|
Recent Best Sellers
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
WRJ 010LTD-LP
|
2022 repress; LP version. 180 gram vinyl, half speed mastered; heavy sleeve with obi and gold ink. We Release Jazz announce the official reissue of Hiroshi Suzuki's Cat, a glorious jazz-fusion-funk holy grail originally released in 1976. Cat was recorded in October 1975 at Nippon Columbia Studio, while Hiroshi Suzuki was visiting his home country of Japan after moving to Las Vegas in 1971 to play with Buddy Rich and perfect his craft. Back on his old stomping grounds, the man known as Neko (Cat) immediately reunited with his dear friends for an epic two-day session of groove magic. The chemistry was still intact. The skills and style had grown. The result, Cat, is a smooth masterpiece, a deep and soulful affair where stunning trombone solos by Hiroshi Suzuki flirt with Takeru Muraoka's heavenly saxophone and the sensual rhythm section of Hiromasa Suzuki (keyboards), Kunimitsu Inaba (bass), and Akira Ishikawa (drums). Celebrated in jazz collectors circles, in the lo-fi beat scene, and among music diggers around the world, Cat has become one of the most sought-after Japanese jazz albums of all time and, much like Ryo Fukui's Scenery, has fascinated old and young generations alike. Sourced from the original masters. Liner notes by Teruo Isono.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
MF 093LP
|
2022 repress. "Back again on vinyl where it belongs, MF Doom's 1999 classic Operation: Doomsday is now presented on a premium grade LP, with audio re-mastered from the original Fondle'Em Records release, and a poster of the album cover art! Underneath his mysterious metal mask, MF Doom hides the cachet underground legends are made of. After KMD (his first group)'s 1994 sophomore album Bl_ck B_st_rds was shelved by Elektra in 1994 and his blood brother Subroc (one half of the sibling rap duo) passed away, surviving frontman Zev Love X mutated into the MC Avenger known as MF Doom and the rap world is better for it. This 19-cut deep album is ridiculously dope, in a bizarro Ol' Dirty Bastard kind of way. Doom sounds either high or drunk on most of the tracks, his self-produced beats are gritty, and his rhyme styles are almost indecipherable. On arguably the best track, 'Rhymes Like Dimes,' Doom weaves some pointed lyrics through his abstract wordplay, spitting 'only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck / And still keep your attitude on self-destruct.' 'Who You Think I Am?' features Doom's crew M.onster I.sland C.zars, while on '?' he trades hot verses with former Columbia artist Kurious Jorge. Doom's avant-garde ghetto-rhyme philosophies take even more intentionally weird twists on 'Tick, Tick...' where he and guest MC MF Grimm's flows warble over a rhythm track whose tempo speeds up and slows down continually. The comic-book themed skits, will help take you deep into the mind of an MC who is as otherworldly as they come. And in today's bland commercial rap universe, Operation: Doomsday's left-of-center beats and rhymes are the perfect remedy."
