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CD
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BB 406CD
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Cluster can be counted among the most important international protagonists of the electronic avant-garde. Some credit them with having invented ambient music, others as pioneers of synthesizer pop, whilst to some they are firmly embedded in the krautrock universe. There is some truth in all of these notions. Cluster (or Kluster as they were in the beginning) were founded in 1970 in Berlin by Conrad Schnitzler, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and Dieter Moebius. A change in direction and musical differences moved Moebius and Roedelius to split from Schnitzler after which the duo recorded ten regular studio albums between 1971 and 2009. Their debut album (Cluster 71) was in Wire Magazine's "One Hundred Records That Set The World On Fire" list. Cluster II is influenced by Berlin and Hamburg; situated somewhere in the middle of artistic happenings, musical outrageousness and drug abuse: an urban mixture.
"The question as to whether Cluster II has to be considered part of serious music or rather of popular music seems as obsolete today as it was back in 1972. Interestingly enough, however, the album was among the first ones to leave people in confusion when trying to tell what musical category it belonged to. As opposed to now where there is a large transitional area situated somewhere in between the two poles and made up by all sorts of electro-acoustic music, serious and popular music were still categories strictly set apart at the beginning of the seventies. Moebius and Roedelius, however, simply did not care about categorizing their music, thus contributing to the trend towards abandoning the categories altogether. When listening to Cluster II today, fifty years after it was recorded, the album's historic significance becomes as clear as never before. A lot has already been written about Cluster's historic impact. Let me just underline in this context that it was not least this album that opened up doors through which generations of electro-acoustic musicians were yet to step." --Asmus Tietchens
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BB 406X-LP
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LP version. Cluster can be counted among the most important international protagonists of the electronic avant-garde. Some credit them with having invented ambient music, others as pioneers of synthesizer pop, whilst to some they are firmly embedded in the krautrock universe. There is some truth in all of these notions. Cluster (or Kluster as they were in the beginning) were founded in 1970 in Berlin by Conrad Schnitzler, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and Dieter Moebius. A change in direction and musical differences moved Moebius and Roedelius to split from Schnitzler after which the duo recorded ten regular studio albums between 1971 and 2009. Their debut album (Cluster 71) was in Wire Magazine's "One Hundred Records That Set The World On Fire" list. Cluster II is influenced by Berlin and Hamburg; situated somewhere in the middle of artistic happenings, musical outrageousness and drug abuse: an urban mixture.
"The question as to whether Cluster II has to be considered part of serious music or rather of popular music seems as obsolete today as it was back in 1972. Interestingly enough, however, the album was among the first ones to leave people in confusion when trying to tell what musical category it belonged to. As opposed to now where there is a large transitional area situated somewhere in between the two poles and made up by all sorts of electro-acoustic music, serious and popular music were still categories strictly set apart at the beginning of the seventies. Moebius and Roedelius, however, simply did not care about categorizing their music, thus contributing to the trend towards abandoning the categories altogether. When listening to Cluster II today, fifty years after it was recorded, the album's historic significance becomes as clear as never before. A lot has already been written about Cluster's historic impact. Let me just underline in this context that it was not least this album that opened up doors through which generations of electro-acoustic musicians were yet to step." --Asmus Tietchens
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BB 463CD
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After more than 40 years, Silberstreif's EP Ich suche dein Gesicht, first released on Sky Records in 1983, is available again. Rather unusual for Sky's catalogue, the duo played flawless synth-pop with German-language lyrics. This EP sank into obscurity in the 1980s flood of hyper-commercial German New Wave releases. The band later became an insider tip and the EP a sought-after collector's item. The re-issue is accompanied by four previously unreleased bonus tracks.
