks: "Dragon´s Teeth -- Voices of Spring," "Oasis," "Tree Frog -- Be a Hobo," "Instrumental Round - Double Bass Duo -- Why spend the dark night with you?," "Theme and Variations -- Rim Shots," "Suite No. 1," Suite No. 2"

Artist:	WAREIKA HILL SOUNDS
Title:	Coconut Head
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 026EP

This four-tracker from Wareika Hill Sounds smashes open their "Coconut Head" rhythm with a heavy, heavy, heavy dub version featuring the original Light Of Saba drummers, thumping bass, chant-down-Babylon trombone -- blood on the dancefloor and up the walls. "Joseph C" is in a more laid-back grounation style, with beautiful bonework from WHS-leader Calvin Cameron evoking his years with Count Ossie. "Tears In Exile" is blood-and-fire again -- tough, scintillating roots percussion alongside a crowded brass section, and brilliant soloing from both. Finally, "They Say" is pure nyabinghi, upful and defiant.

Artist:	ALLEN, TONY
Title:	One Tree: TP's Spirit Of Unity Mix / Instrumental
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 030EP

Terrence Parker is an underground Detroit original. Unlike, say, Carl Craig or Claude Young, though -- both of whom are preparing mixes for this Honest Jon's series -- his music falls outside the city's techno traditions. Terrence Parker makes classic Detroit house. Since his debut in 1988 -- a collaboration with Marc Kinchen -- and then his legendary first solo EP, TP1, in 1990, Terrence has released more than a hundred records, under aliases like Disciples Of Jovon Blade, Disco Revisited, Plastic Soul Junkies, Minimum Wage Brothers, Seven Grand Housing Authority. These remixes are romping, stomping, tear-away house, the old school way.

Artist:	ALLEN, TONY
Title:	Moyege
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 032EP

2013 repress, originally released 2006. Mark Ernestus, one half of the Basic Channel, Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound teams, inaugurates our series of reworkings of tracks from Tony Allen's Lagos No Shaking album. "Mark's Mix" is not a nowadays-style remix; more an extended mix in the classical tradition headed by Tom Moulton, back in the days when Francois Kevorkian was his teaboy, and there was a cupboard in his office stuffed with Studio One master-tapes. "Mark's Disco Dub" is its dub. This record brings to Afrobeat the dubwise intelligence of the disco mix. It's beautifully crafted, irresistibly grooving and heavy.

Artist:	ILORI AND HIS AFRO-DRUM ENSEMBLE, SOLOMON
Title:	Igbesi Aiye/Gbogbo Omo Ibile
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 035EP

...Gbogbo Omo Ibile (Going Home). "The first time ever on vinyl for these 1964 Rudy Van Gelder recordings for Blue Note; and astral strides beyond the flat highlife cuts originally issued. With Donald Byrd, Hubert Laws and Elvin Jones stretching out breathtakingly amongst resplendent Nigerian drumming, and anticipating the vibes of classic Pharoah and Alice Coltrane. Around thirteen minutes each side."

Artist:	ALLEN, TONY
Title:	Ole
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 036EP

2013 repress, originally released 2007. After Mark Ernestus' mix of "Moyege" in this series, now his Basic Channel/Rhythm And Sound partner comes to the control tower. Mortiz von Oswald's deep Berlin steppers discloses dubwise traces of our original Lagos recording -- the percussion of Yinka Ogunye, the singing of '50s palmwine legend Rolling Dollar, Oscar Olimbi's guitar lick -- in with his own Oberheim voicings, additional drumming and cool-and-deadly rhythm track. It's a tough, masterly dance record in fine Rhythm And Sound style -- which during its ten-and-a-half minutes seems to ponder time elapsed and journeys undertaken. Like a stepping razor, but t-u-m-p-i-n. This "Reggae Land" version is the take-no-prisoners, pared-down dub of Wareika Hill Sounds ' rootical rework of "Ise Nla." Magnificent trombone and percussion; expert, classical JA mixing. Brings to mind those great dubs of Glen Brown's "Black Man Stand Up Pan Foot."

Artist:	ALLEN, TONY
Title:	Hypnotic Brass Ensemble/Salah Ragab Reworks
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 041EP

"When The Hypnotics handed over this monster, they mentioned something about its 'Egyptian' vibe, so -- on top of the fact that a couple of them are sons of Ra trumpeter Phil Cohran -- it seemed apposite to couple it with new recordings made for us in Cairo by space jazz luminary Salah Ragab, who once himself recorded and toured with the Arkestra. The shimmering, burnished, refined funk of Sankofa takes Tony Allen's 'Losun' for its departure point; the Cairo side is a burning basement session in the Ra big-band tradition, full of life and living, heavy on the percussion and choca with fine solos."

Artist:	SON PALENQUE
Title:	Samba/El Lobo/Aguata
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 043EP

The last of Honest Jon's Tony Allen series, presenting the legendary Afro-Colombian band from San Basilio de Palenque -- three new recordings curated by Lucas Silva and mixed by Moritz von Oswald -- a delirious brew of highlife, chalupa, Afrobeat and champeta. "Samba" is a homage to Nigerian musical heroes, and the burning horns are arranged by Colombian maestro Ramon Benitez. "El Lobo" tells the story of a wolf lost in the Palenque bush and "Aguata" -- played in the tambora rhythm -- is about rain.

Artist:	HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE
Title:	Alyo/Flipside
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	10"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 047EP

The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is comprised of 8 brothers from the south side of Chicago, all sons of the Sun Ra trumpeter, Phil Cohran. Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is Chicago's brass band, deeply rooted in the spirit of cosmic music. Here are two scorchers from their Honest Jon's full-length. "Alyo" (with Malcolm Catto from The Heliocentrics on drums) is hard and funky, written by Cohran in memory of Alyo Tolbert, star dancer for the Montu Dance Company. "Flipside" wobbles and tips, with the spirit of Mingus in its gait. One pressing only, in a metallic-ink sleeve.

Artist:	ACTRESS
Title:	Paint, Straw And Bubbles
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 048EP

"Paint, Straw And Bubbles" is vintage Actress. Melodically, you might think of classic minimalism by way of the Caribbean, and while its neurotically funky drum patterns nod to the experimental fringe of Chicago house, the low-end atmospherics betray the music's UK origins. Zomby's remix invokes UK funky with a carnival-esque house rhythm, while Maze's phasing summons 1980s cold wave and early techno, or maybe John Carpenter, or Kraftwerk's Autobahn rerouted through South London.

Artist:	WAREIKA HILL SOUNDS
Title:	Kumina Mento Rasta
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	10"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 050EP

Wareika Hill Sounds is the contemporary roots reggae project of Calvin Cameron -- mainstay of the original Light Of Saba line‐up, and the genius behind Lambs Bread Collie. In the great pedagogical traditions of the multicultural Light Of Saba, and before that Count Ossie, this recording runs together two JA musical traditions -- a kind of drumming (and drum) brought from the Congo, and the island's variation of calypso -- into a thundering grounation charge. The Skatalite's trombone‐playing is majestic, deadly, and deeply gripping. The dub is tremendous, too. Expertly mastered and cut at D&M in Berlin, and beautifully pressed at Pallas, for maximum soundboy worries. Printed sleeve design by Will Bankhead.

Artist:	SHACKLETON
Title:	Deadman
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 052EP

Sam Shackleton stalks deeper into the sub-loaded unknown. From his Fabric mix CD, "Deadman" turns paradox and paranoia into dancefloor fire. This is rolling, dread techno of breathtaking heat and humidity, spurred by hectoring congas and thick-set subs, amidst a teeming soundscape of drones, field recordings and oblique vocal textures. Kevin Martin adopts his King Midas Sound guise for an expansive remix which reveals his lineage in noise, industrial and isolationist ambient. Mastered by Rashad Becker with artwork by Zeke Clough.

Artist:	VON OSWALD TRIO/DIGITAL MYSTIKZ, MORITZ
Title:	Restructure 2/Restructure 2 Rebuild
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 054EP

Musically, this new stepper appears to swell out of thin air. Immense and minimal, the propulsive groove of this monstrous child of Krautrock is overlain with the blues abstraction of Tikiman's guitar, the swing and effects of Marc Muellbauer's double bass, Delay's digressive steel percussion, and the otherworldly keys of Loderbauer and von Oswald. Mala's rebuild ratchets up the drama and dread. A barrage of bleeps rains down on a clopping drum pattern and steely synths. An immensely powerful record.

Artist:	TIYISELANI VOMASEVE
Title:	Votswelani
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 055EP

The first in a series of EPs of storming, squinty Shangaan Electro to herald the current European tour of Tiyiselani, the Tshetshas and producer Dog -- and kicking off an extended series of Honest Jon's twelves, with contributions from Actress, Mark Ernestus, Peverelist, Shake Shakir, Oni Ayhun, Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer, Burnt Friedman, Old Apparatus and Zomby, amongst others. Four exclusive tracks not featured on Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa (HJR 052CD/LP).

Artist:	PARRISH/BURNT FRIEDMAN, THEO
Title:	Meet Mancingelani And Zinja Hlungwani
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 060EP

Another installment in this series of A-team producers reworking Honest Jon's acclaimed Shangaan Electro compilation. Theo Parrish roars into a fierce, uglier-than-ugly edit, with no let-up for thirteen minutes, when it crashes to a standstill: a hurtling, mesmerizing ride, multi-layered and clustered with synth washes, bleeps and alarms, galloping drums, clattering percussion. Burnt Friedman's Shangaan variation is perforce more chilled, lithe, reverberating. The crafted drum programming is fresh and funky, with moody vocal interjections and haunting keys, chocka with dub thrills and spills, lethal with the bass.

Artist:	PINCH & SHACKLETON
Title:	Boracay Drift
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 064EP

"Boracay Drift" is the CD-only track from Pinch and Shackleton's collaborative full-length for Honest Jon's (HJR 059CD/LP). A pulverizing, apocalyptic opening gives way to a menacing bass excursion, expertly putting on the frighteners dubwise, before dissolving ambiguously into the amazing, extended vocal treatment -- a thread of eerie, garbled sublimity, like a kind of black-magic plainsong. Morphosis' epic remix is more spaced and spooked, the dread of the original version in check but still body-rocking and driving out of its silences.

Artist:	MMM/OLD APPARATUS
Title:	Meet Tshetsha Boys And Shangaan Electro
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 065EP

2012 repress. Characteristically murderous MMM disco-house -- sharp and succinct, witty and hedonistic, light and hard-grooving -- gallops away like a thoroughbred with the original marimba synth-line, and expertly excavates the fragile soulfulness of the Tshetsha's singing. Threaded by the same marimbas, the Old Apparatus workout is a cavernous, atmospheric, stately stepper, reverberating and suspenseful, with splashing cymbals, horror vocals and miasmatic scraps of melody.

Artist:	TREMBLING BELLS, BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY & MULDOON'S PICNIC
Title:	The Duchess
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJP 067EP

Ahead of a new album, The Marble Downs -- recorded with Bonnie "Prince" Billy -- Glasgow's Trembling Bells return with an eight-song vinyl-only EP. Entirely exclusive music, unique to this release, with a lovely silk-screened sleeve, the Duchess EP is effectively divided into two halves. The first is comprised of four songs from The Marble Downs sessions, with Will Oldham dueting with Trembling Bells singer Lavinia Blackwall. Three of the EP's Oldham collaborations are original compositions and there's also a reinvention of Scott Walker's "Duchess."

Artist:	JUDD/BULLION, ELMORE
Title:	Petrol Laughs
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 070EP

Elmore Judd's music is a heady mix of art-funk, soul, hip-hop, and pop, compounded by African dance and folk, rebetika, and vintage horror soundtracks. "Petrol Laughs" is an out-pop adventure, musically bumptious but psychologically uneasy. "Wires 2" is bubbling, buzzing and soulful. "Golden Goat" is a cold-sweat take on the Snakefinger classic, "Synth Grub" a dubwise head-nodder layered with bleeping, humming ambience. Bullion offers two potent remixes steeped in a replicant eighties groove: his stop-start version of "DevoEsk" features a bold new vocal manner whilst his "Synth Grub" version is moodier, linear, and low-slung.

Artist:	WAREIKA HILL SOUNDS
Title:	No More War EP
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	10"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 071EP

Here are four new grounation furies from Wareika Hill Sounds -- hypnotic, thunderous, urgent, mystical -- with dubwise bass drums embedding the Light Of Saba veteran's gorgeous trombone classicism. The opener is a rocking kumina rhythm, with ring-the-alarm metal percussion and exhortatory brass; "Free the People" swirls some apocalyptic reasoning into the foggy, thumping mix. "Universe in Crisis" chuffs head-long down the grooves, before the anthemic "Chant" takes a step back from the fire, the expert drumming and lyrical bone-work in full effect.

Artist:	VA
Title:	London Is the Place for Me: Calypso, Kwela, Highlife, Jazz -- The Music of Young Black London, 1 & 2
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 002CD

Honest Jon's assembles volumes 1 & 2 in their highly-acclaimed London Is the Place for Me series on one 2CD set. Volume 1 was the second album on the Honest Jon's label, originally released in 2002. When the Empire Windrush, an old troop-carrier, arrived at Tilbury on June 21, 1948, and inaugurated modern Caribbean immigration to Britain, it also supplied calypso with its best-known image -- on Pathé newsreel, Lord Kitchener singing his new composition "London Is the Place for Me." Kitch had boarded with Lord Beginner at Kingston docks, Jamaica, on Empire Day, May 24. In London they joined a milieu of fine band musicians familiar with Caribbean musical forms and already represented on numerous recordings crucial to the development of British swing and jazz music. Travelling with their own core audience, the Trinidadian calypsonians brought with them the vocal music of Carnival. Traditionally, this ranges from social satire to sexual double-entendre, from voodoo to the most pressing issues of the day, from sporting events to competitive insult. The experiences of Britain's growing Caribbean population was to be fabulously rich in raw material. Volume 2 remains mostlyfocused on the '50s, with classic calypsos running alongside the African jazz of Ambrose Campbell -- the father of modern Nigerian music -- and some blistering high-life. Amongst the contributions from the '60s, there is some South African kwela (featuring Chris McGregor), and a jazz-dance percussion workout from the Trinidadians who put the Notting Hill Carnival on London streets.

Artist:	VA
Title:	London Is The Place For Me
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 002LP

Subtitled: Trinidadian Calypso In London, 1950-1956. 2011 vinyl repress of what was the 2nd album on the Honest Jon's label, originally released 2002. When the Empire Windrush, an old troop-carrier, arrived at Tilbury on June 21, 1948, and inaugurated modern Caribbean immigration to Britain, it also supplied calypso with its best-known image -- on Pathé newsreel, Lord Kitchener singing his new composition "London Is The Place For Me." Kitch had boarded with Lord Beginner at Kingston docks, Jamaica, on Empire Day, May 24. In London they joined a milieu of fine band musicians familiar with Caribbean musical forms and already represented on numerous recordings crucial to the development of British swing and jazz music. Travelling with their own core audience, the Trinidadian calypsonians brought with them the vocal music of Carnival. Traditionally this ranges from social satire to sexual double-entendre, from voodoo to the most pressing issues of the day, from sporting events to competitive insult. The experiences of Britain's growing Caribbean population were to be fabulously rich in raw material. Housed in a gatefold sleeve.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Watch How The People Dancing
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 003CD

Subtitled: Unity Sounds From The London Dancehall, 1986-1989. 2002 release. Brilliant, haughty Jamaican avant‐gardism, inspired by Jammy's Sleng Teng explosion, rearing up at a Hackney crossroads in north East London, and facing down techno, hip-hop, breakbeat and rave. Staggering, exhilarating reggae music made by soundmen on a Casio and a drum machine, in a room over Eddie Regal's record shop. Presented as a next‐generation companion to London Is The Place For Me, the mood is more defiant -- a Jamaican secession from London, with themes of inner‐city sufferation running alongside hymns to the dancehall and the herb superb. Brilliantly mastered by Moritz von Oswald from Basic Channel. "There's a whole heap of stuff that we did at that time, different even to the music, that we didn't really know what we were doing, we just done it. This feeling on the records, we did that with everything we did, it was just the vibes that we were carrying then, it was all about one massive vibe. Even with the sound, we weren't going to choose something that somebody else did, we definitely was going to choose something that somebody else didn't use. We wanted to go out there and say, Yeah, this is the wickedest thing, everyone has to know, and nobody else can't tell we no different. We pushed it that way, we carried on that way." Artists include: Selah Collins, Mikey Murka, Errol Bellot, Kenny Knots, Richie Davis, Peter Bouncer, Richie Davis, and Jack Wilson And Demon Rockers.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Watch How The People Dancing
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 003LP

Double LP version, repressed. Subtitled: Unity Sounds From The London Dancehall, 1986-1989. 2002 release. Brilliant, haughty Jamaican avant‐gardism, inspired by Jammy's Sleng Teng explosion, rearing up at a Hackney crossroads in north East London, and facing down techno, hip-hop, breakbeat and rave. Staggering, exhilarating reggae music made by soundmen on a Casio and a drum machine, in a room over Eddie Regal's record shop. Presented as a next‐generation companion to London Is The Place For Me, the mood is more defiant -- a Jamaican secession from London -- with themes of inner‐city sufferation running alongside hymns to the dancehall and the herb superb. Brilliantly mastered by Moritz von Oswald from Basic Channel. "There's a whole heap of stuff that we did at that time, different even to the music, that we didn't really know what we were doing, we just done it. This feeling on the records, we did that with everything we did, it was just the vibes that we were carrying then, it was all about one massive vibe. Even with the sound, we weren't going to choose something that somebody else did, we definitely was going to choose something that somebody else didn't use. We wanted to go out there and say, Yeah, this is the wickedest thing, everyone has to know, and nobody else can't tell we no different. We pushed it that way, we carried on that way." Artists include: Selah Collins, Mikey Murka, Errol Bellot, Kenny Knots, Richie Davis, Peter Bouncer, Richie Davis, and Jack Wilson And Demon Rockers. With full color insert.