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
SEAL 014LP
|
LP version. Sealed Records present a reissue of Rudimentary Peni's Death Church, originally released in 1983. The words legendary, seminal, and classic get thrown around at will these days, but Rudimentary Peni's debut album is all of them. Recorded over two days at Southern Studios by John Loder and originally released in 1983 by Crass off-shoot label Corpus Christi, Death Church showed a band moving away from the urgency of their two early 7"s and into their own realm. Creating a template that bands have been trying to replicate ever since, while ticking all the boxes to become a genre-defining album. Iconic artwork, a unique sound and their own lyrical universe. All merging seamlessly. Sonically the album is full of Nick Blinko's extraordinary vocals and equally remarkable guitar, Grant Matthews's big meandering driving basslines and Jon Greville's tight and relentless drum work which together made something intricate and hard hitting, with a sequence that makes the 21 songs on the album flow perfectly. Visually, the album is every outsider art lover's wet dream. A six-panel poster sleeve with every inch covered in Nick Blinko's claustrophobic black-and-white line drawings, while lyrically the songs deal with madness, religion, death, and questioning humankind from a dark poetic place rarely found in any art form. Remastered from the original master tapes by Arthur Rizk and housed in a replica poster sleeve, including the original insert, Death Church is back in print nearly a decade of no official reissues.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
BS 058LP
|
2021 repress; LP version. An amazing document of the life experiment that was the Organic Music Society. This super quality audio, recorded by RAI (the Italian public broadcasting company) in 1976 for television, documents a quartet concert focused on vocals compositions and improvisations. Here, Don Cherry and his family-community's musical belief emerges in its simplicity, with the desire to merge the knowledge and stimuli gained during numerous travels across the World in a single sound experience. Don's pocket-trumpet is melted with the beats of the great Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, the Italian guitar of Gian Piero Pramaggiore, and the tanpura drone of Moki. A pure hippie aesthetic, like in an intimate ceremony, filters a magical encounter between Eastern and Western civilizations, offering different suggestions of sound mysticism: natural acoustics in which individual instruments and voices are part of a wider pan-tribal consciousness. A desert Western landscape marries Asian and Latin atmospheres. Indigenous contributions with berimbau explorations find fossil sounds of rattles and clap-hands invocations. Influences of Indian mantra singing are combined with eternal African voices or with folkish-Latin guitar rhythms, while flute and drums evoke distant dances. In the Organic Music everything becomes an act of devotion and love, an ecstatic dwell in the dimension of a sacred free-rejoice.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
WRJ 002LP
|
2022 repress. New "regular edition" on 140 gram vinyl. We Release Jazz (WRWTFWW Records' new sister-label) present the official reissue of criminally overlooked Japanese jazz gem Mellow Dream by Hokkaido pianist wunderkind Ryo Fukui, originally released in 1977. Released in conjunction with the its legendary predecessor 1976's Scenery (WRJ 001CD/LP/LTD-LP). Firmly standing on the foundation he laid down with Scenery, Ryo Fukui continues his exploration of modal, bop, and cool jazz sounds with meticulous grace and absolute mastery. As its title suggests, Mellow Dream ventures into slightly mellower, more soulful, and sometimes more contemplative territories (the Bill Evans-reminiscent "Mellow Dream" and "My Foolish Heart") while still packing the commanding punch Fukui's work is loved for, as heard on the amazingly bombastic "Baron Potato Blues" or the gigantic McCoy Tyner/John Coltrane-influenced "Horizon" which sees each member of the trio -- Satoshi Denpo is on bass and Yoshinori Fukui is on drums -- demonstrating their virtuosity for nine exhilarating minutes. With his sophomore album, Ryo Fukui swings from melancholy to vibrant joy with ease, and reminds you that jazz is best served with a pinch of blues, and displays an immensely rare combination of pure talent, unique personal approach and focused discipline. The man undeniably deserves a spot in the pantheon of all-time great jazz pianists. After releasing the outstanding Scenery and Mellow Dream back-to-back, Ryo Fukui worked on developing his live skills, often performing at Sapporo's Slowboat Jazz Club (which he co-founded with his wife Yasuko Fukui), and even releasing two live albums. He sadly passed away in March 2016, leaving behind a legacy of works that all jazz lovers should explore. Sourced from the original masters. Mastered at half speed; 140 gram vinyl; includes sticker.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