"Overdue, a re-issue of this great, rare EP from 1983. While that year, the major labels were finally exploiting everything commercially that even rudimentarily fitted the NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle -- German New Wave) buzzword, we can now look back and realize that there were still countless creative bands, projects and artists in the musical underground. The release by Silberstreif shows like no other that the focus of the German 1980s underground was not only on odd and experimental sounds, but also on poppy and melodic ones. Listening to these hopeful, almost innocent synth melodies paired with dark lyrics circling around obsessive male protagonists, one can't help but imagine how this band re-asserted its artistic freedom by leaning into the musical tropes of sell-out and commercialization -- with a subtle subversive middle finger. The duo play fantastic and timeless synth-pop which is still relevant today and still gets crowds dancing in trendy clubs between songs by Human League and Grauzone. Like I said, this re-issue is long overdue!" --Marco Floess
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BB 463LP
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LP version. After more than 40 years, Silberstreif's EP Ich suche dein Gesicht, first released on Sky Records in 1983, is available again. Rather unusual for Sky's catalogue, the duo played flawless synth-pop with German-language lyrics. This EP sank into obscurity in the 1980s flood of hyper-commercial German New Wave releases. The band later became an insider tip and the EP a sought-after collector's item. The re-issue is accompanied by four previously unreleased bonus tracks.
"Overdue, a re-issue of this great, rare EP from 1983. While that year, the major labels were finally exploiting everything commercially that even rudimentarily fitted the NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle -- German New Wave) buzzword, we can now look back and realize that there were still countless creative bands, projects and artists in the musical underground. The release by Silberstreif shows like no other that the focus of the German 1980s underground was not only on odd and experimental sounds, but also on poppy and melodic ones. Listening to these hopeful, almost innocent synth melodies paired with dark lyrics circling around obsessive male protagonists, one can't help but imagine how this band re-asserted its artistic freedom by leaning into the musical tropes of sell-out and commercialization -- with a subtle subversive middle finger. The duo play fantastic and timeless synth-pop which is still relevant today and still gets crowds dancing in trendy clubs between songs by Human League and Grauzone. Like I said, this re-issue is long overdue!" --Marco Floess
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BB 473CD
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Genre-resistant Berlin duo Neuzeitliche Bodenbeläge return to Bureau B with Neue Kreise, a sharp sophomore LP that shakes a cocktail of musical influences into an irresistible blend of smooth, synthetic pop. If their 2020 debut Der Große Preis saw the N(ewer)DW angst of their early releases give way to bubbling boogie and kosmische funk, this 11-track outing dives headfirst into the deep blues and sunset hues of yacht rock and groove-laden jazz fusion, all while retaining their signature lyrical bite. Finding its final form in nocturnal sessions in fall and winter 2024 -- with off-seasons spent, as always, experimenting in a secluded hotel at Lake Constance -- Neue Kreise ("New Circles") sees Niklas Wandt and Joshua Gottmanns tracing fault lines from childhood torment to contemporary crisis, ultimately offering a cautious hope for healing. Themes of male bonding and bullying, suburban claustrophobia, and family tension manifest in tracks like "Bittere Gifte" and "Jahr Um Jahr," as the duo exorcise their demons over infectious electro-funk and space-age samba respectively. Sonically, this diverse disc showcases a broad spectrum of musical influences, drawing from the obscure German/Austrian records curated by their ever-present producer Ali Europa, alongside John Martyn's late '70s/early '80s era, the skyscraping synth-pop of New Musik, and the tropical jazz of Azymuth. Wandt and Gottmanns wear their influences proudly while retaining all the invention and irreverence which has been a mainstay of their work, packing their personality into every track. The tension peaks in "Bittere Gifte," where stomping '80s machine-funk and psychedelic fusion breakdowns soundtrack a lyrical descent into suburban despair. Elsewhere, "Korsett Der Form" sparks infectious synth-pop joy, while "Nachlass Zu Lebzeiten" harnesses pure jazz-fusion power, complete with shuffling percussion and soaring guitar solos. "Blei" sweeps in with MTV-era widescreen pop, all windblown new-wave grandeur, while "Kalte Asche Und Orchideen" rides a fizzing punk-funk groove. The dreamlike "Puma" sways in a lullaby-like waltz, its jazzy cymbals and hypnotic bass drifting effortlessly, before cinematic closer "Landung" brings listeners back to earth. Fretless bass, chime-like synths, and tropical-tinged drum machines find a magical middle ground between Jamaican John Martyn and an impossibly happy version of The Cure. Across its 11 tracks, Neue Kreise expands and refines Neuzeitliche Bodenbeläge's sound, propelling them into new circles, new spheres, and new sonic territory.