Artist:	BROOKS & THE LIGHT OF SABA, CEDRIC 'IM'
Title:	The Magical Light Of Saba
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 004CD

New 2009 edition on Honest Jon's Records (originally released in 2003). This compilation is drawn from extremely rare singles and LPs featuring the work of Cedric "Im" Brooks -- an old boy of the Alpha School in Kingston, Jamaica, alongside alumni like Don Drummond, Johnny Moore and Tommy McCook of The Skatalites, jazz-men Joe Harriott and Harold McNair, and too many other musical giants to mention. He was a member of The Vagabonds before Jimmy James moved the group to England, and during the '60s, toured Caribbean hotels and clubs with various big bands and combos. His own musical horizons -- especially new jazz music -- were increasingly distant from these constrained commercial contexts; and he eagerly accepted an invitation to visit a friend in the U.S. In Philadelphia, Cedric was awe-struck by the music and vibes of the Sun Ra Arkestra. He was on the point of joining the commune, when the birth of his second daughter necessitated his return to Jamaica. Amazingly, though, rocksteady was in full swing on the island, and Cedric took up Ra's challenge by starting The Mystics, to experiment with free-jazz and poetry, African robes and dancers. During this period, Cedric's long association with Studio One produced the hit single "Money Maker" and his musical direction of Count Ossie's Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari was commemorated by the classic Grounation triple-LP set, before his frustrations with purely rasta patterns encouraged him to set up The Light of Saba, in order to go into other aspects of African drumming. Taking leads from Hugh Masekela and Fela Kuti, the recordings of Cedric "Im" Brooks and The Light of Saba delineate "world music" way ahead of its time. The group offers a blend of African and U.S., Cuban and other West Indian influences -- calypso and funk, rumba and be-bop, nyabinghi and disco -- magnificently expressed as classic reggae.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Lif Up Yuh Leg An Trample
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 009LP

"The best contemporary Trinidadian Soca. Hard edged, dancehall tinged with a smattering of sexuality & politics, this album also commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Notting Hill carnival." Double LP, full color gatefold sleeve. Artists: Laventille Rhythm Section, Dawg E Slaughter, Timmy, Maximus Dan, Andre Tanker, Massive Gosine, Denise Belfon, Bunji Garlin, Machel Montano, Michelle Sylvester, Bobo & Agony, Machel Montano & Black Stalin.

Artist:	LE VOLUME COURBE
Title:	I Killed My Best Friend
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 014LP

"This is the long-playing debut of Charlotte Marionneau. Her 'Volume Curve' project features contributions from Hope Sandoval, David Roback, Colm O'Ciosoig and Malcolm Duffy, amongst others. Kevin Shields' contribution -- as co-writer, performer and producer -- is so thorough-going that this album really marks his first fully-realised music since My Bloody Valentine. The sound-world here -- it has the integrity of a classic soundtrack -- is intimate and uncanny, playful and compelling, brimming with musical ideas."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Lagos Chop Up
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 015LP

"Fela's success in the West has hidden from view the mind-boggling range of modern Nigerian music. Though formally these two compilations put things in perspective -- ranging across styles from the mid-sixties to the early eighties -- musically they are just staggering. There is juju apala, Afro-funk, highlife. Some breathtaking classic fuji -- raw Muslim street music -- for twenty-five years now the real soundtrack of Lagos youth. And the Afrobeat tracks here include one of the best you'll ever hear: thirteen minutes of Shina WIlliams And His African Percussions. As Chief Ebenezer Obey puts it -- 'Eyi Yato,' something different. With detailed notes by Michael Veal, Fela's biographer, and great artwork from Lagos." Artists: Sir Shina Adewale And His Super Stars International, Dr Victor Olaiya, Etubom Rex Williams, Kollington Ayinla, Ikenga Super Stars of Africa, Nigeria Army Rhythm Group, Eastern Minstrels, Oliver De Coque And His Expo '76, Steven Amechi And His Rhythm Skies, Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson, Workers Brigade Band.

Artist:	VA
Title:	London Is the Place For Me 2
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 016LP

... Calypso & Kwela, Highlife & Jazz From Young Black London. "Another installment of amazing music from the first wave of modern black settlement in England. The focus remains on the fifties, classic calypsos running alongside the African jazz of Ambrose Campbell -- the father of modern Nigerian music -- and some blistering high-life. Amongst the contributions from the sixties there is some South African kwela (featuring Chris McGregor), and a jazz-dance percussion workout from the Trinidadians who put the Notting Hill Carnival on London streets. The LPs are housed in a gatefold sleeve with a beautiful folded insert. There is a trenchant introduction by Paul Gilroy, full discographical notes, and numerous wonderful photographs."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Lagos All Routes
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 017LP

"Honest Jon's bring us the second of two compilations (Lagos Chop Up being the first) focusing on music from the Nigerian city of Lagos circa the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s (considered to be the golden age of African popular music). With many African nations fighting for (or gaining) independence, locally produced modern music was seen as a powerful expression of new national identity. Bands either modernized folk, classical or traditional African genres, or Africanized foreign genres such as R'n'B and funk. From West Africa came 60s highlife, which then influenced Fela Kuti's Afro-funk of the 70s, while from the traditional Yoruba religion came juju, fuji, waka and apala tracks, all of which are included here." Artists: Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey & His Inter-Reformers Band, Sir Victor Uwaifo, Travellers Lodge Atomic 8, Sagbeni Aragbada, Super Negro Bantous, Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson, Ambali Adedeji, Chief Umobuarie And His Group, Mike Ejeagha, Kollington Ayinla, The Harbours Band, Haruna Ishola, Dr. Victor Olaiya, Sir Patrick Idahosa And His African Sound Makers.

Artist:	MOONDOG
Title:	The Viking of Sixth Avenue
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 018CD

Previously licensed to Astralwerks in the U.S., now re-released on its original label, Honest Jon's, with new and improved gatefold card wallet sleeve packaging. Poet, composer, street musician and cosmologist Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardin, 1916-1999) learned rhythm from American Indians and counterpoint from J.S. Bach. Many of his recordings feature instruments he built himself: trimba, yukh, tuji, oo. Sometimes you can hear in the background the streets of New York, where Moondog often slept. In addition, he was blind, due to an accident when he was 15. Sometime in the 1950s, fed up with being mistaken on the street for Christ (his regular busking spot was uptown on Sixth) Moondog put on a Viking costume, with spear and horned helmet; and he dressed like this until the late 1970s (by which time he was working with orchestras in Germany). Moondog's renown was extensive: Igor Stravinsky lobbied a judge on Moondog's behalf. Charlie Parker wanted to play with him, Julie Andrews DID play with him, and he was feted by the likes of Bob Dylan, Marlon Brando, and Steve Reich. Andy Warhol's mother designed one of his covers, and Weegee took photographs of him (included in the booklet). Janis Joplin covered him, Mr. Scruff owes him badly, and Antony and the Johnsons covers his songs. This is the first retrospective of Moondog's music -- 36 tracks from 1949-1995, most of them exceptionally rare, all of them miraculous.

Artist:	ALLEN, TONY
Title:	Lagos No Shaking
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	HJR 020CD

The Honest Jon's label reissues this 2006 classic from Afrobeat co-creator and master drummer Tony Allen. The much-lauded Lagos No Shaking pays tribute to the powerful sounds and rhythms of Allen's homeland of Lagos, Nigeria, marking a return to the classic percussive stylings which harken back to his seminal contribution to Fela Kuti's Africa 70 and Egypt 80. This is the real thing -- raw and uncut, recorded in Lagos over 10 nights with a 20-piece band, including the finest musicians in the city, not least deep horn-blasting from Lekan Animashaun (Baba Ani) and Show Boy from the killer Fela line-ups, and the palm-wine veteran Fatai Rolling Dollar, who adds his throaty, commanding tones and throbbing agidigbo thumb piano to four tracks. There are the R&B sensibilities of Yinka Davies and Omololu Ogunleye; and Muritala Adisa adds touches of ewe, a form of spoken praise-singing rooted in ancient Yoruba tradition. But the key element is, of course, Allen's powerful, yet magnificently relaxed drumming, which keeps everything in perpetual rocking motion, tempering the hard funk edges of classic Afrobeat with earthier Lagosian flavors. Indeed, while the album's observations on Lagos life are aptly tough and sardonic, this is a warmer, more down-home, perhaps more humane album than anything Fela ever produced. Afro-funk, stone-classic dance music in 6-minute chunks. The 2LP version includes an extra track.

Artist:	ALLEN, TONY
Title:	Lagos No Shaking
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 020LP

2LP version. The vinyl version includes an extra track and sounds even more stunning than the disc. The Honest Jon's label reissues this 2006 classic from Afrobeat co-creator and master drummer Tony Allen. The much-lauded Lagos No Shaking pays tribute to the powerful sounds and rhythms of Allen's homeland of Lagos, Nigeria, marking a return to the classic percussive stylings which harken back to his seminal contribution to Fela Kuti's Africa 70 and Egypt 80. This is the real thing -- raw and uncut, recorded in Lagos over 10 nights with a 20-piece band, including the finest musicians in the city, not least deep horn-blasting from Lekan Animashaun (Baba Ani) and Show Boy from the killer Fela line-ups, and the palm-wine veteran Fatai Rolling Dollar, who adds his throaty, commanding tones and throbbing agidigbo thumb piano to four tracks. There are the R&B sensibilities of Yinka Davies and Omololu Ogunleye; and Muritala Adisa adds touches of ewe, a form of spoken praise-singing rooted in ancient Yoruba tradition. But the key element is, of course, Allen's powerful, yet magnificently relaxed drumming, which keeps everything in perpetual rocking motion, tempering the hard funk edges of classic Afrobeat with earthier Lagosian flavors. Indeed, while the album's observations on Lagos life are aptly tough and sardonic, this is a warmer, more down-home, perhaps more humane album than anything Fela ever produced. Afro-funk, stone-classic dance music in 6-minute chunks.

Artist:	VA
Title:	London Is the Place for Me: African Dreams, Calypso, the Piccadilly Highlife -- The Music of Young Black London, 3 & 4
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 021CD

Honest Jon's assembles volumes 3 & 4 in their highly-acclaimed London Is the Place for Me series, originally released in 2006, on one 2CD set. Ambrose Campbell was acclaimed by Fela Kuti's generation -- by Fela himself -- as the founder of modern Nigerian music. Several of his recordings lit up London Is the Place for Me 2, and volume 3 is devoted to his music, drawing on the 78s he cut in London over 10 years from 1949. Nearly all the tracks assembled here come from recordings made for the Melodisc label and originally released as 10" 78 rpm singles. People who bought these records at the time can still recall how it was when the percussion team -- among them Ade Bashorun, Salustiano Dos Anjos, Manny Myers and "Lati" Pedro -- built their polyrhythms in Ola Dosunmu's kingdom. With the melodic guitars of Brewster and Ambrose coming together behind Campbell's soothing voice, the musicians contrived to paint an evocative, enduring picture of palm wine Lagos nights. Volume 4 addresses first waves of modern immigration from Africa and the West Indies. After devoting a third installment to the accomplishments of the late Nigerian genius Ambrose Campbell, Honest Jon's resumes an open-house policy, suited to musicians whose lives and artistic ambitions carried them all over the world: calypso and kwela are back, and highlife and bebop, with a little rock n' roll, a "mambo indio," a shango hymn, and a cha-cha-cha for bellydancing jazzbos. Astronauts and prostitutes mingle with landlords and Test cricketers -- sex with streetfighting and doing a runner. The CDs are beautifully presented as miniature books, saddle-stitched, with 40 pages of rare, precious photos of the musicians and their social milieu, and in-depth commentary.

Artist:	CAMPBELL, AMBROSE ADEKOYA
Title:	London Is The Place For Me 3
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 021LP

"Ambrose Campbell was acclaimed by Fela Kuti's generation -- by Fela himself -- as the founder of modern Nigerian music. Several of his recordings lit up London Is The Place For Me 2: now volume 3 is devoted to his music, drawing on the 78s he cut in London over ten years from 1949. Nearly all the tracks assembled here come from recordings made for the Melodisc label and originally released as 10" 78rpm singles. People who bought these records at the time can still recall how it was when the percussion team -- among them Ade Bashorun, Salustiano Dos Anjos, Manny Myers and 'Lati' Pedro -- built their polyrhythms in Ola Dosunmu's kingdom. With the melodic guitars of Brewster and Ambrose coming together behind Campbell's soothing voice, the musicians contrived to paint an evocative, enduring picture of palmwine Lagos nights." -- Val Wilmer

Artist:	STATON, CANDI
Title:	His Hands
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 023CD

Honest Jon's re-releases this modern soul classic by legendary U.S. soul/gospel singer Candi Staton, in a new card-gatefold packaging. Previously released in 2006 in the U.S. on Astralwerks. After years of gospel releases (including two gospel album Grammy nominations), His Hands marked Candi Staton's return to secular music with an album that collects four of her own compositions alongside songs originally written by Charlie Rich and Merle Haggard, as well as the heart-wrenching stand-out title track by Will Oldham (Bonnie "Prince" Billy). Staton's renowned musical history includes a turn with the Jewel Gospel Trio in the 1950s, as well as tours with Sam Cooke, Mahalia Jackson and the Staple Singers. In the late-'60s, she reached the top ten with her version of "Stand By Your Man" and the Grammy-nominated "In the Ghetto." She even moved briefly into disco-diva territory with her 1976 smash hit "Young Hearts Run Free." His Hands sees Staton returning home to the tear-soaked and aching Southern soul that first guided her career, with consummate backing support by Muscle Shoals legend Barry Beckett on the Hammond B3 organ, various members of Lambchop, as well as Candi's son Marcus Williams on drums and daughter Cassandra Hightower on back-up vocals.

Artist:	STATON, CANDI
Title:	His Hands
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 023LP

LP version, repressed. Honest Jon's re-releases this modern soul classic (originally issued in 2006) by legendary U.S. soul/gospel singer Candi Staton. After years of gospel releases (including two gospel album Grammy nominations), His Hands marked Candi Staton's return to secular music with an album that collects four of her own compositions alongside songs originally written by Charlie Rich and Merle Haggard, as well as the heart-wrenching stand-out title track by Will Oldham (Bonnie "Prince" Billy). His Hands sees Staton returning home to the tear-soaked and aching Southern soul that first guided her career, with consummate backing support by Muscle Shoals legend Barry Beckett on the Hammond B3 organ, various members of Lambchop, as well as Candi's son Marcus Williams on drums and daughter Cassandra Hightower on back-up vocals.

Artist:	VA
Title:	London Is the Place For Me 4
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 025LP

...African Dreams and the Piccadilly High Life. 2011 repress. Double LP version. "This is the fourth volume in our series celebrating the music of black London, staying for now with the first waves of modern immigration from Africa and the West Indies. After devoting a third installment to the accomplishments of the late Nigerian genius Ambrose Campbell, Honest Jon's resumes an open-house policy, suited to musicians whose lives and artistic ambitions carried them all over the world: calypso and kwela are back, and highlife and bebop, with a little rock n' roll, a 'mambo indio,' a shango hymn, and a cha-cha-cha for bellydancing jazzbos. A lake in a Johannesburg zoo pops up next to a Chinese on the Harrow Road. Astronauts and prostitutes mingle with landlords and Test cricketers, sex with streetfighting and doing a runner. The music is presented alongside very rare artist photographs by Val Wilmer, and detailed notes."

Artist:	LAS MALAS AMISTADES
Title:	Jardin Interior
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	3x7"
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 026LP

"Psych folk! DIY punk! Tropicália! From Bogotá! Las Malas Amistades -- 'the bad friends' -- formed in 1994, when several art students in Bogota, Colombia, began meeting up to play music together (though none of them were musicians). From the start their method has been to make up songs there at the session, sometimes whilst their four-track is already running, moving straight on when something is caught on the tape. The music is fresh, spontaneous, intimate, spare. It's lovely, heartfelt, a bit wrong, full of poppy wit and beauty. There are six members at present. They use a hulking charity-shop synth and a Casiotone, electronic drums, an acoustic guitar and a cuatro, various small percussion gadgets. Sometimes songs are acoustic, sometimes electronic, usually both. Las Malas Amistades are heirs to the anthropophagism of the Tropicália movement, gobbling the brains of a scrumptious range of musical intelligence. The heroes and traditions of Colombian music: Los Carrangueros, Noel Petro, Andres Landero, Juancho Polo Valencia, cumbia vieja and Discos Fuentes. Also The Residents, Moondog, Sun Ra, Aksak Maboul, Morricone, Arthur Russell, Serge Gainsbourg, Paco Ibanez, The Slits, Tom Ze. '60s and '70s crooners like Jose Jose, Raphael, Sandro, Jeanette, Leonardo Favio. Las Malas Amistades have released two records. The first, La Música De Las Malas Amistades, compiled songs from the first five or six years of the band. The second, Jardín Interior, was recorded in Bogotá in March 2005. This three-7" set presents seventeen tracks, with full translations and great original artwork by the group."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Boogaloo Pow Wow: Dancefloor Rendez-Vous In Young Nuyorica
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 027CD

Originally released in 2006 on Honest Jon's, but not previously distributed in North America -- now fully available on CD here for the first time. A scorching compilation which features the brilliant, hybrid array of styles which burned up Latino dancefloors during the '60s in New York. The '60s were years of explosive transition for Latin music in New York: in tune with the times of strident political protest and cultural affirmation, new rhythms like the pachanga, boogaloo, típico and salsa signalled significant changes in musical sensibility among a new generation. By the early 1960s, the heyday of the great mambo era was passing, and by the end of the decade, the catch-all phrase salsa had been implanted on the rich variety of styles and rhythms that made up the repertoire. In between, throughout the 1960s, a thousand flowers bloomed in the Latin music field, with the bands conversant in the traditional Afro-Cuban styles of son and guaguancó and cha cha chá, Latin jazz and bolero, while also trying their hand at a range of newly-emerging styles, beginning with the pachanga in the opening years through to boogaloo and shingaling, until the roots sounds of típico as the decade ended. This array of styles came together in those heady years, and the eclectic tastes of those dynamic times are all here, from "Tanga," the first recorded example of Cubop and the classic "Descarga Cachao," to the jaunting guaguancó of Ray Barretto and Bobby Pauneto. But while some of the selections represent the preceding musical generation, and others anticipate the salsa sound of the key Fania years of the early 1970s, the focus here is on the boogaloo and Latin soul sound which was the most characteristic soundtrack of the period. Listen to the two Willie Rosario cuts, "Cool Jerk," and the pieces by Joe Loco and Willie Bobo, and you'll hear the trademarks of the style: the raucous hand-clapping, the party exhortations, the back-beat drumming, the African-American street English -- the result was a crazy, motley style named after the African-American dance craze of the moment, the boogaloo. Boogaloo and related styles of Latin soul were the first real crossover sounds that broke the language and style barriers, and the first to make it onto the Billboard charts as top sellers nation-wide. However, it was a genre not destined to last long, soon eclipsed by the more commercially-durable salsa boom of the early 1970s. But notwithstanding the brief life-span of boogaloo, to this day many of its top hits are loved by dancers everywhere. Other artists include: Manny Corchado, Macito, Tito Rodriguez, Kako, La Playa Sextet, Chuito Velez, Joe Loco, The La Playa Orchestra, Rene Grand And His Combo New York, and Dianne And Carole.