BEC 5772110
|
2022 repress. Justice's highly-acclaimed debut album from 2007. French-only vinyl version, in deluxe gatefold sleeve. Retreating to their underground post-nuclear shelter/studio, French duo Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay worked on their first album as if their lives depended on it. The result is a mind-fuck of an album that proves that Justice's unique talent is to be found where least expected. Take for example "Let There Be Light" and its strident, angry electro, driven by a jabbing bassline; "D.A.N.C.E," a pure piece of vicious house sung innocently by a choir of children; "Newjack," a funky parody of the opulent times of the French Touch; "Phantom," taking over where "Waters Of Nazareth" left off to drift towards "Phantom Pt. II" and its head-swirling disco violins; "Valentine," an erotic, melancholic nursery rhyme, like a tribute to Vladimir Cosma and "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy," a pure electro-funk track where the sexy Uffie plays more than ever the cheeky Lolita. Justice have thrown established rules out the window (the notion of good and bad taste, the thin line between underground and pop music, the pigeon hole labeling between rock and electro, etc.) with a fantastic talent for synthesizing and mixing their influences with total candor, be it the cosmic disco of Larry Levan or Vladimir Cosma's panty-wetting romantics, Camel's prog rock or the anxious theme of Goblin for Dario Argento, to the flashy funk of the Brothers Johnson or "ABC" by the Jackson 5. Cross isn't a collection of random dancefloor singles. Cross is for listening at home or in clubs. Cross is a link between pop at its purest and experimental music. Cross brings together hardcore elements and cheese. Cross makes the Goths link arms with the rave kids. A generational manifest, ideally positioned on the side of the dancefloor, Cross, insolent with youth, is a testimony that the French electro scene is healthier than ever.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
ZORN 063LP
|
Famed free jazz concert registration of an early New Direction for the Art performance. Recorded in 1971. The performance by Takayanagi Masayuki New Direction for the Art at the Gen'yasai festival on August 14, 1971 was an intense, bruising collision between the radical, anti-establishment politics of the period in Japan and the febrile avant-garde music that had begun to emerge a few years before. 1962, Takayanagi, bassist Kanai Hideto and painter Kageyama Isamu went on to form an AACM-style musicians' collective called the New Century Music Research Institute. Every Friday, members gathered at Gin-Paris, a chanson bar in the fashionable Ginza district of Tokyo, to push the outer limits of jazz creativity. But the pivotal moment for his music was the creation a new trio version of his New Directions group in August 1969, with the free bassist Yoshizawa Motoharu and a young drummer Toyozumi (Sabu) Yoshisaburō. Experiments eventually led to the creation of two basic frameworks for improvisation that Takayagi referred to as "Mass Projection" and "Gradually Projection". La Grima (tears), the piece that was played at the Gen'yasai festival, is a mass projection and listening to it, you can get a clear sense of what Takayanagi was aiming at. Mass projection involves a dense, speedy and chaotic coloring in of space that destroys the listener's perception of time, and thus of musical development. The ferocity of the performance of La Grima at the Gen'yasai Festival in Sanrizuka on August 14, 1971 was consciously grounded by Takayanagi in a particular historical moment, ripe with conflict and violence. A month after the festival, on September 16, three policemen would die during struggles at the site. This was the context that the three-day Gen'yasai Festival existed within. The line-up reflected the radical politics of the movement, with leading free jazz musicians like Takayanagi, Abe Kaoru, and Takagi Mototeru appearing alongside radical ur-punkers Zuno Keisatsu, heavy electric blues bands like Blues Creation, and Haino Keiji's scream-jazz unit Lost Aaraaff. New Direction for the Arts trio topped the bill on the opening day, playing an aggressive, uncompromising "mass projection" set of polyphonic improvisation. Alongside drummer Hiroshi Yamazaki and saxophonist Kenji Mori, Takayanagi soloed hard and continuously for forty minutes. This was performance as precisely calibrated metaphor: three musicians responding to the demands of the moment with instinctive force and fury, untethered by rules, leaderless yet not rudderless (the direction part of the group's name was no accident). The piece was entitled La Grima and the fusion between the palpable anger of the performance and hopeless sadness of its title were also perfectly apt for the situation. This was a fight that the state was always going to win. A union of anger, sorrow and malevolence that can be placed nowhere effective, all it can do is find expression and channeling. Old-style gatefold with rare photographs and extensive liner notes by Alan Cummings.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