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BB 473LP
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LP version. Genre-resistant Berlin duo Neuzeitliche Bodenbeläge return to Bureau B with Neue Kreise, a sharp sophomore LP that shakes a cocktail of musical influences into an irresistible blend of smooth, synthetic pop. If their 2020 debut Der Große Preis saw the N(ewer)DW angst of their early releases give way to bubbling boogie and kosmische funk, this 11-track outing dives headfirst into the deep blues and sunset hues of yacht rock and groove-laden jazz fusion, all while retaining their signature lyrical bite. Finding its final form in nocturnal sessions in fall and winter 2024 -- with off-seasons spent, as always, experimenting in a secluded hotel at Lake Constance -- Neue Kreise ("New Circles") sees Niklas Wandt and Joshua Gottmanns tracing fault lines from childhood torment to contemporary crisis, ultimately offering a cautious hope for healing. Themes of male bonding and bullying, suburban claustrophobia, and family tension manifest in tracks like "Bittere Gifte" and "Jahr Um Jahr," as the duo exorcise their demons over infectious electro-funk and space-age samba respectively. Sonically, this diverse disc showcases a broad spectrum of musical influences, drawing from the obscure German/Austrian records curated by their ever-present producer Ali Europa, alongside John Martyn's late '70s/early '80s era, the skyscraping synth-pop of New Musik, and the tropical jazz of Azymuth. Wandt and Gottmanns wear their influences proudly while retaining all the invention and irreverence which has been a mainstay of their work, packing their personality into every track. The tension peaks in "Bittere Gifte," where stomping '80s machine-funk and psychedelic fusion breakdowns soundtrack a lyrical descent into suburban despair. Elsewhere, "Korsett Der Form" sparks infectious synth-pop joy, while "Nachlass Zu Lebzeiten" harnesses pure jazz-fusion power, complete with shuffling percussion and soaring guitar solos. "Blei" sweeps in with MTV-era widescreen pop, all windblown new-wave grandeur, while "Kalte Asche Und Orchideen" rides a fizzing punk-funk groove. The dreamlike "Puma" sways in a lullaby-like waltz, its jazzy cymbals and hypnotic bass drifting effortlessly, before cinematic closer "Landung" brings listeners back to earth. Fretless bass, chime-like synths, and tropical-tinged drum machines find a magical middle ground between Jamaican John Martyn and an impossibly happy version of The Cure. Across its 11 tracks, Neue Kreise expands and refines Neuzeitliche Bodenbeläge's sound, propelling them into new circles, new spheres, and new sonic territory.
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BB 480LP
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LP version. Hamburg's kosmische custodians at Bureau B welcome legendary synth maestro Peter Baumann back into the studio for his first solo album since Machines Of Desire (BB 234CD, 2016). A defining force in the Berlin School of electronic music, both as a member of Tangerine Dream in their most essential era, and as a solo artist, Baumann has always bridged the cerebral and the cinematic. With Nightfall, he embarks on another sonic odyssey, crafting an atmospheric album steeped in mystery and evocative storytelling. "Baumann's artistic vision has long been shaped by his exploration of the human condition. From his pioneering work with Tangerine Dream to his influential New Age imprint, Private Music, and his philosophical pursuits through the Baumann Foundation, his creativity and curiosity remain undiminished. Nightfall is the latest chapter in his five-decade journey -- an deeply emotional album that embraces impermanence to transport the listener into a series of shapeshifting soundscapes? The misty melancholia of opener 'No One Knows' pairs hypnotic woodblock rhythms with desert guitars, while 'Lost In A Pale Blue Sky' floats through celestial choirs and rolling timpani, evoking dreamlike introspection. Elsewhere, 'On The Long Road' pulses with insect-like percussion and serrated synth tones, exuding a ritualistic energy. Tracks like 'A World Apart' and 'From A Far Land' build tension through cascading melodies and rhythmic precision, evoking distant horizons and uncharted territories. 'Sailing Past Midnight' melds bass mallets with feedback-laden synths, conjuring a sense of movement and urgency, while 'I'm Sitting Here, Just For A While' layers snaking saxophones and hand percussion into a mystical, arcane soundscape. The album closes with the title track, 'Nightfall,' a deeply atmospheric piece wrapped in choral textures and shadowy undertones? From the very beginnings of his career, Peter Baumann has infused his work with a sense of the beyond and Nightfall is no exception. Each track invites the listener to interpret, to feel, and to immerse themselves in its crepuscular beauty? With Nightfall, the composer has created a shimmering doorway, just waiting for you to step through." --Patrick Ryder
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BB 481LP
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LP version. With his first full-length album Ruinenkampf, released via Hamburg based label Bureau B, Das Kinn embarks on a musical tour de force through the ruins of time. An electronic armada and kickbox phonetics lead listeners through haunting soundscapes somewhere between DAF, Kosmische Kuriere, and Frankfurt Bahnhofsviertel. Beats on full blast. Bones rattle. Warm synthlines played by cold hands. A saxophone ponders the after. Hymns for the demolition. Sonic meditations on decay. Music for the solemn decline.