Artist:	WHITE, SIMONE
Title:	I Am The Man
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 028CD

"I flew to Nashville at the end of October 2004. Mark Nevers let me stay upstairs at his house in the kids' room. The house is also the studio. It's a big old wooden house with a huge oak tree out front, a porch with a swinging chair, two dogs a cat and his kids' toys all over the place. The piano is in the living room, there's a main recording room which would be a bedroom, although I also recorded in the hallway, the drums are out back in another room, everything is connected with windows so you can see each other. It's a very nice, casual atmosphere to record in... I was planning on doing just vocals and guitar. Recording before, I'd used a band and I never felt like I really got it right, partly because of my inexperience and the pressure of studio time, so I wanted to make it spare and simple, the way it sounds when I play live. Tony Crow came in and did piano on two tracks. I was there a week. After recording we'd all drink beer and have political arguments. Right away Marky pegged me as a hippie and even though I think he's a leftie at heart he likes to play the red neck. When I got back to New York I decided I wanted to add more instruments. I really liked being in Nashville and I didn't feel like it was finished. But I didn't get back there till April 2005. Marky brought in his musicians, his guys. He's got this great group that he uses all the time. We recorded live, all spread out through the house. I'd play them a song a couple times, they'd huddle and do this Nashville thing, talking in code. Then we'd record. Marky gave the recordings to Honest Jon's in February of 2006. He'd been working on the Candi Staton album for them. They wanted me to record some more, do some re-recordings, try some new arrangements. We finished it in October 2007." -- Simone White

Artist:	LAS MALAS AMISTADES
Title:	Patio Bonito
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 029CD

Patio Bonito is the second Las Malas Amistades release on Honest Jon's. Las Malas Amistades -- "the bad friends" -- formed in 1994, when several art students in Bogota, Colombia, began meeting up to play music together (though none of them were musicians). From the start, their method has been to make up songs there at the session, sometimes while their four-track is already running, moving straight on when something is caught on the tape. Six members use a hulking charity-shop synth and a Casiotone, electronic drums, an acoustic guitar, a cuatro and various small percussion gadgets. Sometimes songs are acoustic, sometimes electronic, usually mixed. The music is spontaneous, intimate, spare. It's lovely, heartfelt, full of poppy wit and beauty, about to fall apart. Patio Bonito was recorded with the natural percussion of the raindrops hitting the tiles on the roof. In Bogota, when it rains so much, people tend to stay indoors and probably that spirit of confinement can also be heard on the record (although less clearly than the rain). As one member illustrates, the record "sounds like that brief and pineapple-y interval when the rain stops, the clouds open up, the light shines and people realize that the sun hasn't gone anywhere, that it was always up there, waiting to shine again."

Artist:	JUDD, ELMORE
Title:	Insect Funk
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 030CD

This is the second full-length release by North London's Jesse Hackett aka Elmore Judd. Weird, between-the-sheets soul from Tufnell Park. P-Funk running into art-school disco, rock avant-gardism, UK hip-hop, African roots music, a bit of rembetica from Greece, horror soundtracks and jazz. An ecstatic, danceable, menacing record populated by pirates, rats, Snakefinger, dead men and Tron. Drummer Tom Skinner, who played on Elmore Judd's first record Angel Sound, makes a re-appearance on Insect Funk, playing a kit, primitive drum machines, scaffolding poles and pots and pans. A dirty exploration of the scaly underbelly of soul as played by art hobos.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Migrating Bird: The Songs of Lal Waterson
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 031CD

Honest Jon's Records presents a tribute album to UK folksinger Lal Waterson, with tracks specially commissioned for this release. Lal Waterson was a member of The Watersons, a key 1960s precursor of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. Migrating Bird features 19 different voices from different decades and countries, all with a different take on the singularly haunting quality of these works. From the gyrating keyboards of King Creosote to the ramshackle accordion of Michael Hurley to the gentle ambience of Vashti Bunyan, the simplicity of Waterson's lyrics and her mellifluous folk spirit shine through. Other artists include: Nancy Elizabeth, James Yorkston, Victoria Williams, Lavinia Blackwall and Alex Neilson, Alasdair Roberts, Danny & The Champions Of The World, Charlotte Greig, Jeb Loy Nichols, Adrian Crowley, Richard James, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Sabbath Folk, Lindsey Woolsey, Richard Youngs, The Memory Band and Mark Olson.

Artist:	HALO, ABDEL HADI & THE EL GUSTO ORCHESTRA OF ALGIERS
Title:	Abdel Hadi Halo & The El Gusto Orchestra of Algiers
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 032CD

2013 repress. Chaabi ("of the people") has its roots in the Andalusian music of Moorish Spain, spreading to North Africa with exiled Jewish and Moorish communities; but it really took off in the music schools, parties and bars of occupied, post-WWII Algiers, where its Andalusian, Middle Eastern and North African lineage fused with the Mediterranean soundtrack of that era -- chanson, jazz, snatches of tango, a little boogie-woogie. A chaabi band combines traditional instruments such as the quanoun (or zither), mandole, oud, gambar (a stringed turtle shell), bendir and derbouka (types of drum); together with the piano, flute, banjo (brought to Algiers by American GIs), violin (played upright on the lap to save space in crowded venues), accordion and bongos. With subject matter ranging from God to pretty girls, the songs often touch on taboo issues. For this recording, the Abdel Hadi Halo & The El Gusto Orchestra of Algiers includes four singers -- joined in chorus by the voices of the entire orchestra and five-man banjo, percussion and violin sections. The scale and organization are thrilling; the music is swirling and improvisatory, surging from the haunted to the bluesy, the devotional to the knees-up. This album was recorded on the tilting fifth floor of the Conservatoire d'Algiers, in a room overlooking the sea on one side, and the Casbah on the other: the orchestra was recorded live in full flight -- all together, in continuous takes.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Living Is Hard: West African Music in Britain, 1927-1929
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 033CD

Honest Jon's has prepared a series drawing on some of the earliest recordings in the EMI Hayes Archive -- recovered from more than 150,000 78s -- staggering music from Iraq, Turkey, Caucasia, Lebanon, Iran (including sides made in Old Street, London, in 1909), Egypt and the Belgian Congo. This series opener presents the music of the West African underground of 1920s Britain, recorded at Hayes and released on the Zonophone label (which exported nearly all the records to West Africa). You can hear Caribbean influences here, the promise of highlife there, but Living Is Hard mostly disavows fusion and assimilation. And by contrast with antecedents in the history of black music in Britain -- minstrelsy and spirituals, for example, ragtime and jazz -- these recordings are unhitched from the protocols of a white listenership. These are startling, trenchant, elemental roots -- carrying troubled news home, along with signs of the new African nationalism -- and an enthralling glimpse of other lives, other times. Artists include: Oni Johnson, Isaac Jackson, Ben Simmons, Harry E. Quashie, Douglas Papafio, Prince Zulamkah, The West African Instrumental Quintet, The Ga Quartet, Domingo Justus, James Tucker, John Mugat, Kumasi Trio, James Thomas, Nicholas De Heer, George Williams Aingo and James Brown.

Artist:	ALLEN, TONY
Title:	Lagos Shake: A Tony Allen Chop Up
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 034CD

Two years ago, Honest Jon's travelled to Lagos with the great drummer Tony Allen, to make his first recordings there since his time with Fela Kuti -- an album entitled Lagos No Shaking, a classic of contemporary Afrobeat. Since then, the label has widely commissioned numerous responses to those new sides: from legends of dance music culture like Basic Channel in Berlin, for example, and founding father of Detroit techno, Carl Craig; and young tigers like Dizzee Rascal's Newham Generals, MIA producer Diplo in Baltimore, and carioca sensations Bonde Do Role from Rio De Janeiro. There are also new recordings from Cairo, Saturn, Bogota and Kingston, Jamaica -- fresh interpretations or complete reworkings by the space jazz pioneer Salah Ragab, a street brass band descended from Sun Ra's Arkestra, highlife-inspired Afro-Colombian drummers from the village of San Palenque De Basilio, and a veteran of Count Ossie's Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari. Afrobeat, dub, jazz, chalupa, electro, highlife, techno, grime, carioca, champeta and funk from all corners, fizzing away together here... it could only be from Honest Jon's. Vinyl version includes 2 bonus tracks.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Give Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted: Baghdad, 1925-1929
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 035CD

This is the second in Honest Jon's series of albums exploring the earliest 78s held in the EMI Hayes Archive. In the mid-1920s, The Gramophone Company -- soon before it became EMI -- employed two or three Europeans to criss-cross Iraq. They logged regional demographics, assessed the German competition, and checked out the scores of record shops and hundreds of musical venues. In Kerbala, its man fearfully disguised himself as an Arab. This was the groundwork for three sessions, conducted in Baghdad in the second half of the decade, which produced nearly 1,000 recordings. Business was good -- the first group of records, though deemed aesthetically unsuccessful by the Company, immediately produced 12,000 sales to just two outlets in the city. Drawing on the full range of these Baghdad recordings, it is a wondrous, deeply poignant glimpse of social living since obliterated, in which ethnicities, faiths and traditions appear woven richly and meltingly together, however precariously. There is dance music featuring Arab folk singers from the countryside, backed by professional Jewish musicians in Iraqi styles popularly termed "Egyptian," and perfected in nightclubs where the first duty of the secular women singers on this album was prostitution. Also including some Arabic word-play, in a nod to the musical form of the Arabic mawwal, a Hebrew hymn is kick-started with a cry of "Allah!," most likely from one of the Jewish performers. There are pieces from Bahrain and Kuwait; sometimes mixed together in one performance -- the different dialects are far-flung. There are beautiful, high and lonesome Kurdish violin improvisations; and some unaccompanied circular breathing on a zourna so unearthly it seems to cross late Coltrane with Sun Ra. All the songs are characterized by searing emotion and crises of feeling, many by erotic urgency. As with the other titles in the series, the recordings have been startlingly restored at Abbey Road; and they are presented with full translations, rare photographs (in this case, several performers), and notes -- including an extensive interview with a citizen of Baghdad throughout this period, who knew many of the musicians here personally.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Sprigs Of Time: 78s From The EMI Archive
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 036CD

This is the third in Honest Jon's series of albums exploring the earliest 78s held in the EMI Hayes Archive. Honest Jon's has spent the last two years delving through more than 150,000 78 records in the temperature-controlled steel vaults of EMI's Archive in Hayes, Middlesex. Following studious compilations of West African and Iraqi music of the 1920s, the latest release in the Honest Jon's Hayes Archive series is a sparkling late-summer lucky dip, Sprigs Of Time: 78s From The EMI Archive. An eccentric survey of the Hayes shelves, Sprigs Of Time is thirty tracks recorded between 1903 and 1957, everywhere from England (Percy Grainger's recording of the title song, sung by Joseph Taylor in 1908) to Japan (the bewilderingly beautiful "Seigaiha," by the Japanese Imperial Palace Band, five years earlier). Organ rolls from Georgia run alongside Tamils impersonating motorized transport, and rumba from Beirut; '40s fado sits next to the songs of Bengali beggars. As with the other Hayes releases, the tracks have been restored at Abbey Road and are beautifully presented, with extensive contemporary photographs included. There are recognizable names (Joseph Taylor, the incomparable Fairuz, Mighty Sparrow and an uncredited Rubén González, singing lead vocals on "Rumba Negra") and extraordinary oddities (Vengopal Chari's rather unfunny "Laughing" and the peculiarly affecting hand bells of "Gas All Clear"). Taken out of the library and put back on the turntable, every track here is remarkable; every one worth the saving.

Artist:	STATON, CANDI
Title:	Who's Hurting Now?
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 037LP

Vinyl version. Honest Jon's releases a new studio album by legendary U.S. soul/gospel singer, Candi Staton -- the follow-up to her sublime 2006 soul re-emergence, His Hands. Who's Hurting Now? could arguably be even better than His Hands, once again recorded in Nashville by producer Mark Nevers (Lambchop, Silver Jews), with a grittier, more live, Southern-funk sound. As before, this album hosts a combination of veterans and newcomers, including Candi's son on drums and her daughter singing back-up; but this time, the band is led by keyboard-player Mose Davis, from Detroit funk legends The Fabulous Counts. Again, there is a mix of original compositions, including another song written for Candi by Will Oldham (Bonnie "Prince" Billy), and country and soul revivals by songwriters such as Dan Penn, Mary Gauthier, and Dave Crawford, who also wrote Staton's 1976 disco-hit, "Young Hearts Run Free." Another soul classic in the making.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Marvellous Boy: Calypso From West Africa
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 038CD

Marvellous Boy: Calypso From West Africa celebrates the West African counterpart of the 1950s Soho scene uncovered in the Honest Jon's series, London Is The Place For Me. Issuing from centuries of to-ing and fro-ing between England, the West Indies, and West Africa, the same musical styles -- calypso, highlife, jazz -- overlap, proliferate, and adapt, with local traditions freshened up and thrown into the mix. With numerous faces and reference points cropping up in both milieu, this contemporaneous music-making is brimming over with the same passion for life, sparkling topicality, and extravagant, magpie creativity. The inter-war dance bands of British West Africa are often strikingly similar in sound to Trinidadian orchestras like Lovey's String Band (credited with the first calypso recordings in 1912). However, the first West African calypso recordings in the modern style are from Freetown, Sierra Leone in the early 1950s, by Ebenezer Calendar and Famous Scrubbs. In arrangements blending African and European instruments, the brass plays out the legacy of colonial military bands, albeit hair-down and a little ramshackle now; and the beautiful Creole lyrics are as quick and musical as any classic calypsonian's. Decca also organized the first calypso recording session in Ghana, down the coast, where a sound interchangeably designated "calypso" or "highlife" ruled urban dancefloors, courtesy of The Tempos and its spin-offs including The Rhythm Aces. The invasion of King Mensah of Ghana, and The Tempos' money-spinning tour of Nigeria at the start of the 1950s sparked a decade of musical innovation. Bobby Benson's new highlife 11-piece included the great trumpeters Victor Olaiya and Roy Chicago and his calypso "Taxi Driver" was their first, huge, signature hit. (By contrast, little is known about the Nigerian Rolling Stone). The Mayor's Dance Band was run by the celebrated Erekosima "Rex" Lawson, whose trademark blend of Igbo lyrics over a Calabari rhythm reflected his mixed parentage. Steven Amechi was from eastern Nigeria, and the guitar solo on "Nylon Dress" is by the king of Igbo highlife, Stephen Osita Osadebe. Saxophonist Chris Ajilo and his band The Cubanos didn't produce much calpyso-highlife, but rather, cooking Afro-Cuban jazz with traditional roots, exemplifying the open hybridity of all these forms. By the early 1960s, calypso was fading in West Africa, and U.S. soul and rhythm and blues were poised to replace Caribbean influences. Still, the dying embers would produce its most classical exponent, Godwin Omabuwa, Nigeria's own Lord Kitchener. Omabuwa cut only a few records, but his mastery of the genre was a fitting end to the heyday of calypso in British West Africa.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Open Strings: 1920s Middle Eastern Recordings- New Responses
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 039CD

This is the fourth release in Honest Jon's series of albums exploring the earliest 78s held in the EMI Hayes Archive. Open Strings is a dazzling selection of virtuoso string-playing from Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Turkey, all recorded in the 1920s, and pretty much unheard ever since. In addition, Open Strings includes a disc of newly-commissioned responses to the themes in this music by underground luminaries committed to the drone such as Sir Richard Bishop of legendary Sun City Girls renown, West Coast psych-guitarist Ben Chasny aka Six Organs Of Admittance, UK folk-guitarist Rick Tomlinson aka Voice Of The Seven Woods, and Western Massachusetts' raga-inspired duo, MV And EE. From resonant bow-drone, to frenetic fret-runs to delicate, circular acoustic musings to sitar fever-dreams, no matter the nationality, there is a resonance and truth in this music that is ancient, timeless and transcendent. Scorchers past and present, every one. Other artists include: Micah Blue Smaldone, Michael Flower, Charlie Parr, Bruce Licher, Paul Metzger, and Steffen Basho-Junghans.