SOULG 001LP
|
A proper reissue of Minnie Riperton's debut album Come To My Garden on GRT, originally published in 1970. Her name came to prominence with the highly influential Chicago band Rotary Connection, forerunners of the rock n' soul crossover. In addition to their own recordings, including their 1967 debut album Rotary Connection, the band is notable as the backing band for Muddy Waters on his 1968 psychedelic blues album Electric Mud. Standing on her own, Minnie cut a series of sublime albums moving in a more soulful way. Opening track "Les Fleur" is a shiny cover of a Ramsey Lewis -- who is musical assistant and contributor here -- classic number penned in 1968, literally a cornerstone for contemporary hip-hop and R&B being sampled by the likes of Jurassic 5 feat. Nelly Furtado, Damu the Fudgemunk, Dr. Octagon, and Cut Chemist, among others. Produced by Charles Stepney (already in with Rotary Connection and subsequently behind the desk with Earth Wind & Fire), the album benefits from its lushy orchestral arrangements, pushing the vocal duties of Minnie even forward (her five-octave vocal range, enabled her to sing in "whistle register" nevertheless). The jazzy soft-pop feel overall will mark comparison with Stevie Wonder, Riperton's future employer/mentor. Fully licensed. 180 gram, clear vinyl.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
3LP BOX
|
|
BE 013-057LP
|
In August 1969, Masayuki Takayanagi formed his first New Direction group and embarked on an unparalleled musical journey that over the final 22 years of his life would define him as an uncompromising artist who would forge a visionary new musical language. Comprised of himself on acoustic and electric guitar and joined by Motoharu Yoshizawa on bass and Yoshisaburo "Sabu" Toyozumi on drums, Takayanagi's group created a new unconstrained form of music; It expanded on the most radical, fiery elements of American and European free jazz, while refracting them through an avant-garde prism. Harmonic and melodic development were rejected in favor of feedback and complete spontaneity. With New Direction, Takayanagi had achieved a "decisive break" from the past and created his own revolutionary musical language -- a ferocious, often violent sound that paradoxically took both musical movement and stillness to their extremes. Takayanagi's New Direction soon recorded one of the landmark albums of free jazz and the avant-garde, Independence: Tread on Sure Ground (1970). It was Takayanagi's first album as a group leader and nothing short of groundbreaking. As profound as its release was, it was not until 25 years later that a wider audience would finally able to hear Takayanagi's vision with the group in its most explosive and unmitigated realization; Japan's P.S.F. records released two CDs, Call in Question (1994) and Live Independence (1995) which featured unearthed, previously unheard 1970 recordings made by the group at the legendary Shibuya Tokyo venue, Station '70. The recordings were revelatory; They presented nascent, jarring versions of Takayanagi's "Gradually Projection" and "Mass Projection" modalities in uncut, unvarnished long form. Joined on some tracks by renowned saxophonist Mototeru Takagi, the performances are intensely physical and visceral. Yoshizawa, Toyozumi as well as Takagi would, in their own right, go on to join Takayanagi as iconic players in the world of Japanese free jazz and avant-garde. It is these performances, in a crucial moment of societal and cultural upheaval, that would help lay the groundwork for the rich world of free improvisation, free jazz and, to a large degree, underground music in Japan for decades to come.
Black Editions present the entirety of the recordings presented on both P.S.F. albums as well as a previously unreleased side-long "Mass Projection" in a deluxe, remastered 3LP box set. The set features the stark photography of the late Yuji Itsumi and presents the original liner notes by key Japanese music critics and historians Yoshiyuki Kitazato and Toshihiko Shimizu newly translated into English as well as in the original Japanese. Mastering by JJ Golden, Golden Mastering 2020. Graphic design by Rob Carmichael, SEEN, with typographic assistance from Takuya Kitamura. Triple-LP box set with heavy chip board, textured uncoated paper wrap, black pigment foil stamping, three heavy inserts and Japanese language insert.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
BEWITH 102LP
|