"Toben Piel likes to visit cemeteries. In those places of peace and idyll he finds the distance to contemplate transience and consider the hereafter as a concrete location. His debut album Ruinenkampf comes from the same mindset -- distancing himself just enough to get straight to the point with a running start. It certainly doesn't sound anything like peace and idyll. It has more to do with the cassette scene, the 1980s, with staccato vocals, and synths somewhere between DAF and Kosmische Kuriere. Underground aesthetics. Torrents of melody, sophistication, constantly oscillating between anthem and demolition. And the crass power of that voice! These are eight pieces of intensive listening, always right on the mark. So how does it work? How can anybody create something like that? Well, this man in his forties from Frankfurt, still young at heart and ever hungry, has substantial experience: first with Antitainment (2005-2010), then together with the magnificent Charlotte Simon in Les Trucs, through his cassette label MMODEMM, and also as a musician on various theatre stages. Yet with Das Kinn he feels that he has now finally created music with a true sense of self-liberation." --Hendrik Otremba
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CRD 189CD
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2025 repress. "A reissue of the classic 1977 vocal fusion album that has been the source of many hip-hop samples. It features Narada Michael Walden (Whitney Houston, Herbie Hancock, George Benson) on drums. Long out of print, and coveted by collectors, Chiaroscuro provides an official CD reissue for the first time."
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CVSD 119CD
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Corbett vs. Dempsey presents the release of PRO FAKE NO REJECT by pianist Erez Dessel. This is Dessel's first solo CD. One of the most astonishing young musicians to emerge in contemporary improvised music, Erez Dessel (b. 1998) is helping to revitalize the practice. An ace technician who studied at the New England Conservatory, Dessel is in no way conservative. Indeed, his bracing approach to the keyboard and deeply intuitive sense of form can be explosive, uncorked energy summoning references to Cecil Taylor and the Don Pullen/Milford Graves duets, and an almost Russian Romantic darkness -- imagine an improvised Mussorgsky -- offset by keen emotional intelligence, with joyful melodicism and an airborne quality. And nestled within Dessel's playing there's a perverse streak, a contrarianism that might call to mind Misha Mengelberg or Jim Baker. An active participant in Chicago's current creative music scene.