Artist:	VA
Title:	The World Is Shaking: Cubanismo From The Congo, 1954-55
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 040CD

This is the fifth release in Honest Jon's series of albums exploring vintage recordings held in the EMI Hayes Archive. This album uncovers the dizzy beginnings of the golden age of African music zinging with the social and political ferment of the independence movement and anti-colonialism, after the Second World War and the daredevil origins of Congolese rumba -- the entire continent's most popular music in the '60s and '70s. The new music grew in concert with a burgeoning night life especially in the twin capitals of Leopoldville (today's Kinshasa) on the Belgian side, and Brazzaville on the French, where humming factories lured increasing numbers of rural Congolese with the offer of a steady, relatively well-paying job. The astonishing inventions of Europe and America also played an important role in the music's development. Traditional Congolese musicians began to master imported guitars and horns by mimicking what they heard. The jazz of Louis Armstrong and the ballads of European torch singers like Tino Rossi captured the imagination of the rapidly-expanding working class as well as the familiar-sounding music of Latin America. Local musicians swapped the Spanish of the originals for Congolese languages. In his version of "Peanut Vendor," included here, A.H. Depala replaces the seller's cry of "mani," or "peanut," with a lovelorn lament for a woman named "Moni." Depala went on to land a spot in the house-band of the prestigious Loningisa studio. Others failed to gain equivalent recognition, but their music was no less impressive. Listen to likembe (thumb-piano) player Boniface Koufidilia as he makes the transition from traditional to modern in the first few seconds of "Bino," which hits you with a vamping violin while he muses about death (including that of the popular Brazzaville musician Paul Kamba). Andre Denis and Albert Bongu both echo the sounds of palm-wine brought to the Belgian Congo by the coastmen. The sweet vocal harmonies of Vincent Kuli's track were learned, perhaps, in a mission church. Rene Mbu's nimble, likembe-like guitar plucking shines on "Boma Limbala," and is Laurent Lomande using a banjo as a backdrop to "Elisa?" Aren't those kazoos, buzzing along on Jean Mpia's "Tika?" It's as if the musicians, fired up by the times in their zeal for experimental self-expression, tossed into a bottle some new elements and some old, some near and some far, and then shook it hard, to see what would happen. With rare photographs and notes by Gary Stewart, author of Rumba On The River. Sound restoration done at Abbey Road.

Artist:	VA
Title:	The World Is Shaking: Cubanismo From The Congo, 1954-55
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 040LP

Deluxe double LP version, in a beautiful gatefold sleeve. This is the fifth release in Honest Jon's series of albums exploring vintage recordings held in the EMI Hayes Archive. This album uncovers the dizzy beginnings of the golden age of African music zinging with the social and political ferment of the independence movement and anti-colonialism, after the Second World War and the daredevil origins of Congolese rumba -- the entire continent's most popular music in the '60s and '70s. The new music grew in concert with a burgeoning night life especially in the twin capitals of Leopoldville (today's Kinshasa) on the Belgian side, and Brazzaville on the French, where humming factories lured increasing numbers of rural Congolese with the offer of a steady, relatively well-paying job. The astonishing inventions of Europe and America also played an important role in the music's development. Traditional Congolese musicians began to master imported guitars and horns by mimicking what they heard. The jazz of Louis Armstrong and the ballads of European torch singers like Tino Rossi captured the imagination of the rapidly-expanding working class as well as the familiar-sounding music of Latin America. Local musicians swapped the Spanish of the originals for Congolese languages. In his version of "Peanut Vendor," included here, A.H. Depala replaces the seller's cry of "mani," or "peanut," with a lovelorn lament for a woman named "Moni." Depala went on to land a spot in the house-band of the prestigious Loningisa studio. Others failed to gain equivalent recognition, but their music was no less impressive. Listen to likembe (thumb-piano) player Boniface Koufidilia as he makes the transition from traditional to modern in the first few seconds of "Bino," which hits you with a vamping violin while he muses about death (including that of the popular Brazzaville musician Paul Kamba). Andre Denis and Albert Bongu both echo the sounds of palm-wine brought to the Belgian Congo by the coastmen. The sweet vocal harmonies of Vincent Kuli's track were learned, perhaps, in a mission church. Rene Mbu's nimble, likembe-like guitar plucking shines on "Boma Limbala," and is Laurent Lomande using a banjo as a backdrop to "Elisa?" Aren't those kazoos, buzzing along on Jean Mpia's "Tika?" It's as if the musicians, fired up by the times in their zeal for experimental self-expression, tossed into a bottle some new elements and some old, some near and some far, and then shook it hard, to see what would happen. With insert featuring rare photographs and notes by Gary Stewart, author of Rumba On The River. Sound restoration done at Abbey Road.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Africa Boogaloo: The Latinization Of West Africa
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 041CD

Honest Jon's presents a collection of music from '60s and '70s West Africa that is heavily influenced by Latin sounds from the era, representing a mutual cultural exchange that would have a permanent impact on the evolution of each region's trademark sound. Much of what makes modern Latin music so irresistible came from Africa in the first place. When the first waves of African rhythms, reconstituted in the Caribbean, returned home on radios and records, Africans -- especially in West and Central Africa -- received them with great enthusiasm. Staid dance bands that replicated European music soon began to swing as Caribbean accents settled in their rhythm sections. By the 1950s, Africa had produced its own Calypsonians, and more than one African musician changed his name to give it a Latin flavor. Some even composed songs in Spanish, while others wrote nonsense lyrics that only sounded like the real thing. No band mixed local and Latin styles more successfully than Orchestre Baobab and its leader Balla Sidibe. The mesmerizing "On Verra Ca" finds Baobab leaning in the direction of the stuttering mbalax sound that Youssou N'Dour carried to great popularity. Other Senegalese bands followed the trend, like the Rio Band, Orchestre N'Guewel, and Laba Sosseh from Gambia (like his compatriot Amara Toure) who styled himself as a salsa singer after his hero Johnny Pacheco. From Benin, Gnonnas Pedro sang in every pop style imaginable, but he seems especially at home in an Afro-Cuban embrace, as you will hear on the 1977 recording "Adigbedoto." The closing track also comes from Benin, a 1976 recording by the celebrated Orchestre Poly Rythmo -- though the singer, Pierre Tchana, hails from Cameroun. "Quiero Wapacha" features another Camerounian singer, Charles Lembe, and also from Cameroun is legendary African Jazz saxophonist, Manu Dibango, who is featured here alongside Le Grand Calle and Cuban flutist Don Gonzalo. Orchestre OK Jazz recorded any number of Afro-Cuban inspired sides: "Micorrason" is one of the band's earliest songs, recorded soon after their formation in 1956. There is no better evidence of the push-me-pull-you, back-and-forthing between two cultures than the Afro-Latin compilation we have here. All the flow from an unparalleled period of exuberance and creativity after World War II had ended and before homegrown tyranny had yet to descend on the land. It was Africa's moment, optimistic and free. You can hear it in the music. --Adapted from text by Gary Stewart, author of Rumba On The River: A History of the Popular Music of the Two Congos.

Artist:	HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE
Title:	Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 042CD

The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is comprised of eight brothers from the south side of Chicago who come from an extraordinary musical family. Other sisters and brothers are professional musicians, their mothers are singers, and Phil Cohran, their father, has roots running back to Mississippi, the musical hothouse of 1940s St. Louis, Sun Ra in Chicago in the 1950s, and the founding of the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). At night when they went to bed, the children would hear their father rehearsing with his band the Circle Of Sound. They were wakened at 6 a.m. for several hours of music practice before going to school and were a central part of their father's Youth Ensemble. Meanwhile, they were also sneaking under the covers and listening to NWA and Public Enemy, later forming their first group, GWC (Gangsters With A Curfew), which morphed into Wolf Pak (Wolf Pak (Wolves on the look out for pigs and Klansmen)). By the end of the '90s, they brought together their musicianship, their jazz roots and their hip-hop sensibility, and made a living busking on the streets of Chicago, which honed their burgeoning skills as composers. (They wrote all of the tracks on this album except "Alyo," written by their father, and "Rabbit Hop," written by Moondog.) Eventually, the group transferred to New York City, and after playing out relentlessly, including gigs with Mos Def and Erykah Badu, and some particularly incendiary shows in Europe, they have come to be known as one of the hottest and most individual bands around. This album is the result of a chance encounter in 2005: during a cold market day on Portobello Road, strains of Ellington and the swagger of brassy funk cut through the morning fog. Stationed on the corner of Talbot Road, eight horns and a drum kit rocked Ladbroke Grove. Since their initial meeting, Honest Jon's and HBE have stayed close. In 2007, HBE contributed a monster of a track "Sankofa" to the Tony Allen remix project, Lagos Shake (HJR 034CD/LP), and have not stopped blowing minds since. In London, Lyon and New York, HBE tore it up both as leaders and in support of artists as diverse as Victoria Williams and Candi Staton, both rousing and tender in turns. Honest Jon's are proud to present the gorgeous, thrilling music of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.

Artist:	TREMBLING BELLS
Title:	Carbeth
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 043CD

This is the hotly-tipped debut of new new-folk outfit, Trembling Bells, masterminded by protean drummer Alex Neilson, one of the UK's leading young improvisers. From the ashes of Scatter, a Glasgow-based collective which long anticipated the free-folk phenomenon, emerges a new song-based venture. Having served apprenticeships with some uniquely talented songwriters (Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Current 93, Alasdair Roberts, Baby Dee, Red Krayola, Six Organs Of Admittance, Josephine Foster, amongst them), Neilson sets out with the group to reanimate the hidden, mythic landscapes of Yorkshire and Glasgow (in particular) via a love of canonical rock, early music, and traditional folk. Featuring the diverse musical talents of medieval music scholar and psychedelic siren, Lavinia Blackwall, Venusian bluesman, Ben Reynolds, Lucky Luke progenitor Simon Shaw, plus trombonist George Murray, and viola player Aby Vuillamy from Scatter and the Bill Wells Group. Carbeth is absolutely sweeping, grandiose baroque-folk like a newly-minted Pentangle or Fairport Convention, but with strange keyboard/horn arrangements, and sometimes thunderous percussion. This isn't music for tatted lace-wearers, but for folk-rockers wearing sturdy woolen travelling capes for backwards horse-rides through a long-lost Britain.

Artist:	WHITE, SIMONE
Title:	Yakiimo
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	HJR 044CD

Yakiimo is Simone White's second and most accomplished album released by Honest Jon's. Part memoir and part American chronicle, this record is a sublime mixture of simple, Americana-steeped arrangements and White's own genre-defying combination of rawness and the gorgeous, intimate fragility of her voice. Mark Nevers produced this record with the same organic perfection he brought to her previous album, I Am The Man. But here, Simone White's songwriting has matured, and this collection of acoustic gems is even more exquisitely evocative. With both intelligence and wit, "A Girl You Never Met" explores the mind of a woman tired of life and at the brink of death. The aching string arrangement and breathy instrumentation fuse perfectly, to stunning effect. One of the album's signature pieces, "Victoria Anne," mixes gritty childhood memories with a transcendent humanity and affectionate love. Most of the songs are White's own compositions, but she includes a few by her friends, songwriting duo Frank Bango and Ricy Vesecky. "Candy Bar Killer" is a precious and deranged pop masterpiece, which Simone White's voice and heart-breaking guitar capture effortlessly. "Yakiimo" invokes the power of memory and the intoxication of myth -- an American dream of a different kind. These crystallized vignettes hang together so vividly and so eccentrically, you might think you've stumbled across a box of carefully-preserved curios in your grandmother's attic or an American photo album of snapshots from a dreamier time. And it's beautifully packaged too -- a curio in its own right, housed in a gatefold sleeve with a fully-illustrated 24-page booklet of lyrics.

Artist:	VON OSWALD TRIO, MORITZ
Title:	Vertical Ascent
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 045CD

This is the highly-anticipated debut full-length release by The Moritz von Oswald Trio, comprised of members Moritz von Oswald (Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound), Max Loderbauer (NSI, Sun Electric), and Vladislav Delay (Luomo). Through Basic Channel and Rhythm And Sound -- his collaborations with Mark Ernestus -- Moritz von Oswald first of all conjured from thin air -- then comprehensively mapped out -- the grounds of a deep exchange between real-deal Jamaican dub and classic, Detroit-style techno. The duo's accomplishment and influence are immense. The repercussions of their work within electronic dance music have been incalculable. Though a departure, Vertical Ascent retraces various signatures of the earlier styles -- the fastidious density of sound, the massive bass and detailed upper registers ("a frequency massage," Ricardo Villalobos has called the album), the stripped, stepping repetitiousness, the seriousness. The striking differences stem from the qualities of live performance (the driving, clattering percussion in particular, and the loose, improvisatory approach), the exploded palette of sounds, including a trace of steel drums, something like a cuica -- and of course, most of all -- the fresh line-up. Vladislav Delay is a drummer and electronic musician from Finland -- like von Oswald, trained in classical percussion (while the third member studied classical piano for 20 years) -- who released a landmark album on Basic Channel's Chain Reaction imprint, before working with a diversity of artists (under pseudonyms like Luomo and Sistol), from Massive Attack to the Scissor Sisters. On Vertical Ascent, he plays home-made metal percussion. From Munich, Max Loderbauer was a partner in the ambient duo Sun Electric. Behind the scenes, his work has ranged between Tresor and Can's Spoon Records. In 2004 he teamed up with Tobias Freund to form NSI (Non Standard Institut). On Vertical Ascent, he plays synthesizers, alongside von Oswald, who also contributes Fender Rhodes and additional percussion. At the heart of Vertical Ascent is a dream crossing of Basic Channel, Larry Heard and Can -- as at home with calypso as it is Stravinsky.

Artist:	TREMBLING BELLS
Title:	Abandoned Love
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 047CD

Following on from the unanimous critical acclaim of their debut, Carbeth, Glasgow-based Trembling Bells' second album deepens their signature synthesis of traditional folk forms with the romanticism of country music, the deceptive complexity of Medieval music and the swagger of classic rock. Anthemic visions of the British landscape as a fantastic and treacherous netherworld are set to vying country-style duets, Bowie-esque stomps and the mysterious, serpentine melodies of Earlie Musik. Baroque, stately, flowery, richly-orchestrated British folk, with moments of acid burn. Members include: Alex Neilson (Jandek, Taurpis Tula, Current 93, Six Organs Of Admittance, etc.), Lavinia Blackwall (Directing Hand), Simon Shaw (Scatter) and Mike Hastings (The Pendulums).

Artist:	TREMBLING BELLS
Title:	Abandoned Love
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 047LP

LP version. Following on from the unanimous critical acclaim of their debut, Carbeth, Glasgow-based Trembling Bells' second album deepens their signature synthesis of traditional folk forms with the romanticism of country music, the deceptive complexity of Medieval music and the swagger of classic rock. Anthemic visions of the British landscape as a fantastic and treacherous netherworld are set to vying country-style duets, Bowie-esque stomps and the mysterious, serpentine melodies of Earlie Musik. Baroque, stately, flowery, richly-orchestrated British folk, with moments of acid burn. Members include: Alex Neilson (Jandek, Taurpis Tula, Current 93, Six Organs Of Admittance, etc.), Lavinia Blackwall (Directing Hand), Simon Shaw (Scatter) and Mike Hastings (The Pendulums).

Artist:	VA
Title:	To Scratch Your Heart: Early Recordings From Istanbul
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$23.50
Catalog #:	HJR 048CD

Honest Jon's presents a 2CD package drawn from recordings made in Istanbul by the Gramophone Company and HMV, during the first three decades of the 20th century. Amidst the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, it crosses and mixes the folk and classical heritage of Turks, Greeks, Armenians and Gypsies, Muslims, Christians and Jews, urbanites and country‐people, and the demands of tradition and modernity, musical improvisation, composition and system. Most of the singers are hafız, versed in a musical reading of the Koran, and renowned for mastery of the exalted, improvisatory form of the gazel. There are several magnificent examples here, by legendary artists. Three of these gazelhans beautifully interpret folk songs, and another contributor, the folklorist Ağyazar Efendi, sings a long Armenian air with utter authenticity, but in the style of a gazel. Exemplifying the new political freedoms of the Republic, there are two heart‐melting female vocal performances of a kind of art‐song called sarkı. Also featured is the taksim, a kind of improvisation in which one‐off musical fireworks, designed to ravish the listener's soul, illuminate deep fluency in the makam. A who's-who of the pre‐eminent instrumentalists of this first half-century of Turkish recording, in performances which are simply stunning, breathtaking, exquisite and other‐worldly. The music here is so transfixing, intensely devotional and sublimely beautiful, that some contemporary listeners thought they were levitating. Brilliantly restored at Abbey Road, and housed in an elegant mini-LP style gatefold package with a 27-page booklet of extensive liner notes and historic photos.

Artist:	ACTRESS
Title:	Splazsh
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 049CD

This is the eagerly‐awaited second album by Werk Discs founder and controller Darren Cunningham. Splazsh is an adventurous, ultra-modern, thoroughly British affair, rummaging about in the inner lives of house and techno, and brilliantly elaborating the accomplishments of his debut, Hazyville (WERK 005CD). Determinedly off‐the‐map and resistant to pigeonholing, Cunningham is an enigmatic and playful figure, citing Francis Bacon and Monet as inspirations alongside Theo Parrish, Anthony "Shake" Shakir, Daft Punk, "binary codes and numeral systems," and The Avengers. He's a hard man to pin down -- somehow a key player in the post‐dubstep diaspora and yet not there at all -- but everything comes across in his shape‐shifting, richly-textured music. The South Londoner's acclaimed debut lived up to its name: a series of dream-like sketches and ideas. For Splazsh, the fog has lifted, the sounds are less submerged than before, but still sticky and close -- a signature combination of exuberance and introversion, luminescence and puzzlement. Unconstrained by the formal clichés of the dance music he loves, Actress' melodies and arrangements are enthralled by their own genies. Worlds of disturbance and melancholy revolve giddyingly inside the insidious funk of tracks like "Get Ohn" and "Lost." A range of musical influences is redrawn, from speed-garage to grime, with none crowned king. There is a reflectiveness -- the ambient drift of "Futureproofing," the radiophonic judder of "Supreme Cunnilingus" -- in amongst the industrial, synth‐wave flavors of "Casanova," and the stirring, stately "Maze." Actress has quickly and justly become one of the most respected names in the UK's new dance music underground. His own label, Werk Discs, has proven itself one of the most formidable and taste‐making UK independents of recent times, bringing the world extraordinary albums from Zomby, Lukid, Lone and Actress himself. In love with the mysteries of groove and repetition, Splazsh is both a culmination and a new beginning for Actress -- a substantial and eccentric work from a brave and coolly individual artist.