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CURTOM 96557LP
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2025 restock; Reissue, originally released in 1970. "The first solo album by the former leader of the Impressions, Curtis represented a musical apotheosis for Curtis Mayfield -- indeed, it was practically the Sgt. Pepper's album of '70s soul, helping with its content and its success to open the whole genre to much bigger, richer musical canvases than artists had previously worked with. All of Mayfield's years of experience of life, music, and people were pulled together into a rich, powerful, topical musical statement that reflected not only the most up-to-date soul sounds of its period, finely produced by Mayfield himself, and the immediacy of the times and their political and social concerns, but also embraced the most elegant R&B sounds of the past. As a producer, Mayfield embraced the most progressive soul sounds of the era, stretching them out compellingly on numbers like 'Move on Up,' but he also drew on orchestral sounds (especially harps), to achieve some striking musical timbres (check out 'Wild and Free'), and wove all of these influences, plus the topical nature of the songs, into a neat, amazingly lean whole. There was only one hit single off of this record, '(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Down Below We're All Going to Go,' which made number three, but the album as a whole was a single entity and really had to be heard that way." --Bruce Eder, AllMusic
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DAK 024LP
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"Samara Lubelski builds delicate and intricate structures of webbed and sugary filigree but will also close her fist around a newly formed world just to watch what color it is when it oozes between her fingers. This music is the sound of becoming and unbecoming, of creation and destruction. The bow acts as an erase head on a tape machine in this context drawing half arcs that are then erased and redrawn with each stroke. Diving tones that circle back but to a new origin point and echo out endlessly. A Jim Starlin cosmos built of clusters and a kind of freeform geometry. Though creeping and alien there is also something very lyrical about this music, a poetry of momentum and stasis. Every move seems to create its immediate opposite -- patience/impatience, kinetic/fatigued, straight/curved, like opening a paper cutting to reveal its repeating shape but in a binary of opposition. 'Vol 1' begins with a descent into a world that is new and chaotic. The accretion of delicate shapes and the chaos of young jagged landscapes. A core rising in temperature, forcing out bubbling and colorful liquids in explosions and dripping piles. While in the distance a gaseous horizon line percolates into nothingness. With 'Vol 2,' listeners start with something more settled -- while still alien and exploratory there is an eye towards terraforming. A sense that we could settle here in this place where the wind screams through towers of glistening plants while geysers of silver viscous liquid arc into the sky and freeze there. By the end a silver and mirrored thread has looped together the mutating present with the far off and unknown and we are both here and gone. I hear in 'Vol 1' and '2' a stunning commitment to a liminality of sound. A denial of firm ground. It reminds me of 'Nordic skating,' the skaters that seek the black ice, the thinnest ice, to skate on. That's where the acoustic properties are the most beautiful and striking yet also where the most focus must be applied. Movement must be constant, not only to produce the sounds, but to avoid falling through." --Bill Nace, Philadelphia 2025
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DAK 025LP
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In Sightings, one of NYC's all-time greatest bands, the bass playing of Richard Hoffman fluidly shifted from propulsive to arrhythmic to sublimely melodic, sometimes all within one song. All the while occupying a teeth-rattling sonic space that was truly all his own. With his new solo project, Organs Obsolete, Richard's singular voice stands on its own, naked and unadorned. Here are eight solo bass meditations where looping patterns shift in and out of phase creating a hall of mirrors that is labyrinthine in its psychedelic potency. Even at lower volumes RRH1 presents a truly visceral experience with each track seemingly targeting a different part of the human anatomy.
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FTR 789CD
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"While they have collaborated a good many times, Next is the first recorded evidence of Danish guitarist (or more properly Bastardist) Jørgen Teller playing with American ex-pat multi-instrumentalist Mark Cunningham. The pair both have long histories on the fringes of known sounds. I first heard Teller as a member of the dizzily freakoid Tzarina Q Cut and Cunningham's decades of musical adventurism with Mars, Don King, Bestia Ferida, Blood Quartet, etc. have been well documented, not least by us. This is Mark's tenth FTR release! The four pieces here are improvised instrumental duets. The material was recorded in October 2023, as part of an ongoing residency Mark has at the Fabra I Coats creation center in Barcelona. Throughout, Teller plays Le Bastard (a Hofner 137 electric guitar with two bass strings and three guitar strings). Cunningham plays mostly