Artist:	ACTRESS
Title:	Splazsh
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 049LP

2LP version with embossed printing on cover. This is the eagerly‐awaited second album by Werk Discs founder and controller Darren Cunningham. Splazsh is an adventurous, ultra-modern, thoroughly British affair, rummaging about in the inner lives of house and techno, and brilliantly elaborating the accomplishments of his debut, Hazyville (WERK 005CD). Determinedly off‐the‐map and resistant to pigeonholing, Cunningham is an enigmatic and playful figure, citing Francis Bacon and Monet as inspirations alongside Theo Parrish, Anthony "Shake" Shakir, Daft Punk, "binary codes and numeral systems," and The Avengers. He's a hard man to pin down -- somehow a key player in the post‐dubstep diaspora and yet not there at all -- but everything comes across in his shape‐shifting, richly-textured music. The South Londoner's acclaimed debut lived up to its name: a series of dream-like sketches and ideas. For Splazsh, the fog has lifted, the sounds are less submerged than before, but still sticky and close -- a signature combination of exuberance and introversion, luminescence and puzzlement. Unconstrained by the formal clichés of the dance music he loves, Actress' melodies and arrangements are enthralled by their own genies. Worlds of disturbance and melancholy revolve giddyingly inside the insidious funk of tracks like "Get Ohn" and "Lost." A range of musical influences is redrawn, from speed-garage to grime, with none crowned king. There is a reflectiveness -- the ambient drift of "Futureproofing," the radiophonic judder of "Supreme Cunnilingus" -- in amongst the industrial, synth‐wave flavors of "Casanova," and the stirring, stately "Maze." Actress has quickly and justly become one of the most respected names in the UK's new dance music underground. His own label, Werk Discs, has proven itself one of the most formidable and taste‐making UK independents of recent times, bringing the world extraordinary albums from Zomby, Lukid, Lone and Actress himself. In love with the mysteries of groove and repetition, Splazsh is both a culmination and a new beginning for Actress -- a substantial and eccentric work from a brave and coolly individual artist.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Bellyachers, Listen: Songs From East Africa, 1938-46
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 050-1LP

This is part 1 of a 2LP set of vinyl versions of Honest Jon's Something Is Wrong: Vintage Recordings From East Africa CD compilation -- selections from an HMV run of more than 400 78s -- recordings made in Uganda and Kenya from the mid‐1930s to the mid‐1950s. Part 1 encompasses this material circa 1938-1946, entitled Bellyachers, Listen: Songs From East Africa, 1938-46. Three main types of performance are featured (not forgetting a lovely early Kenyan big‐band calypso, as if straight from the pen of Lord Kitchener). Most are minstrelsy, with songs ranging dazzlingly through subjects including loneliness and death, bastards and cut‐off trousers, trains of fire and no‐good rich people, a murder mystery and a drunken punch‐up at a rumba party in Kampala, and metaphorical cocks, hard pedalling and kettles which won't boil. Other minstrels accompany themselves on various sorts of lyre, and guitars carrying the influences of U.S. country music and Congolese 78s, the influx of Congolese musicians, and the harmonies of Christian church music. There are also tough, raw contributions on button‐accordion and taarab music from the Swahili‐speaking communities of the east coast, and Arab and Indian communities in ports like Mombasa, which had imported Egyptian and Indian music since almost the start of the century. Lilting melodies are provided by violins or Indian harmoniums, sometimes also an oud, along with Indian or Arab percussion. Luxuriously presented, in a gatefold sleeve, with full notes, including extensive translation and haunting photographs. Recordings brilliantly restored at Abbey Road.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Something Is Wrong: Songs From East Africa, 1952-7
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 050-2LP

This is part 2 of a 2LP set of vinyl versions of Honest Jon's Something Is Wrong: Vintage Recordings From East Africa CD compilation -- selections from an HMV run of more than 400 78s -- recordings made in Uganda and Kenya from the mid‐1930s to the mid‐1950s. Part 2 encompasses this material circa 1952-1957. Three main types of performance are featured (not forgetting a lovely early Kenyan big‐band calypso, as if straight from the pen of Lord Kitchener). Most are minstrelsy, with songs ranging dazzlingly through subjects including loneliness and death, bastards and cut‐off trousers, trains of fire and no‐good rich people, a murder mystery and a drunken punch‐up at a rumba party in Kampala, and metaphorical cocks, hard pedalling and kettles which won't boil. Other minstrels accompany themselves on various sorts of lyre, and guitars carrying the influences of U.S. country music and Congolese 78s, the influx of Congolese musicians, and the harmonies of Christian church music. There are also tough, raw contributions on button‐accordion and taarab music from the Swahili‐speaking communities of the east coast, and Arab and Indian communities in ports like Mombasa, which had imported Egyptian and Indian music since almost the start of the century. Lilting melodies are provided by violins or Indian harmoniums, sometimes also an oud, along with Indian or Arab percussion. Finally, there is the startling sound of four larger Ugandan ensembles, with songs about getting drunk and the relative merits of prostitution and motherhood, and the king's deportation by the British, deploying "the man who crunches rocks between his teeth." The style dismayed the missionary Robert Ashe, who visited the court of the Kabaka in 1884: "Our ears were deafened with the din which a motley band of musicians were making. Kettledrums and hand drums were rolling, horns braying, flutes screaming ... while blind musicians twanged away on their banjos, the whole making a most discordant harmony." Luxuriously presented, in a gatefold sleeve, with full notes, including extensive translation and haunting photographs. Recordings brilliantly restored at Abbey Road.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Something Is Wrong: Vintage Recordings From East Africa
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$23.50
Catalog #:	HJR 050CD

Thirty‐five precious, stinging selections from an HMV run of more than 400 78s -- recordings made in Uganda and Kenya from the mid‐1930s to the mid‐1950s. Three main types of performance are featured (not forgetting a lovely early Kenyan big‐band calypso, as if straight from the pen of Lord Kitchener). Most are minstrelsy, with songs ranging dazzlingly through subjects including loneliness and death, bastards and cut‐off trousers, trains of fire and no‐good rich people, a murder mystery and a drunken punch‐up at a rumba party in Kampala, and metaphorical cocks, hard pedalling and kettles which won't boil. Set to the deep grooving of an ndingidi one‐string fiddle, the very opening verses exemplify this fluency and range, within an account of the coming of the radio to the Ugandan capital. Some were angry and confused -- they could hear the talking but see no one, and would not believe that the voice came only from the loudspeakers. The singer SSekinomu weaves in asides about female creativity and the imprisonment of Prince Mawanda, the king's eldest brother, before the song ends as it began, with thanks and compliments for the new technology, to the Bazungu, the Whites. Other minstrels accompany themselves on various sorts of lyre, and guitars carrying the influences of U.S. country music and Congolese 78s, the influx of Congolese musicians, and the harmonies of Christian church music. There are also tough, raw contributions on button‐accordion: "Listening to this kind of Kikuyu song is more a feat of endurance than an aesthetic pleasure," noted the musicologist Hugh Tracey at the time. There is taarab music from the Swahili‐speaking communities of the east coast, and Arab and Indian communities in ports like Mombasa, which had imported Egyptian and Indian music since almost the start of the century. Lilting melodies are provided by violins or Indian harmoniums, sometimes also an oud, along with Indian or Arab percussion. Finally, there is the startling sound of four larger Ugandan ensembles, with songs about getting drunk and the relative merits of prostitution and motherhood, and the king's deportation by the British, deploying "the man who crunches rocks between his teeth." The style dismayed the missionary Robert Ashe, who visited the court of the Kabaka in 1884: "Our ears were deafened with the din which a motley band of musicians were making. Kettledrums and hand drums were rolling, horns braying, flutes screaming ... while blind musicians twanged away on their banjos, the whole making a most discordant harmony." Luxuriously presented, like a small hard‐cover book, with full notes, including extensive translation and haunting photographs; with the recordings brilliantly restored at Abbey Road.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 052CD

2011 repress. An astounding compilation of the breakneck Shangaan dance output of the Nozinja studio in Soweto (an urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa), recorded between 2006 and 2009. From his small home studio in Soweto, Nozinja (aka Dog) sells more than 50,000 records a year (DVD, cassettes, CDs) -- without iTunes, without digital distribution. This is hyper‐local music, all of it still considered traditional, all of it marketed through Shangaan radio and newspapers to a relatively small set of people who live between Johannesburg, Limpopo and Mozambique. Besides Dog himself -- or rather Zinja, Dog's performance name -- his label roster includes BBC, Tiyiselani Vomaseve, and Dog's famed mask‐wearing, clown‐dancing group, Tshetsha Boys. Dog often goes to the dances to scout for new talent. That's where he found Tiyiselani Vomaseve, two sisters who perform together as one of the most popular Shangaan traditional groups in South Africa. They count South African President Jacob Zuma's wife, Thobeka ka‐ Mabhija‐Zuma, as a fan and won a 2010 SABC award for Best Female Traditional Album, which is just one of many awards that Dog has accrued. Tshetsha Boys won Best Newcomer, Best Male Song of the Year and best Shangaan Song of the Year. BBC (trans. "Black Beautiful Culture") took home an award for Best Song as well. The awards are indicators of Dog's success, but the real test comes every Sunday in Soweto. Groups like Tiyiselani Vomaseve and BBC compete regularly for the crowd's favor. "You must be prepared to see the fastest dance ever," Dog declares. The dances are wild, with films of them attracting more than half a million hits on YouTube. The tradition grows out of the Shangaan disco movement, a music that dominated in the '80s with artists like Penny Penny and Peter Teanet. Shangaan disco ran at 110 BPM. Dog's music is around 180 and it's getting faster. Yet the lyrics seem to run counter to this rapidity. They read like African soap operas, tied up with domestic matters and a yearning for the slower life. This is country music. There's something distinctive in this Shangaan perspective: they are one of the more rural and traditional groups in the wealthiest African nation, yet "tradition" to them can also be living, electronic and nuanced. Just as Dog samples American phrases in his songs, his videos cut in shots of white joggers on a spring day, a foggy lakeshore reminiscent of Wisconsin, even a corporate office space -- mundane yet exotic images which become intriguing takes on the modern South African dream. Instead of African music becoming Americanized and re‐framed for the global market, Dog's productions do the opposite. American phrases and foreign images become samples in his collage, in his traditional context. This album is the first release of its kind outside South Africa. Here is Dog's music as‐is.

Artist:	VON OSWALD TRIO, MORITZ
Title:	Horizontal Structures
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 054CD

This is the third album by The Moritz von Oswald Trio, comprised of members Moritz von Oswald (Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound), Max Loderbauer (NSI, Sun Electric), and Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay, Luomo). This time, the album is enriched and expanded by guitar contributions from Paul St. Hilaire (also known as Tikiman), and double bass courtesy of Marc Muellbauer (via ECM). Horizontal Structures is palpably a more open, more expressive album than the previous studio recording, Vertical Ascent. There is more contrast, more light and shade. St. Hilaire and Muellbauer add fresh drama and swing to the intimate tonal and rhythmic interactions of the core grouping. The coherence of the five-piece is remarkable; the boundary between acoustic and electronic undone. The group's evolution is firmly signaled in the opener, "Structure 1." There's a lush, romantic quality to the playing and arrangement that has not been heard before: the guitar licks have a bluesy lilt, the bass imparts melody as well as physical presence, the synth sequences are more painterly, looser somehow, and Ripatti's percussion roams feelingly. "Structure 2" is like '70s spy-flick jazz or groove-heavy Krautrock stripped to its barest essence, Loderbauer and von Oswald's electronics glistening in a sticky cobweb of reverb and delay. The languidly stepping "Structure 3" faintly recalls von Oswald's work with Mark Ernestus as Rhythm & Sound, with St. Hilaire's chords hanging thick above bone-dry drum machine drift. Lastly, "Structure 4," the track structurally closest to techno, is pervaded by a sense of mischief, with Muellbauer's strings -- plucked, bowed, scraped -- coming to the fore. For all its complexity, this is also a very playful album, and the Trio's increased confidence and empathy as improvisers allow them to indulge flights of percussive fancy, sudden about-turns, and vectors into the unknown. Horizontal Structures sounds, above all else, free.

Artist:	VON OSWALD TRIO, MORITZ
Title:	Horizontal Structures
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 054LP

Gatefold 2LP version. This is the third album by The Moritz von Oswald Trio, comprised of members Moritz von Oswald (Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound), Max Loderbauer (NSI, Sun Electric), and Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay, Luomo). This time, the album is enriched and expanded by guitar contributions from Paul St. Hilaire (also known as Tikiman), and double bass courtesy of Marc Muellbauer (via ECM). Horizontal Structures is palpably a more open, more expressive album than the previous studio recording, Vertical Ascent. There is more contrast, more light and shade. St. Hilaire and Muellbauer add fresh drama and swing to the intimate tonal and rhythmic interactions of the core grouping. The coherence of the five-piece is remarkable; the boundary between acoustic and electronic undone. The group's evolution is firmly signaled in the opener, "Structure 1." There's a lush, romantic quality to the playing and arrangement that has not been heard before: the guitar licks have a bluesy lilt, the bass imparts melody as well as physical presence, the synth sequences are more painterly, looser somehow, and Ripatti's percussion roams feelingly. "Structure 2" is like '70s spy-flick jazz or groove-heavy Krautrock stripped to its barest essence, Loderbauer and von Oswald's electronics glistening in a sticky cobweb of reverb and delay. The languidly stepping "Structure 3" faintly recalls von Oswald's work with Mark Ernestus as Rhythm & Sound, with St. Hilaire's chords hanging thick above bone-dry drum machine drift. Lastly, "Structure 4," the track structurally closest to techno, is pervaded by a sense of mischief, with Muellbauer's strings -- plucked, bowed, scraped -- coming to the fore. For all its complexity, this is also a very playful album, and the Trio's increased confidence and empathy as improvisers allow them to indulge flights of percussive fancy, sudden about-turns, and vectors into the unknown. Horizontal Structures sounds, above all else, free.

Artist:	TREMBLING BELLS
Title:	The Constant Pageant
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 055CD

Glasgow four‐piece Trembling Bells release their third slice of Caledonia dreaming, following on from the acclaimed Carbeth (HJR 043CD/LP) and Abandoned Love (HJR 047CD/LP). From its very first notes, The Constant Pageant flies the flag -- a banner of arms -- with a more confident, anthemic sound than ever before. Trembling Bells are 21st century troubadours who know their history, on a quest to connect with the core tradition of Song, and live deep within its mysteries. Medieval ballads, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen are amongst the guiding lights in a music that embraces British folk‐rock, American roots and electric psychedelia. The album title pays tribute to folkloric culture as "omnipresent in my thinking, and a source of personal joy and affirmation," says the Bells' Alex Neilson. "A kind of florid, seething, creative wellspring that taints everything I do. Though, with this collection of songs, there were a number of other influences too. I think of traditional folk music as being like my first serious girlfriend, and all subsequent dalliances with other forms have been indelibly affected by it." It's a record of windswept bitterness and joyous elation: "Cold Heart Of Mine" is a paean to embattled lovers written in the shadow of Verona's ancient amphitheatre; "Where Do I Go From You" and "Torn Between Loves" describe doomed romance, dramatized by Mike Hastings' screaming fuzz guitar. There's also a strong sense of place. Neilson's native Yorkshire is the setting for "Goathland" -- home of folk's first family, the McCarthy‐ Watersons (not to mention the BBC's Heartbeat) -- and "Otley Rock Oracle," in which a small Yorkshire market town is re‐imagined as a place of dead roads, where severed golden heads and cauliflower‐clouds clue in a young adept. Classical and early music come to the fore on "Colour Of Night" -- in which a medieval feast seems to be taking place behind the song's stately gavotte -- and the melancholic closer, "New Year's Eve's The Loneliest Night Of The Year," a tribute to favorite modern songwriters like Gordon Jenkins, Nelson Riddle and Hoagy Carmichael (with a cheeky aside about stolen Roman marbles). The Constant Pageant is a rhapsodic celebration of the power of Song, from one of the UK's most eclectic and inventive groups.

Artist:	TREMBLING BELLS
Title:	The Constant Pageant
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 055LP

LP version. Glasgow four‐piece Trembling Bells release their third slice of Caledonia dreaming, following on from the acclaimed Carbeth (HJR 043CD/LP) and Abandoned Love (HJR 047CD/LP). From its very first notes, The Constant Pageant flies the flag -- a banner of arms -- with a more confident, anthemic sound than ever before. Trembling Bells are 21st century troubadours who know their history, on a quest to connect with the core tradition of Song, and live deep within its mysteries. Medieval ballads, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen are amongst the guiding lights in a music that embraces British folk‐rock, American roots and electric psychedelia. The album title pays tribute to folkloric culture as "omnipresent in my thinking, and a source of personal joy and affirmation," says the Bells' Alex Neilson. "A kind of florid, seething, creative wellspring that taints everything I do. Though, with this collection of songs, there were a number of other influences too. I think of traditional folk music as being like my first serious girlfriend, and all subsequent dalliances with other forms have been indelibly affected by it." It's a record of windswept bitterness and joyous elation: "Cold Heart Of Mine" is a paean to embattled lovers written in the shadow of Verona's ancient amphitheatre; "Where Do I Go From You" and "Torn Between Loves" describe doomed romance, dramatized by Mike Hastings' screaming fuzz guitar. There's also a strong sense of place. Neilson's native Yorkshire is the setting for "Goathland" -- home of folk's first family, the McCarthy‐ Watersons (not to mention the BBC's Heartbeat) -- and "Otley Rock Oracle," in which a small Yorkshire market town is re‐imagined as a place of dead roads, where severed golden heads and cauliflower‐clouds clue in a young adept. Classical and early music come to the fore on "Colour Of Night" -- in which a medieval feast seems to be taking place behind the song's stately gavotte -- and the melancholic closer, "New Year's Eve's The Loneliest Night Of The Year," a tribute to favorite modern songwriters like Gordon Jenkins, Nelson Riddle and Hoagy Carmichael (with a cheeky aside about stolen Roman marbles). The Constant Pageant is a rhapsodic celebration of the power of Song, from one of the UK's most eclectic and inventive groups.