trumpet and delays, but also whips out his old Dan Electro for one of the tracks. Overall, the sonic results are droney, druggy, lightly-noisesome slabs of brilliant buzz. In a general way, Jørgen's amped strings set up a humbucking sound-sheet against which he and Mark can each toss spontaneous squibs of creation and destruction, When Mark is playing trumpet and pedals, the music sometimes manifests a strange sort of charm that almost has the feel of a noise rock approach to the Canterbury Sound. By which, I mean the stuff is rackety, but there are built-in glissandos that make me think of nothing less Camel's brilliant live work on the Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dancehall. Of course, these moments resolve themselves in weirder ways than any Pete Bardens has ever dreamed up, but it demonstrates the duo's avant-prog game is strong! The doubled guitar track (called 'Next 3' to contrast it with 'Next 1,' 'Next 2,' and 'Next 4') is a superb piece of string work with rockist overtones that put fellow in mind of some of the best moments by classic two-man string units like the Smashchords or early Half Japanese. But with a more overtly hypnagogic overlay that forces your brain's receptors to stretch themselves in new ways. It's all amazing stuff. Sounding so fully evolved you'll be tempted to swear it weren't improvised! But you'd be wrong, friend. Some people just have the gift. To paraphrase that old softy, Lou Reed, their week beats your year. Get up with it!" --Byron Coley, 2025
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FTR 789LP
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LP version. "While they have collaborated a good many times, Next is the first recorded evidence of Danish guitarist (or more properly Bastardist) Jørgen Teller playing with American ex-pat multi-instrumentalist Mark Cunningham. The pair both have long histories on the fringes of known sounds. I first heard Teller as a member of the dizzily freakoid Tzarina Q Cut and Cunningham's decades of musical adventurism with Mars, Don King, Bestia Ferida, Blood Quartet, etc. have been well documented, not least by us. This is Mark's tenth FTR release! The four pieces here are improvised instrumental duets. The material was recorded in October 2023, as part of an ongoing residency Mark has at the Fabra I Coats creation center in Barcelona. Throughout, Teller plays Le Bastard (a Hofner 137 electric guitar with two bass strings and three guitar strings). Cunningham plays mostly trumpet and delays, but also whips out his old Dan Electro for one of the tracks. Overall, the sonic results are droney, druggy, lightly-noisesome slabs of brilliant buzz. In a general way, Jørgen's amped strings set up a humbucking sound-sheet against which he and Mark can each toss spontaneous squibs of creation and destruction, When Mark is playing trumpet and pedals, the music sometimes manifests a strange sort of charm that almost has the feel of a noise rock approach to the Canterbury Sound. By which, I mean the stuff is rackety, but there are built-in glissandos that make me think of nothing less Camel's brilliant live work on the Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dancehall. Of course, these moments resolve themselves in weirder ways than any Pete Bardens has ever dreamed up, but it demonstrates the duo's avant-prog game is strong! The doubled guitar track (called 'Next 3' to contrast it with 'Next 1,' 'Next 2,' and 'Next 4') is a superb piece of string work with rockist overtones that put fellow in mind of some of the best moments by classic two-man string units like the Smashchords or early Half Japanese. But with a more overtly hypnagogic overlay that forces your brain's receptors to stretch themselves in new ways. It's all amazing stuff. Sounding so fully evolved you'll be tempted to swear it weren't improvised! But you'd be wrong, friend. Some people just have the gift. To paraphrase that old softy, Lou Reed, their week beats your year. Get up with it!" --Byron Coley, 2025
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FTR 793LP
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Belgian musician and filmmaker Jef Mertens has been an active force in the experimental music and film scene for nearly two decades. Known for his documentaries on artists like Sonic Youth and Borbetomagus, as well as his work with the now-defunct Dadaist Tapes label, Mertens continues to push the boundaries of sound exploration. His previous solo works include No Mathematics, released on KRAAK/Feeding Tube Records. With Orchid Alto, Mertens dedicates himself to the taishogoto, a Japanese stringed instrument that became a new focal point in his sonic explorations. Initially drawn to its unique tonal qualities, he approached the instrument with an open-ended curiosity, using it as a means to reshape his musical language. The transition to taishogoto marked a shift away from guitar-based compositions, offering a fresh perspective on texture and resonance. Through these explorations, Orchid Alto serves as a blueprint for new sonic possibilities. A bold and immersive sonic journey, Orchid Alto merges traditional resonance with modern experimentalism, further shaping Mertens' artistic voice -- one influenced by artists like Michael Flower, Turner Williams Jr., and Bill Nace. Edition of 200. Co-release with Aguirre. Performed, recorded and edited by Jef Mertens at Scherpendries, Geel, 2023. Mixed and mastered by Jürgen De Blonde. Artwork by Jim Faes.
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GBR 046LP
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30 years old and sounding better than ever! The Growing Bin presents a vinyl reissue of Maim That Tune, the timeless downbeat album that many regard as Cobby & McSherry's best joint effort. Back on wax for its 30th birthday -- remastered with finesse by master Sergey Luginin -- it will blow the minds of those who have listened to it for hundreds of times and those who have the pleasure to be "At Home In Space" for the first time.
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IMP 73781LP
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2025 repress; originally released in 1964. "Having completed what he (and many critics) regarded as his masterwork in The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Charles Mingus' next sessions for Impulse found him looking back over a long and fruitful career. Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus is sort of a 'greatest hits revisited' record, as the bassist revamps or tinkers with some of his best-known works. The titles are altered as well -- 'II B.S.' is basically 'Haitian Fight Song' (this is the version used in the late-'90s car commercial); 'Theme for Lester Young' is 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat'; 'Better Get Hit in Your Soul' adds a new ending, but just one letter to the title; 'Hora Decubitus' is a growling overhaul of 'E's Flat Ah's Flat Too'; and 'I X Love' modifies 'Nouroog,' which was part of 'Open Letter to Duke.' There's also a cover of Duke Ellington's 'Mood Indigo,' leaving just one new composition, 'Celia.' Which naturally leads to the question: With the ostensible shortage of ideas, what exactly makes this a significant Mingus effort? The answer is that the 11-piece bands assembled here (slightly different for the two separate recording sessions) are among Mingus' finest, featuring some of the key personnel (Eric Dolphy, pianist Jaki Byard) that would make up the legendary quintet/sextet with which Mingus toured Europe in 1964. And they simply burn, blasting through versions that equal and often surpass the originals -- which is, of course, no small feat. This was Mingus' last major statement for quite some time, and aside from a solo piano album and a series of live recordings from the 1964 tour, also his last album until 1970. It closes out the most productive and significant chapter of his career, and one of the most fertile, inventive hot streaks of any composer in jazz history." --Steve Huey (All Music Guide)
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LANR 049LP
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Limited restock; fully licensed and limited to 500 copies. Includes two bonus tracks. Brought to life in 1976 on his small imprint Stars, In Dub is one of the most sought after Tappa Zukie albums. Alongside Man Ah Warrior, it is a mandatory purchase for any reggae lover more akin to the spacey reverberation of the studio facilities. With his deep, rumbling bass and the prodigious engineering of King Tubby (the album was cut at his own studio) the record still maintains his adventurous tenure. This crucial re-issue presents the complete original tracklist with the addictions of two extra tracks. Dig deep into the ark-eology of dub side.
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LP
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LTJC 014LP
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2025 restock; reissue, originally released in 1969. An iconic French free jazz record recorded at Pathé Marconi Studios. On June 27th, 1969, Michel Portal pushed the door of the Pathé Marconi studios. With him were drummers Jacques Thollot and Aldo Romano, bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark, and pianist Joachim Kühn. They hadn't rehearsed anything, as if entering the studio to record an album without any plan was something normal. The musicians were obviously very used to playing with each other, as the five tracks on Our Meanings And Our Feelings seem to flow perfectly without any hint of improvisation. The zokra, an oriental clarinet that Michel Portal plays on "Walking Through The Land" and "Dear Old Morocco" brings a singular touch to this album. This singularity is transcended by Joachim Kühn's ability to easily go from the piano to the saxophone alto, from supporting to soloing, before playing the bells, then the tambourine, opening the soundscape. Our Meanings And Our Feelings may not be the first French free jazz record -- as it was preceded by the fantastic Free Jazz by François Tusques, released in 1965 and on which Michel Portal plays as well -- but it remains one of the most important. Its incredible outburst of sounds and melodies is completely free yet never turns into cacophony. 44 years after its release, it is still urgent to listen to Our Meanings And Our Feelings and what these five talented musicians had to say.