Artist:	VLADISLAV DELAY QUARTET
Title:	Vladislav Delay Quartet
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 056CD

Vladislav Delay has always been a maverick artist. But after relocating to Hailuoto, Finland in 2008, what he calls "absolute freedom" has become the de facto muse guiding his music. On 2009's Tummaa, Delay cracked open ambient dub's hermetically-sealed aesthetic and ushered in elements of jazz-fusion, free improv and industrial noise. Tummaa is dark, restless and challenging. It's also a stepping stone, one that leads directly to Vladislav Delay Quartet, the musician's most radical statement to date. Though this absolute freedom is inextricably linked to the relative isolation of his Finnish home, Delay's latest record is very much a product of collective participation and multiple locales. In Derek Shirley, Lucio Capece and Mika Vainio, Delay has found three musicians more than willing to translate such a non-negotiable concept into sound. A balance is reached between individuality and the demands of the unit. The album's opening salvo -- "Minus Degrees, Bare Feet, Tickles" -- is a commanding declaration of independence. Layered with murky static, churning woodwinds and bowed bass, the music is visceral and unsettling. It also has nothing to do with ambient, dub or the myriad micro-genres they have spawned. This is noise -- vital 21st-century electronic noise that cuts a sharp angle between Borbetomagus' wicked maximalism and the wraith-like aggression coursing through black metal's more drone-based manifestations. That said, VDQ doesn't deal in sonic aggression, exclusively. Spotlighting Capece's soaring, avian reed-work, "Killing The Water Bed" is a vaporous foray into avant-garde jazz; "Presentiment" is deep, liquid blues, dripping suggestively from the celluloid of a long-forgotten sci-fi noir. The penultimate piece, "Louhos," is easily the record's most brutal in terms of rhythm, volume and density. Recalling free jazz and heavy metal's cacophonous flirtations in the late 1980s, the massive rock-beat anchoring the maelstrom swirling about it wouldn't feel out of place on Last Exit's Iron Path or even Ground Zero's epic Consume Red. Eventually, clattering electronics, fuzz-spiked percussion and a scalding wash of reeds rise up. Obliterating all forward propulsion by track's end, they leave a hazy cloud of reverb and feral cries in their wake. Recorded at the former Radio Yugoslavia studios in Belgrade throughout one week, Vladislav Delay Quartet is an expansive and multifaceted listening experience. In Delay's scrupulous production, the ensemble's raw and natural interaction finds a deep coherence: the articulation of absolute freedom. Vladislav Delay (drums, percussion), Lucio Capece (saxophone, bass clarinet), Derek Shirley (double bass) and Mika Vainio (electronics, live processing).

Artist:	VLADISLAV DELAY QUARTET
Title:	Vladislav Delay Quartet
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 056LP

Gatefold 2LP version. Vladislav Delay has always been a maverick artist. But after relocating to Hailuoto, Finland in 2008, what he calls "absolute freedom" has become the de facto muse guiding his music. On 2009's Tummaa, Delay cracked open ambient dub's hermetically-sealed aesthetic and ushered in elements of jazz-fusion, free improv and industrial noise. Tummaa is dark, restless and challenging. It's also a stepping stone, one that leads directly to Vladislav Delay Quartet, the musician's most radical statement to date. Though this absolute freedom is inextricably linked to the relative isolation of his Finnish home, Delay's latest record is very much a product of collective participation and multiple locales. In Derek Shirley, Lucio Capece and Mika Vainio, Delay has found three musicians more than willing to translate such a non-negotiable concept into sound. A balance is reached between individuality and the demands of the unit. The album's opening salvo -- "Minus Degrees, Bare Feet, Tickles" -- is a commanding declaration of independence. Layered with murky static, churning woodwinds and bowed bass, the music is visceral and unsettling. It also has nothing to do with ambient, dub or the myriad micro-genres they have spawned. This is noise -- vital 21st-century electronic noise that cuts a sharp angle between Borbetomagus' wicked maximalism and the wraith-like aggression coursing through black metal's more drone-based manifestations. That said, VDQ doesn't deal in sonic aggression, exclusively. Spotlighting Capece's soaring, avian reed-work, "Killing The Water Bed" is a vaporous foray into avant-garde jazz; "Presentiment" is deep, liquid blues, dripping suggestively from the celluloid of a long-forgotten sci-fi noir. The penultimate piece, "Louhos," is easily the record's most brutal in terms of rhythm, volume and density. Recalling free jazz and heavy metal's cacophonous flirtations in the late 1980s, the massive rock-beat anchoring the maelstrom swirling about it wouldn't feel out of place on Last Exit's Iron Path or even Ground Zero's epic Consume Red. Eventually, clattering electronics, fuzz-spiked percussion and a scalding wash of reeds rise up. Obliterating all forward propulsion by track's end, they leave a hazy cloud of reverb and feral cries in their wake. Recorded at the former Radio Yugoslavia studios in Belgrade throughout one week, Vladislav Delay Quartet is an expansive and multifaceted listening experience. In Delay's scrupulous production, the ensemble's raw and natural interaction finds a deep coherence: the articulation of absolute freedom. Vladislav Delay (drums, percussion), Lucio Capece (saxophone, bass clarinet), Derek Shirley (double bass) and Mika Vainio (electronics, live processing).

Artist:	LAS MALAS AMISTADES
Title:	Maleza
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	HJR 057CD

Las Malas Amistades -- "the bad influences" -- are from Bogota, in Colombia; Maleza is their third album for Honest Jon's. Lovingly assembled, it presents 28 exquisite variations of saudade (a Portuguese term associated with poetic notions of love and nostalgia), in an acoustic, post‐punk take on Tropicalismo -- knockabout, impromptu, snapshot and sublime. Vice Magazine describes Las Malas Amistades' music as "kind of like if the Young Marble Giants sang in Spanish and didn't fully know how to play." Maleza was recorded over a period of four years at member Humberto Junca's house in the middle of a busy and chaotic neighborhood. One member illustrates, however, the record "sounds as peaceful and quiet as if it were recorded in some cave in the hills...
If you read the lyrics for the songs in Maleza, you may think that these four years were especially eventful in the sentimental department. There is a lot of despair and anger and distrust, as if each one of us had looked for and found an especially ill‐suited person to go out with so we could write a couple of sad songs about the whole experience. But if you don't read the lyrics and just listen to the music, both vocal and instrumental, you might get a different idea. It all sounds very peaceful and fragile, as if beneath that layer of anger there was always a melancholic yet hopeful stream."

Artist:	LAS MALAS AMISTADES
Title:	Maleza
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 057LP

Gatefold double LP version. Las Malas Amistades -- "the bad influences" -- are from Bogota, in Colombia; Maleza is their third album for Honest Jon's. Lovingly assembled, it presents 28 exquisite variations of saudade (a Portuguese term associated with poetic notions of love and nostalgia), in an acoustic, post‐punk take on Tropicalismo -- knockabout, impromptu, snapshot and sublime. Vice Magazine describes Las Malas Amistades' music as "kind of like if the Young Marble Giants sang in Spanish and didn't fully know how to play." Maleza was recorded over a period of four years at member Humberto Junca's house in the middle of a busy and chaotic neighborhood. One member illustrates, however, the record "sounds as peaceful and quiet as if it were recorded in some cave in the hills...

If you read the lyrics for the songs in Maleza, you may think that these four years were especially eventful in the sentimental department. There is a lot of despair and anger and distrust, as if each one of us had looked for and found an especially ill‐suited person to go out with so we could write a couple of sad songs about the whole experience. But if you don't read the lyrics and just listen to the music, both vocal and instrumental, you might get a different idea. It all sounds very peaceful and fragile, as if beneath that layer of anger there was always a melancholic yet hopeful stream."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Shangaan Shake
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 058CD

In the summer of 2010, just before the World Cup, Honest Jon's unleashed a bolt from the blue: Shangaan Electro, a startling compilation of jacking dance music from the South African countryside. Heartfelt family and spiritual matters set at a breakneck 180 bpm to cheap samplers by local producer Nozinja aka Dog. In‐your-face, candid and berserk -- with sweet vocals riding bareback the processed progeny of marimba, drums, guitar -- fluorescent orange wigs, nutty dancing -- and no bass at all. A slap in the face and a jab in the bum of solemn, trend‐driven dance music, Shangaan Electro is resplendently vivid and full‐color, shot through with lightning‐fast multi‐rhythms, and dementedly, dazzlingly animated. A few years ago, Honest Jon's offered up a set of homages -- entitled Lagos Shake -- to the great Afrobeat architect Tony Allen, using his own recordings and compositions as its starting point. Now, in a captivating series of 12"s running throughout last year and into 2012, the Shangaan Electro tracks have been similarly fantasized -- rather than just flatly remixed -- by some of the contemporary scene's most inspired artists and producers, from Detroit to London, Berlin to Bristol. Kicking off a prodigiously active year for the Honest Jon's label, the double CD Shangaan Shake collects these new versions, presenting a cross‐section of the most vital moods and grooves currently at-large in underground dance music. Fresh from the label's recent Chop Up live revue, Detroit techno alchemist Theo Parrish throws in a hypnotic, 13‐minute, carnivalesque head-scrambler, multilayered with synths, galloping drums and clattering percussion. Trailering his brand new album for HJ this spring, the inimitable Actress ramps proceedings as up‐and-out as can be without jettisoning the dancefloor completely. Elsewhere, Anthony "Shake" Shakir's Motor City stomper -- a favorite with Gilles Peterson on his BBC Radio 1 show -- is this pioneer's most impactful work of late, hard‐hitting and reckless in all the right places; characteristically, Mark Ernestus from Rhythm & Sound is swingingly original and tersely dubwise; and amongst the set's wildcards, the futuristic pop duo Hype Williams turns out a mesmerizing tribute, lagging somewhere ages behind the party people, achingly soulful and lost. Nothing in modern dance is more attuned to Shangaan musical sensibility than Chicago juke and footwork -- and celebrated originators Rashad, Spinn and Boo lock into its madness with a lethal, frantic pair of reworks, true to the hyper-energy and raw, unhinged power of the source material. From the coiled forensics of Peverelist, though, via the deep, minimal funk of Villalobos & Loderbauer, to the carefree drive of Oni Ayhun -- each and every one of these Shangaan Shake reimaginings sparks from genuine, far‐fetched inspiration into wildly diverse and brilliant new trajectories. Other artists include MMM, Demdike Stare, Old Apparatus, Tshetsha Boys, Mancingelani and Burnt Friedman.

Artist:	PINCH & SHACKLETON
Title:	Pinch & Shackleton
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 059CD

Pinch & Shackleton's self-titled release finds the two dubstep pioneers at the top of their game. The deadly concision, the rhythmic punch and dramatic timing, the spry, side-to-side detailing of a cavernous stage, the crisp-biscuit vocal sampling and Middle Eastern percussion -- their sound signatures are not so much totalled as squared. Truly an album, the music is multi-leveled -- dark as anything at times, but engrossingly varied and emotionally shaded, always on the move.

Artist:	PINCH & SHACKLETON
Title:	Pinch & Shackleton
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 059LP

Gatefold 2LP version. Pinch & Shackleton's self-titled release finds the two dubstep pioneers at the top of their game. The deadly concision, the rhythmic punch and dramatic timing, the spry, side-to-side detailing of a cavernous stage, the crisp-biscuit vocal sampling and Middle Eastern percussion -- their sound signatures are not so much totalled as squared. Truly an album, the music is multi-leveled -- dark as anything at times, but engrossingly varied and emotionally shaded, always on the move.

Artist:	ACTRESS
Title:	R.I.P.
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	HJR 060CD

Between sleep and the void lies the electronic interzone of Actress. Following the noted 2010 album Splazsh (HJR 049CD/LP) (voted #1 in The Wire magazine's "Top 50 Releases Of The Year") South London producer Darren Cunningham returns with a suite of electronic laments, tone structures and dream-time rhythms which all carry his unmistakable fingerprint. R.I.P. comprises 15 tracks painstakingly crafted by Cunningham in his London studio over recent years, with a conceptual arc taking in death, life, sleep and religion. Right from the debut album Hazyville, Actress' music has carried deep tinges and pockmarks of London's rave music heritage. But after the angular dynamics of Splazsh, R.I.P. heads out into deep space. The rhythms and pulses are smudged or blurred, or are hinted at by their absence. Two-step garage is collided into gamelan, and freeform interludes explore microtonal spaces and imagined string instruments. The fifteen chapters of R.I.P. begin with ascension and the Book of Genesis, played out through gardens, serpents and mythological caves. Appropriately for exploring the myths of creation, the sounds Actress creates are completely sui generis. There are no soft synths or plug-ins, and instead he uses meticulous manual sound-tinkering to create tones, tunings and textures. The ghosted rhythms and free tunings of these tracks live in a parallel universe to the conventional rigors of the dancefloor. Unlike the sterile sound-spaces rendered in so much laptop sound-product, these tracks carry traces of the endless mouse strokes that made them. The album begins with the title track, a short tonal requiem for the dead, before drifting into another beatless meditation, the rippling minimalist structure of "Ascending." "Holy Water" and "Marble Plexus" introduce rhythm, although these percussive tics could be equally sourced from sub-bass speaker stacks or marbles rolling around a bowl. "Jardin" and "Serpent" are origami-like constructions which orbit around what could be pizzicato strings or harps. Last-but-one is "IWAAD," whose pulsing 4/4 rhythms and warm hits of low-end vibration hint at a return to the real. R.I.P. underlines Actress's reputation as one of the most eloquent voices to emerge from the sub-bass nexus of London dance music.

Artist:	VA
Title:	London Is the Place for Me: Afro-Cubism, Calypso, Highlife, Mento, Jazz -- The Music of Young Black London, 5 & 6
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	HJR 061CD

At last, fresh installments in Honest Jon's acclaimed, much-loved series: open-hearted, bittersweet, mash-up postcards to the here and now, from young black London. As then, calypso carries the swing. There are four more Lord Kitchener songs -- in consideration of his wife leaving him for a GI, cricket umpires, a fling onboard an ocean-liner and West Indian poultry -- besides a hot mambo cash-in, cross-bred under his supervision, and an uproarious, teasing Ghanaian tribute to him in Fanti by London visitors The Quavers. Other calypsos range compellingly from the devaluation of the pound through jiu jitsu, big rubbery instruments, football fans, heavyweight champ Joe Louis and the sexual allure of English women police. The Mighty Terror contributes the woe-begotten, cautionary tale of his beloved Patricia's change of heart. Ambrose Campbell is back, with six more shots of prodigal, limber, melancholic, visionary West African highlife. Also the Rolling Stones favorite Ginger Johnson with a percussive Latin scorcher; and Mona Baptiste with some wonderful, soulful exotica. Jamaican mento makes its first entry in the series, with a brace by Tony Johnson: a drily witty drinking-song, and a love-letter to Marilyn Monroe. Also finally getting some dues, the path-breaking Latin-African-jazz experiments of Ghanaian drummer and percussionist Buddy Pipp, with spine-tingling playing by the great Jamaican saxophonist Joe Harriott. Expert jazz idioms course sophisticatedly through all the selections, which include a straight-up, South London version of Duke Jordan's "Jordhu," something from Dizzy Reece's soundtrack -- brokered by Kenneth Tynan -- to the British crime film Nowhere to Go, and a trio of magnificently hybrid, hard-swinging instrumentals led in turn by master-guitarist Fitzroy Coleman, Kitch's innovative arranger Rupert Nurse, and trumpeter Shake Keane -- named after Shakespeare because of his love of poetry -- from St. Vincent. The CDs are beautifully presented as miniature books, saddle-stitched, with 40 pages of rare, precious photos of the musicians and their social milieu, and in-depth commentary.

Artist:	VA
Title:	London Is the Place for Me 5: Latin, Jazz, Calypso & Highlife from Young Black London
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 061LP

Double LP version. Comes in a gatefold sleeve with full-size booklet. At last, fresh installments in Honest Jon's acclaimed, much-loved series: open-hearted, bittersweet, mash-up postcards to the here and now, from young black London. As then, calypso carries the swing. There are four more Lord Kitchener songs -- in consideration of his wife leaving him for a GI, cricket umpires, a fling onboard an ocean-liner and West Indian poultry -- besides a hot mambo cash-in, cross-bred under his supervision, and an uproarious, teasing Ghanaian tribute to him in Fanti by London visitors The Quavers. The Mighty Terror contributes the woe-begotten, cautionary tale of his beloved Patricia's change of heart. Mona Baptiste with some wonderful, soulful exotica. Also finally getting some dues, the path-breaking Latin-African-jazz experiments of Ghanaian drummer and percussionist Buddy Pipp, with spine-tingling playing by the great Jamaican saxophonist Joe Harriott. Expert jazz idioms course sophisticatedly through all the selections, which include a straight-up, South London version of Duke Jordan's "Jordhu," something from Dizzy Reece's soundtrack -- brokered by Kenneth Tynan -- to the British crime film Nowhere to Go. The LPs are housed in a gatefold sleeve with a full-size booklet.

Artist:	VA
Title:	London Is the Place for Me 6: Mento, Calypso, Jazz & Highlife from Young Black London
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 062LP

Double LP version. Comes in a gatefold sleeve with four-page insert. Other calypsos range compellingly from the devaluation of the pound through jiu jitsu, big rubbery instruments, football fans, heavyweight champ Joe Louis and the sexual allure of English women police. The Rolling Stones favorite Ginger Johnson with a percussive Latin scorcher. Jamaican mento makes its first entry in the series, with a brace by Tony Johnson: a drily witty drinking-song, and a love-letter to Marilyn Monroe. Plus a trio of magnificently hybrid, hard-swinging instrumentals led in turn by master-guitarist Fitzroy Coleman, Kitch's innovative arranger Rupert Nurse, and trumpeter Shake Keane -- named after Shakespeare because of his love of poetry -- from St. Vincent.