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LMS 1725439
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Following on from the success of the 2024 editions of The Age of Consent and the incredible viral activity for "Smalltown Boy," London Records follow up with Forbidden Fruit -- a remix compendium to The Age of Consent. Similarly to 1995's Hundreds and Thousands album, The Age of Consent has been re-interpolated to create a new remix album -- traversing Hi-NRG, house, Italo disco and more -- while working together as a cohesive listening experience. The LP features seven tracks for the first time on vinyl. Features five re-workings specifically commissioned for this project, alongside mixes by Superchumbo and The Knocks appearing on vinyl for the very first time. The CD includes 11 tracks, nine for the first time on CD, and an additional four tracks exclusive to the CD version, and longer extended versions of the newly commissioned mixes.
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LP
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LMS 1725440
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LP version. Following on from the success of the 2024 editions of The Age of Consent and the incredible viral activity for "Smalltown Boy," London Records follow up with Forbidden Fruit -- a remix compendium to The Age of Consent. Similarly to 1995's Hundreds and Thousands album, The Age of Consent has been re-interpolated to create a new remix album -- traversing Hi-NRG, house, Italo disco and more -- while working together as a cohesive listening experience. The LP features seven tracks for the first time on vinyl. Features five re-workings specifically commissioned for this project, alongside mixes by Superchumbo and The Knocks appearing on vinyl for the very first time.
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LCD 4011CD
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Laetitia Sonami was born in France, where she studied with Eliane Radigue. She moved to the United States to study electronic music, first with Joel Chadabe at SUNY Albany, then at Mills College where she was mentored by Robert Ashley and David Behrman. Laetitia Sonami is not only a gifted composer/designer of electronic music, but a compelling presence on stage. This collection of early works covers a period when Sonami transitioned from live mixing with cassettes, homemade analog synths and objects in the early eighties, to working with MIDI, MAX software and "off the shelf" synths and samplers. At the same time, she begins a long collaboration with Melody Sumner Carnahan, using her dramatic texts to evoke characters and behaviors to inhabit musically and visually. All but two of the works on this release utilize Sumner Carnahan's stories, and all but one use Sonami's famous invention, the lady's glove, an arm-length tailored glove fitted with movement sensors allowing the perform to fluidly control digital sound parameters and processing, as well as motors, lights and video playback. Sonami has since moved on to works for another of her inventions, the Spring Spyre, which applies Machine Learning to real time audio synthesis.
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LP
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NP 037LP
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Limited restock, last copies. Shirk is the new AOR flavored free improvisation solo album by Sam Shalabi, featuring Eric Chenaux and Nadah El-Shazly, where synth pop and sound poetry fester. Sam Shalabi is an Egyptian-Canadian composer, improviser and guitarist living between Montreal and Cairo. Starting out during the late '70s punk era, his work has evolved into an experimental synthesis of modern Arabic music that incorporates free improvisation, traditional Arabic music, noise, classical, text, and jazz. Other than his numerous solo albums, he is a founding member of Shalabi Effect, a free improvisation quartet that bridges western psychedelic music and Arabic Maqam. He has also released four albums with Land Of Kush, the experimental 30-member orchestra which he directs. He has appeared on over 30 albums and toured Europe, North America, and North Africa. Mastered by Mark Gergis. Vinyl master and lacquer cut by Frederic Alstadt, Angstrom Studio. Edition of 300.
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LP
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NP 040LP
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Sold out. Reissue of the now long sold-out debut album (2014) by the guitar and saxophone duo of Aoki Tomoyuki (Up-Tight) and Harutaka Mochizuki. Initially limited to 200 CD copies only, this record features nine, reverb drenched, mourning pieces characterized by this duo's specific melancholic language via guitar and alto saxophone. Immediately evoking the Velvet Underground inspired electric and echo filled ballads of Les Rallizes Dénudés, it is also augmented with haunting horn improvisations simultaneously reminiscent of Anthony Braxton and Kaoru Abe. Recorded at A.B.U. Studio, Hamamatsu: 2014. Vinyl master and lacquer cut by Frederic Alstadt, Angstrom Studio. Edition of 300.
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