Artist:	ROCKET JUICE & THE MOON
Title:	Rocket Juice & The Moon
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	HJR 063CD

High up in the skies, amongst the clouds Rocket Juice & The Moon was born. It happened back in 2008, when Damon Albarn, Flea and Tony Allen convened on the same Lagos flight, to play and exchange musical ideas in that city as part of the Africa Express collective. Relishing a shared enthusiasm for one another's work, and bonding immediately, there and then, the triumvirate laid down the blueprint for Rocket Juice. Still, more than a year passed before conditions were set for three weeks together at Albarn's West London studio, recording and refining two-dozen startlingly out and deeply funky instrumental grooves. The next stage was to invite onboard some extremely talented friends, with further sessions in Dallas, New York, Chicago and Paris -- Erykah Badu, no less, queen of contemporary soul. Three companions from Africa Express: Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, whose debut album has topped World Music charts since its release; her multi-talented compatriot Cheick Tidiane Seck, whose prodigious keyboardism has lit up releases by artists ranging from Youssou N'Dour to Hank Jones; the young Ghanaian rapper M.anifest; and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, long-time stalwarts in the Honest Jon's set-up. Finally, the tracks were dispatched for mixing to Berlin, to be meticulously honed, polished and envenomed by Mark Ernestus, one-half of the legendary Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound partnerships. The result is Rocket Juice & The Moon -- a triumphant exploration and proliferation of kinetic Afro-funk rhythms: organic, exuberant, communal music-making. From the inaugural bars, the liquid pulse of Fela Kuti's classic recordings drives the action through a suite of 18 shape-shifting compositions. Allen's intricate cross-patterns jostle and lock with Flea's nimble, rumbling bass riffs. Joined by Seck on "There" and "Extinguished" -- Albarn's keyboards spray synth fusillades up top, over, and under -- splicing into the mess of wires running between the freaked Afro-disco of William Onyeabor and the space-jazz-Moog of Sun Ra. The HBE brings extra intensity and drama to "Leave-Taking" -- likewise Flea's trumpet to "Rotary Connection" -- teasing out the haunting melody coiled in the mix. Beautifully buoyed by Erykah Badu's unmistakable vocals, "Hey, Shooter" brilliantly traverses metaphysical spaceways sans any semblance of noodling. "Lolo" and "Follow-Fashion" -- featuring the open-hearted sensuality of Diawara's singing, M.anifest's brawny science, and more brass blasts -- play like its musical cousins or codas. Indeed, the album's shrewd sequencing creates the composite effect of tracks working both individually or within the context of an extended song-cycle. "Poison" is bittersweet and ruminative, and down-tempo and dubby, "Check Out" and "Worries" amplify the range of styles and moods. And by the time of "Fatherless" -- a chugging Afro-blues that evokes John Lee Hooker lost in Lagos, one gets the sneaking suspicion there's very little outside the reach of this collective's inventive musical grasp.

Artist:	ROCKET JUICE & THE MOON
Title:	Rocket Juice & The Moon
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 063LP

2LP version. Housed in a gatefold sleeve. High up in the skies, amongst the clouds, super-group Rocket Juice & The Moon was born. It happened back in 2008, when Damon Albarn, Flea and Tony Allen convened on the same Lagos flight, to play and exchange musical ideas in that city as part of the Africa Express collective. Relishing a shared enthusiasm for one another's work, and bonding immediately, there and then, the triumvirate laid down the blueprint for Rocket Juice. Still, more than a year passed before conditions were set for three weeks together at Albarn's West London studio, recording and refining two-dozen startlingly out and deeply funky instrumental grooves. The next stage was to invite onboard some extremely talented friends, with further sessions in Dallas, New York, Chicago and Paris -- Erykah Badu, no less, queen of contemporary soul. Three companions from Africa Express: Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, whose debut album has topped World Music charts since its release; her multi-talented compatriot Cheick Tidiane Seck, whose prodigious keyboardism has lit up releases by artists ranging from Youssou N'Dour to Hank Jones; the young Ghanaian rapper M.anifest; and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, long-time stalwarts in the Honest Jon's set-up. Finally, the tracks were dispatched for mixing to Berlin, to be meticulously honed, polished and envenomed by Mark Ernestus, one-half of the legendary Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound partnerships. The result is Rocket Juice & The Moon -- a triumphant exploration and proliferation of kinetic Afro-funk rhythms: organic, exuberant, communal music-making. From the inaugural bars, the liquid pulse of Fela Kuti's classic recordings drives the action through a suite of 18 shape-shifting compositions. Allen's intricate cross-patterns jostle and lock with Flea's nimble, rumbling bass riffs. Joined by Seck on "There" and "Extinguished" -- Albarn's keyboards spray synth fusillades up top, over, and under -- splicing into the mess of wires running between the freaked Afro-disco of William Onyeabor and the space-jazz-Moog of Sun Ra. The HBE brings extra intensity and drama to "Leave-Taking" -- likewise Flea's trumpet to "Rotary Connection" -- teasing out the haunting melody coiled in the mix. Beautifully buoyed by Erykah Badu's unmistakable vocals, "Hey, Shooter" brilliantly traverses metaphysical spaceways sans any semblance of noodling. "Lolo" and "Follow-Fashion" -- featuring the open-hearted sensuality of Diawara's singing, M.anifest's brawny science, and more brass blasts -- play like its musical cousins or codas. Indeed, the album's shrewd sequencing creates the composite effect of tracks working both individually or within the context of an extended song-cycle. "Poison" is bittersweet and ruminative, and down-tempo and dubby, "Check Out" and "Worries" amplify the range of styles and moods. And by the time of "Fatherless" -- a chugging Afro-blues that evokes John Lee Hooker lost in Lagos, one gets the sneaking suspicion there's very little outside the reach of this collective's inventive musical grasp.

Artist:	TREMBLING BELLS & BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY
Title:	The Marble Downs
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	HJR 064CD

Just four years after their debut album Carbeth (HJR 043CD/LP), Trembling Bells are amassing a formidable body of work at a startling velocity. Just 12 months after the release of their critically-acclaimed third album The Constant Pageant (HJR 055CD/LP), the Glasgow quartet return to share the billing with a similarly restless creative spirit. A few thousand miles separate Will Oldham and Trembling Bells' drummer and principal songwriter Alex Neilson, but their stories intersect as far back as 2005, when the young Leeds-raised Neilson found himself playing drums on Alasdair Roberts' No Earthly Man, with Oldham producing. In time, a friendship between mentor and student became one between two kindred musicians. Neilson augmented his work with free-psych-drone practitioners Directing Hand by playing with the Bonnie "Prince" Billy band. Neilson recalls a conversation about a "collaboration" in the summer of 2010, though stresses that it "was nothing too formal at first." By the end of that year, a limited-edition 7" New Year's Eve Is The Loneliest Night Of The Year showed what an inspired match the vocals of Trembling Bells singer Lavinia Blackwall and Will Oldham made. The cut-glass precision of the classically-trained student of medieval music and the worldly, careworn tones of Oldham created an unlikely chemistry. It must have seemed that way to Neilson too. He set about assembling a cache of songs with the purpose of further harnessing that chemistry. The result is an album that has, once again, redrafted the boundaries of what Trembling Bells can achieve together. Indeed, genre-lines aren't terribly helpful this time around. Yes, Trembling Bells' love affair with traditional music remains a constant -- most emphatically so on the unaccompanied Blackwall/Oldham two-hander, "My Husband's Got No Courage In Him." Then there is Blackwall's musical setting of Dorothy Parker's poem "Excursion Into Assonance" -- and the thorough-going new-found classicism of Neilson's increasingly-assured songwriting. Albeit delivered with Trembling Bells' rain-lashed sense of abandon, "Love Is A Velvet Noose" sounds like a standard of sorts -- a warped consequence of Neilson's increasing fascination with the songbooks of Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael. "I Can Tell You're Leaving" finds both vocalists in irresistible form. On the slow-reveal sonic establishing-shot of "I Made A Date (With An Open Vein)," two minutes of manic modal chaos elapses before Oldham takes the narrative reins of a majestic call-and-response folk-rock epic. On "Ain't Nothing Wrong With A Little Longing," Neilson slams down a four-to-the-floor beat over a synergy of demonic Krautrock keys and a dialogue between Oldham and Blackwall that scales Nancy & Lee levels of romantic intrigue. The album's sonic undulations find an arresting denouement in the form of an inspired cover. Adapted from Robin Gibb's 1970 solo masterpiece Robin's Reign, "Lord Bless All" sees Trembling Bells tease out the hymnal qualities of Gibb's original with a slow, volcanic upswell which explodes into heavy psychedelic technicolor. There isn't another band on the planet that quite sounds like Trembling Bells. The CD is housed in a gatefold mini-LP sleeve with a 20-page booklet of lyrics and illustrations.

Artist:	TREMBLING BELLS & BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY
Title:	The Marble Downs
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 064LP

LP version. Just four years after their debut album Carbeth (HJR 043CD/LP), Trembling Bells are amassing a formidable body of work at a startling velocity. Just 12 months after the release of their critically-acclaimed third album The Constant Pageant (HJR 055CD/LP), the Glasgow quartet return to share the billing with a similarly restless creative spirit. A few thousand miles separate Will Oldham and Trembling Bells' drummer and principal songwriter Alex Neilson, but their stories intersect as far back as 2005, when the young Leeds-raised Neilson found himself playing drums on Alasdair Roberts' No Earthly Man, with Oldham producing. In time, a friendship between mentor and student became one between two kindred musicians. Neilson augmented his work with free-psych-drone practitioners Directing Hand by playing with the Bonnie "Prince" Billy band. Neilson recalls a conversation about a "collaboration" in the summer of 2010, though stresses that it "was nothing too formal at first." By the end of that year, a limited-edition 7" New Year's Eve Is The Loneliest Night Of The Year showed what an inspired match the vocals of Trembling Bells singer Lavinia Blackwall and Will Oldham made. The cut-glass precision of the classically-trained student of medieval music and the worldly, careworn tones of Oldham created an unlikely chemistry. It must have seemed that way to Neilson too. He set about assembling a cache of songs with the purpose of further harnessing that chemistry. The result is an album that has, once again, redrafted the boundaries of what Trembling Bells can achieve together. Indeed, genre-lines aren't terribly helpful this time around. Yes, Trembling Bells' love affair with traditional music remains a constant -- most emphatically so on the unaccompanied Blackwall/Oldham two-hander, "My Husband's Got No Courage In Him." Then there is Blackwall's musical setting of Dorothy Parker's poem "Excursion Into Assonance" -- and the thorough-going new-found classicism of Neilson's increasingly-assured songwriting. Albeit delivered with Trembling Bells' rain-lashed sense of abandon, "Love Is A Velvet Noose" sounds like a standard of sorts -- a warped consequence of Neilson's increasing fascination with the songbooks of Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael. "I Can Tell You're Leaving" finds both vocalists in irresistible form. On the slow-reveal sonic establishing-shot of "I Made A Date (With An Open Vein)," two minutes of manic modal chaos elapses before Oldham takes the narrative reins of a majestic call-and-response folk-rock epic. On "Ain't Nothing Wrong With A Little Longing," Neilson slams down a four-to-the-floor beat over a synergy of demonic Krautrock keys and a dialogue between Oldham and Blackwall that scales Nancy & Lee levels of romantic intrigue. The album's sonic undulations find an arresting denouement in the form of an inspired cover. Adapted from Robin Gibb's 1970 solo masterpiece Robin's Reign, "Lord Bless All" sees Trembling Bells tease out the hymnal qualities of Gibb's original with a slow, volcanic upswell which explodes into heavy psychedelic technicolor. There isn't another band on the planet that quite sounds like Trembling Bells. Includes an insert with art by Lucy Stein.

Artist:	COHRAN & THE HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE, KELAN PHILIP
Title:	Kelan Philip Cohran & The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	HJR 065CD

Approaching his eighty‐fifth birthday, legendary jazz musicianPhil Cohran lives a couple of blocks from the lake on the north side of Chicago. His modest apartment is filled with a palpable richness. His cornet and trumpets, zithers, French horn, harp and frankiphones (an electric kalimba of his own invention); his beloved telescope; African art; a mural of the Chinese monastery where Muslim monks bestowed on him the name "Kelan" ("holy scripture"); hand‐printed posters from the culture wars of 1960s Chicago; all reflect a life dedicated not just to music, but also to science and astronomy, to history and activism. In its range of subject matter, the track‐list of Kelan Philip Cohran & The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble embodies this invigorating and all‐embracing curiosity: a Mexican hill‐town filled with perfume and flowers, an Illinois state prison where Cohran taught inmates in the 1960s, heavenly dancers in the temples of Cambodia, a tribute to a 16th‐century Venetian musicologist. Welcome to the musical world of Kelan Philip Cohran. Cohran was born in Mississippi and grew up in St Louis. In the immediate postwar years, St. Louis was a jazz heartland, home of stalwarts like Clark Terry and Oliver Nelson (both of whom he played with), not to mention Miles Davis. In 1950, Cohran moved to Kansas City, where he played trumpet in one of the hardest swinging swing‐groups, led by Jay McShann (who famously had given Charlie Parker his first job). With McShann he toured as far as Mexico and played proto‐rock'n'roll in Texas with the likes of Big Mama Thornton on vocals. Back in St. Louis, Cohran led his own group, the Rajas Of Swing. Then in the mid‐'50s he moved to Chicago. He had a small group with a friend, the legendary tenor saxophonist John Gilmore. And in 1959, through Gilmore, he was invited to join Sun Ra's Arkestra, at a crucial period in the evolution of that extraordinary group. Effortlessly wrapping traditions as divergent as boogie‐woogie and electronica in an Afro‐centric, intergalactic mythology of his own making, Sun Ra casts a huge shadow across conventional narratives of jazz history. You can hear the emergence of Cohan's artistic voice on the LP Angels And Demons At Play, recorded in 1960 -‐ Sun Ra's masterpiece from the period. On the track "Music From The World Tomorrow," against the urgent, whipped and chopped percussion of the Arkestra, it is Cohran's zither, initially bowed and then plucked and strummed, which is the track's magic ingredient. More profoundly, it was Sun Ra's example -- his defiant self‐confidence and sense of purpose -- that set Cohran on his own "pathway to unknown worlds." Indeed, this spirit of self‐belief led Cohran to turn down the invitation to accompany the Arkestra when Sun Ra moved east in 1961. Staying in Chicago, Cohran founded the Affro‐Arts Theater and performed with the Artistic Heritage Ensemble, recording the group for his own Zulu Records imprint. The AACM, a musicians' collective of immense influence and importance, had its first meeting in Cohran's front room. He taught music tirelessly in schools and prisons. His studies into music theory and history led him to the discovery of a key book in his life, Gioseffo Zarlino's treatise on harmony, published in Venice in 1558. Astronomy is another passion and another area of expertise. One of the gems of the Cohran discography is African Skies, with its lovely harp playing, commissioned by the Chicago Planetarium in 1993. In Chicago he also raised a large family. Many of his children have gone on to become professional musicians; eight of them are the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. For the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, the voyage to where they are now -- whether tearing up festivals from Glastonbury to Melbourne, or touring with Gorillaz, or recording their first album on Honest Jon's -- has involved a necessary stepping away from their father's shadow. Phil Cohran is the first to recognize this, happily allowing their sound -- heavy on the funk, with the urgency of hip-hop never far away -- to blossom. But likewise this album is for all of them a natural step. Recorded in Chicago in June 2011, the idea was beautifully simple -- "my music and their band." This is music that plumbs the depths and rings with joy.

Artist:	WHITE, SIMONE
Title:	Silver Silver
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	HJR 066CD

Silver Silver is LA-based singer-songwriter Simone White's most affecting and ambitious album yet. In contrast to her folk/country-tinged 2007 debut, I Am The Man (HJR 028CD/044LP), and 2009's quiet offering, Yakiimo (HJR 044CD), Silver Silver has White's soft voice framed by complex arrangements: there are pulsing, speaker-rattling bass tones, delicately-layered vocal harmonies, and exquisitely lush washes of sound. It is also the singer's most personal record to date. Fans of White's work may already be aware of her unusual life story. Born in Hawaii to a light-sculptor dad and folk-singer mum, burlesque grandmother and pop-song-writing aunt, White grew up moving across the U.S., her parents following the demands of a cult leader. Leaving home in her teens, White travelled, acted, took photos and made films, living in Seattle, Paris and London -- finally finding her voice as a musician in New York City. She worked with Nashville producer Mark Nevers (Lambchop, Bonnie "Prince" Billy) on her first two albums. Heralded by Rolling Stone Germany as "one of the really great American songwriters," White toured Europe regularly for three years before taking a break to make Silver Silver. She lives now in Echo Park, L.A. Grand themes mix with tiny details on this album. Feelings of personal loss led White to write "Flowers In May," a sensual, bittersweet celebration of life that matches her delicate vocal to a knocking beat, washes of guitar and nocturnal-sounding glitches. Silver Silver was a year in the making, and White worked with Samuel Bing and Julian Wass of Fol Chen at their L.A. studio. The record features guest spots from Andrew Bird, Thao, and Victoria Williams (all musician-friends White met through touring), and for the first time mixes songs with instrumental segues and textures, including a manipulated field recording of neighborhood street sounds.

Artist:	WHITE, SIMONE
Title:	Silver Silver
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 066LP

LP version. Silver Silver is LA-based singer-songwriter Simone White's most affecting and ambitious album yet. In contrast to her folk/country-tinged 2007 debut, I Am The Man (HJR 028CD/044LP), and 2009's quiet offering, Yakiimo (HJR 044CD), Silver Silver has White's soft voice framed by complex arrangements: there are pulsing, speaker-rattling bass tones, delicately-layered vocal harmonies, and exquisitely lush washes of sound. It is also the singer's most personal record to date. Fans of White's work may already be aware of her unusual life story. Born in Hawaii to a light-sculptor dad and folk-singer mum, burlesque grandmother and pop-song-writing aunt, White grew up moving across the U.S., her parents following the demands of a cult leader. Leaving home in her teens, White travelled, acted, took photos and made films, living in Seattle, Paris and London -- finally finding her voice as a musician in New York City. She worked with Nashville producer Mark Nevers (Lambchop, Bonnie "Prince" Billy) on her first two albums. Heralded by Rolling Stone Germany as "one of the really great American songwriters," White toured Europe regularly for three years before taking a break to make Silver Silver. She lives now in Echo Park, L.A. Grand themes mix with tiny details on this album. Feelings of personal loss led White to write "Flowers In May," a sensual, bittersweet celebration of life that matches her delicate vocal to a knocking beat, washes of guitar and nocturnal-sounding glitches. Silver Silver was a year in the making, and White worked with Samuel Bing and Julian Wass of Fol Chen at their L.A. studio. The record features guest spots from Andrew Bird, Thao, and Victoria Williams (all musician-friends White met through touring), and for the first time mixes songs with instrumental segues and textures, including a manipulated field recording of neighborhood street sounds.

Artist:	VON OSWALD TRIO, MORITZ
Title:	Fetch
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	HJR 067CD

After two previous studio albums and one live album through Honest Jon's, the Moritz Von Oswald Trio -- Moritz Von Oswald, Max Loderbauer (NSI/Sun Electric) and Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay/Luomo) -- returns with Fetch, their most fully-realized voyage yet. The Trio operates at the bleeding edges where musical lineages collide. Feeling for the shared heartbeat that pulses through dub, techno and jazz, it seeks out points of contact before exploding them outward into hypnotic explorations of rhythm, texture and tone. Fetch further cements the Moritz Von Oswald Trio's status as a unique voice in modern electronic music -- as supple, intuitive and alive as the most exploratory of jazz. Recorded in August 2011, Fetch finds Von Oswald, Loderbauer and Ripatti in a darker and more driving mood than on previous albums. Joined by ECM's Marc Muellbauer on bass (from second album Horizontal Structures) and Tobias Freund (for the first time since debut Vertical Ascent), to add live effects in real time, they laid down the foundations swiftly, with the entire recording completed in around four hours. Later, instrumental overdubs were added by Jonas Schoen (flute, bass clarinet, saxophone) and trumpeter Sebastian Studnitzky. As with their previous recordings, at the roots of the Trio's third studio album lie the same concerns which informed Von Oswald's pioneering work with Mark Ernestus as Basic Channel, Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound. At once umbilically connected to and completely distinct from all the musics that they draw from, the Trio's subliminal musings on the connections between musical forms are expressed by Fetch as a series of beguiling contradictions. Rigid vs. fluid; playful vs. deadly serious; machine vs. human; sensual vs. austere: all of these seemingly opposing forces are allowed to intermingle across four longform tracks. This is crackling, charged music -- electronica performed live, the players' neural impulses flowing into their instruments. Play loud through large speakers, and allow it room to breathe: these are sonic worlds that reach out and swallow the listener whole.

Artist:	VON OSWALD TRIO, MORITZ
Title:	Fetch
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 067LP

Gatefold double LP version. After two previous studio albums and one live album through Honest Jon's, the Moritz Von Oswald Trio -- Moritz Von Oswald, Max Loderbauer (NSI/Sun Electric) and Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay/Luomo) -- returns with Fetch, their most fully-realized voyage yet. The Trio operates at the bleeding edges where musical lineages collide. Feeling for the shared heartbeat that pulses through dub, techno and jazz, it seeks out points of contact before exploding them outward into hypnotic explorations of rhythm, texture and tone. Fetch further cements the Moritz Von Oswald Trio's status as a unique voice in modern electronic music -- as supple, intuitive and alive as the most exploratory of jazz. Recorded in August 2011, Fetch finds Von Oswald, Loderbauer and Ripatti in a darker and more driving mood than on previous albums. Joined by ECM's Marc Muellbauer on bass (from second album Horizontal Structures) and Tobias Freund (for the first time since debut Vertical Ascent), to add live effects in real time, they laid down the foundations swiftly, with the entire recording completed in around four hours. Later, instrumental overdubs were added by Jonas Schoen (flute, bass clarinet, saxophone) and trumpeter Sebastian Studnitzky. As with their previous recordings, at the roots of the Trio's third studio album lie the same concerns which informed Von Oswald's pioneering work with Mark Ernestus as Basic Channel, Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound. At once umbilically connected to and completely distinct from all the musics that they draw from, the Trio's subliminal musings on the connections between musical forms are expressed by Fetch as a series of beguiling contradictions. Rigid vs. fluid; playful vs. deadly serious; machine vs. human; sensual vs. austere: all of these seemingly opposing forces are allowed to intermingle across four longform tracks. This is crackling, charged music -- electronica performed live, the players' neural impulses flowing into their instruments. Play loud through large speakers, and allow it room to breathe: these are sonic worlds that reach out and swallow the listener whole.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Mukunguni: New Recordings from Coast Province, Kenya
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	HJR 068CD

Field recordings of the Mijikenda tribes, made in different spots in and around Mukunguni village, coastal Kenya, throughout September 2011: mostly healing music (especially for mental problems), but also love-songs, and spiritual contributions to weddings and burials; mostly in the Sengenya style which evolved in the early 20th century, adding pace, new Tsikitsi rhythms and extra drums to the traditional Dumbwi forms of the Duruma tribe. Besides the Sengenya drums -- bumbumbu, dahdahe, chapuro, vumi, ngoma -- there are lungo and dena (metal rings), kayamba (raft rattle), njunga (bells), ukaya (metal tray), bamba (metal guiro), and bottle-tops. Our album opener is solo dena, played to sound like a bat and heal the village sick, with the ear for frequency and timbre of a stringent minimalist. There are the piercing, reeded nzumari oboe and bung'o horn, sounding like fierce free-jazz improvisation; and two gently stunning marimba solos, with complex, overlaid melodies and rhythms, played in polyphonic accents, almost like talking drums. Most of the recordings here are songs, with strong tunes, robustly delivered, different solo voices leading the group -- to heal; to chase away Pepo Mlume, the devil who poisons the imagination; to get you on your feet, dancing; to celebrate dowry payments and weddings; to bring the Mijikenda cultural inheritance to life. Matatizo (trans. "Worries") -- was recorded spontaneously at a bus-stop, waiting for a ride: it's a Swahili love-song, with a plaintive female vocal performed to the accompaniment of five or so people rubbing their palms together in tight rhythmic patterns. Includes photos and the musicians' own introductory notes, snatches of translation, and brief track-by-track commentary.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Mukunguni: New Recordings from Coast Province, Kenya
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2x10"+CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	HJR 068LP

Double 10" version. Comes in a gatefold sleeve with a copy of the album on CD. Field recordings of the Mijikenda tribes, made in different spots in and around Mukunguni village, coastal Kenya, throughout September 2011: mostly healing music (especially for mental problems), but also love-songs, and spiritual contributions to weddings and burials; mostly in the Sengenya style which evolved in the early 20th century, adding pace, new Tsikitsi rhythms and extra drums to the traditional Dumbwi forms of the Duruma tribe. Besides the Sengenya drums -- bumbumbu, dahdahe, chapuro, vumi, ngoma -- there are lungo and dena (metal rings), kayamba (raft rattle), njunga (bells), ukaya (metal tray), bamba (metal guiro), and bottle-tops. Our album opener is solo dena, played to sound like a bat and heal the village sick, with the ear for frequency and timbre of a stringent minimalist. There are the piercing, reeded nzumari oboe and bung'o horn, sounding like fierce free-jazz improvisation; and two gently stunning marimba solos, with complex, overlaid melodies and rhythms, played in polyphonic accents, almost like talking drums. Most of the recordings here are songs, with strong tunes, robustly delivered, different solo voices leading the group -- to heal; to chase away Pepo Mlume, the devil who poisons the imagination; to get you on your feet, dancing; to celebrate dowry payments and weddings; to bring the Mijikenda cultural inheritance to life. Matatizo (trans. "Worries") -- was recorded spontaneously at a bus-stop, waiting for a ride: it's a Swahili love-song, with a plaintive female vocal performed to the accompaniment of five or so people rubbing their palms together in tight rhythmic patterns.

Artist:	WILLIAMS, TUNDE
Title:	Mr Big Mouth
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 101LP

First reissue of this legendary Afrobeat LP from Nigeria, originally recorded in 1975. Produced by Fela Kuti. "Out of print for years, the release of these albums by Lekan Animashaun and Tunde Williams is a welcome addition to the catalogue of available Afrobeat recordings. In Fela Kuti's band Afrika 70, Tunde was the most consistent soloist, and his trumpet improvisations graced virtually all of the band's 1970s recordings. The tracks for Mr. Big Mouth had been recorded in 1975, but by the time they were released in 1977, Fela was engaged in a bitter battle with the original label, Decca Records. As a result, many of Afrika 70's Decca releases from 1977-8 fell through the proverbial cracks, and Mr. Big Mouth was unfortunately one of them. Although it is a great album, it was given little promotion and as a result, is known only to the most committed Afrobeat aficionados, even in Nigeria. The music on Mr. Big Mouth is similar in feel and mood to other Afrika 70 releases from this time on Decca's Afrodisia imprint such as Fela's No Agreement, Stalemate, and Fear Not for Man, and Tony Allen's No Accomodation for Lagos. The title track is typical of Afrika 70's uptempo grooves and like much of Fela's music the lyrics are socially-critical in tone, although unlike Fela's songs, Tunde's lyrics are not directed at the government. Rather, he says the title track was a commentary on 'some of the indigenous contractors at that time. The government would give these contractors money to complete a job, and instead they would take the money and surround themselves with women, fancy clothes, and flashy cars, and go around the town bragging like big shots. The jobs never got done, and many of them ended up going to jail for defrauding the government. That's what I was singing about.' Tunde's mid-tempo instrumental 'The Beginning' is certainly one of the most infectious tracks to come out of Fela's organization. The laid-back Afrobeat groove is dark and suspenseful, and one can easily hear why the song was often played during Afrika 70's warm-up sets, as it perfectly sets the tone for a late, smoky night at the Afrika Shrine. After leaving Fela in 1978, Tunde was in heavy demand as a session trumpeter in Lagos. His credits from this time are numerous, including Manu Dibango's seminal Home Made set (the first of Dibango's LPs to be fully recorded in Africa), and Orlando Julius Ekemode."

Artist:	MRWEBI, GWIGWI
Title:	Mbaqanga Songs
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 103LP

"This is the first release in a sister series to London Is The Place For Me. Gwigwi Mrwebi travelled to London from Johannesburg in 1960, to appear in the musical King Kong -- alongside the likes of Dorothy Masuka, featured on London 4. (Back home earlier that year he'd recorded with Hugh Masekela and Kippie Moeketsi in the Jazz Dazzlers; and earlier he'd played with the Jazz Maniacs and the Harlem Swingsters.) The Blue Notes came after him in 1965, and two years later Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana and Ronnie Beer joined Gwigwi for this session at Dennis Duerden's Transcription centre in Covent Garden, together with Jamaican bassist Coleridge Goode (from Joe Harriott's group), and on drums the Welshman Laurie Allan (a Blue Notes regular, who played with Gong in the seventies). Mbaqanga Songs is a reissue of the LP which resulted (originally entitled Kwela by Gwigwi's Band, and impossible to find pretty much ever since). Sixteen short, exhilarating jazz tracks in the dance style then captivating South Africa ('kwela' means 'get moving' in Xhosa), bursting with beautiful melodies. Carefully remastered at Abbey Road; with poignant new sleevenotes by Steve Beresford."

Artist:	WAREIKA HILL SOUNDS
Title:	Wareika Hill Sounds
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 104CD

"'I was born and grew up in D'Aguilar Town, eastern Kingston, at the foot of Wareika Hill. I came up playing with Tommy McCook's Supersonics, and The Skatalites. I was the lead trombonist of Count Ossie's Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari. My first instrumental to hit was 'Lambs Bread Collie,' which I recorded with The Light Of Saba. These are my new recordings, blazing grounation roots reggae." -- Calvin Cameron. "This is 2007 dubwise roots reggae by Calvin Cameron from The Light Of Saba alongside his regular crew, and musicians like Deadly Headley Bennett, the original Saba drummers, and David Madden from the Black Ark -- with a special appearance by Tony Allen, architect of Fela Kuti's Afrobeat!"

Artist:	MANGANYI, FOSTER
Title:	Ndzi Teke Riendzo No. 1
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 108CD

Foster Manganyi is a pastor from South Africa. His sublime music shares with Honest Jon's compilation Shangaan Electro (HJR 052CD/LP) a startling palette of sampled, synthesized sounds -- the signature whistle and marimba, no bass, a little wonky high‐life -- and rough, fast, skittering drum patterns. Yet these are gospel songs, intensely sincere, brimming with aching, plaintive, mournful spirituality, without a trace of R&B, mangled or not; and however fractured, multi‐faceted and fresh the music comes across, the surging lines and harmonies of the support singers are unmistakably rooted in the traditional vocal music of South Africa. Just in time for Christmas, this is the reissue of a hit cassette from 2008.

Artist:	PERRY, LEE 'SCRATCH'
Title:	The Return Of Pipecock Jackxon
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	HJR 109CD

Originally released in 1980, this album from Lee "Scratch" Perry is the final work to emerge from the Black Ark studio, before its permanent destruction. It concludes a series of such LP masterworks such as Super Ape, War In Babylon, Police And Thieves, and Return Of The Super Ape. Enthrallingly, it crosses the sound world of Roast Fish Collie Weed & Cornbread with new hybrids -- like the irresistible 11-minute opener, rolling and delirious, a kind of reggae prophesy of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing," but musically richer, and more glazed, randy and visionary.

Artist:	PERRY, LEE 'SCRATCH'
Title:	The Return Of Pipecock Jackxon
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	HJR 109LP

LP version. Originally released in 1980, this album from Lee "Scratch" Perry is the final work to emerge from the Black Ark studio, before its permanent destruction. It concludes a series of such LP masterworks such as Super Ape, War In Babylon, Police And Thieves, and Return Of The Super Ape. Enthrallingly, it crosses the sound world of Roast Fish Collie Weed & Cornbread with new hybrids -- like the irresistible 11-minute opener, rolling and delirious, a kind of reggae prophesy of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing," but musically richer, and more glazed, randy and visionary. Includes an insert with extensive notes by David Katz.

Artist:	COLLINS/ERROL BELLOT, SELAH
Title:	Pick A Sound/What A Wonderful Feeling
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJU 001EP

Three scintillating slices of the greatest UK digi there ever was, swingingly remastered and spiffily sleeved, to usher back the celebrated, Watch How The People Dancing, a compilation of cuts from the mid-to-late '80s Northeast London reggae sound system, Unity. The original DJ cut and dub version of Selah Collins's "Pick A Sound" lays down classic reggae chops with an electronic edge. On the flip, you get Errol Bellot's always charming "What A Wonderful Feeling." All brilliantly mastered by Basic Channel's Moritz Von Oswald at Dubplates & Mastering.

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Artist:	KNOTS/MIKEY MURKA, KENNY
Title:	Watch How The People Dancing
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 001EP

Artist:	ALBARN, AFEL BOCOUM, , TOUMANI DIABATE AND FRIENDS, DAMON
Title:	Sunset Coming On
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 002EP

Artist:	JUNIOR DAN
Title:	Look Out For The Devil
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	10"
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	HJP 011EP

Artist:	HALL & MUSHTAQ, TERRY
Title:	Ward 21/Rasta Youth Baby G Remixes
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 012EP

Artist:	VA
Title:	Dougla Rhythm
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 013EP

Artist:	LAVENTILLE RHYTHM SECTION
Title:	Two Rhythms
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 015EP

Artist:	SEIJI & SPOONFACE
Title:	Yin Yang
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 019EP

Artist:	DEMOCRAZY
Title:	Rappy Song (Freaks Remixes)
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 020EP

Artist:	DE CLIVE-LOWE, MARK
Title:	Mesmerized
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 023EP

Artist:	LONE OFFICIAL
Title:	Aught Years
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	3x7"
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJP 029EP

Artist:	ALLEN/ELEWEDU OF AGEGE, TONY
Title:	Awa Na Re: A Remix By Bonde Do Role
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 034EP

Artist:	VA
Title:	Fuji Ouija
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 042EP

Artist:	STEEL AN' SKIN
Title:	Afro Punk Reggae Dub
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 045EP

Artist:	BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY & TREMBLING BELLS
Title:	New Year's Eve's The Loneliest Night Of The Year
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	7"
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	HJP 051EP

Artist:	TSHETSHA BOYS
Title:	Anidyi Nyama
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 056EP

Artist:	ERNESTUS, MARK
Title:	Meets BBC/Version
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 057EP

Artist:	AYHUN & ANTHONY SHAKE SHAKIR, ONI
Title:	Meet Shangaan Electro And BBC
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 058EP

Artist:	VILLALOBOS/MAX LODERBAUER/PEVERELIST, RICARDO
Title:	Meets Tshetsha Boys
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 059EP

Artist:	RASHAD AND SPINN/R.P. BOO
Title:	Meet Tshetsha Boys And Shangaan Electro
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 063EP

Artist:	DEMDIKE STARE/HYPE WILLIAMS
Title:	Meet Shangaan Electro
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 066EP

Artist:	VA
Title:	Never the Same: Leave-Taking from the British Folk Revival
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	HJR 019LP

Artist:	WILLIAMS/ANIMASHAUN, LEKAN, TUNDE
Title:	Mr Big Mouth/Low Profile
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 101/102CD

Artist:	DAVIS/MIKEY MURKA, RICHIE
Title:	Lean Boot/Ride The Rhythm
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJU 002EP