2022 repress. Be With Records present a reissue of Ian Carr's Nucleus' Roots, originally released on Vertigo in 1973. From the wild cover to the iconic breakbeats, Roots is thick, funky-prog jazz-rock heaven. Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. Working together with producer Fritz Fryer and engineer Roger Wake, the seven compositions by Carr, Brian Smith and Dave MacRae that make up Roots flirt with perfection, and Nucleus at that time made up of the cream of 1970s UK jazz with Brian Smith on tenor saxophones and flutes, Dave MacRae on piano and electric piano, Jocelyn Pitchen on guitar, Roger Sutton on bass, both Clive Thacker and Aureo De Souza on drums and percussion, Joy Yates delivering the vocals and of course Carr on trumpet. The title track is a low-slung, doped-out heist-funk. It was sampled by Madlib for Lootpack and Quasimoto's "Loop Digga". The soothing vocal fusion delight of "Images" follows. Meticulously constructed, with gorgeous flute work from Brian Smith, with Joy Yates' silky vocals and Dave MacRae's Rhodes never sounding better. The cool, driving "Caliban" closes out the first side. Originally the third movement in a four-part commission to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday it stands up on its own, all robust rhythms and blended brass. Keyboard color and Carr's trumpet are splashed across the funk drums and basslines (and there's even some bamboo flute). Side two opens with the short, thrilling samba of "Wapatiti". Next up, "Capricorn" forms a smoothed-out, jazzy constellation. Mellow and dreamy, its twinkling percussion and languid horns slowly build the vibe before head-nod drums and a killer bassline enter the fray. With a distinct heaviness that Black Sabbath would've envied, "Odokamona" is a venomous slice of riff-soaked jazz metal, elevated by Carr's wah-wah horns. The album closes with MacRae's exceptionally cosmic "Southern Roots And Celebration". Very much in conversation with Weather Report, it opens as a languorous, spiritual jazz of chiming keys and serene guitar that turns slowly, gorgeously into a mid-paced, brass-laced banger. Keith Davis's cover art for Roots is an acid-tinged airbrush dystopian/utopian living-room party scene. Remastered by Simon Francis from the original Vertigo master tapes. Cut by Pete Norman.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
MF 094LP
|
2022 repress. "Back again on vinyl where it belongs, MF DOOM's 1999 classic Operation: Doomsday is now presented on a premium grade LP, with audio re-mastered from the original Fondle'Em Records release, and a poster of the album cover art! Underneath his mysterious metal mask, MF DOOM hides the cachet underground legends are made of. After KMD (his first group)'s 1994 sophomore album Bl_ck B_st_rds was shelved by Elektra in 1994 and his blood brother Subroc (one half of the sibling rap duo) passed away, surviving front-man Zev Love X mutated into the MC Avenger known as MF DOOM and the rap world is better for it. This 19-cut deep album is ridiculously dope, in a bizarro Ol' Dirty Bastard kind of way. Doom sounds either high or drunk on most of the tracks, his self-produced beats are gritty, and his rhyme styles are almost indecipherable. On arguably the best track, 'Rhymes Like Dimes,' Doom weaves some pointed lyrics through his abstract wordplay, spitting 'only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck / And still keep your attitude on self-destruct.' 'Who You Think I Am?' features DOOM's crew M.onster I.sland C.zars, while on '?' he trades hot verses with former Columbia artist Kurious Jorge. Doom's avant-garde ghetto-rhyme philosophies take even more intentionally weird twists on 'Tick, Tick...' where he and guest MC MF Grimm's flows warble over a rhythm track whose tempo speeds up and slows down continually. The comic-book themed skits, will help take you deep into the mind of an MC who is as otherworldly as they come. And in today's bland commercial rap universe, Operation: Doomsday's left-of-center beats and rhymes are the perfect remedy."
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
ZORN 083LP
|
Ferocious JP/US free jazz bomb. A rare meeting between the NYC free jazz scene and the Japanese free music scene. Following hot on the heels of the first, mid-sixties generation of Japanese free jazz players like Kaoru Abe, Masayuki Takayanagi, Yōsuke Yamashita, Motoharu Yoshizawa, etc., an exciting second wave of younger players began to emerge in the seventies. Two of its leading members were the saxophonist Kazutoki Umezu and multi-instrumentalist Yoriyuki Harada. Both were post-war babies and immigrants to the city, Umezu from Sendai in the north and Harada from Shimane in the west. They first met as students in the clarinet department at the Kunitachi College of Music in western Tokyo. The two began to play together in an improvised duo, with Umezu on clarinet and bass clarinet and Harada on piano. Experiments led to the creation of a trio, with a high-school student called Tetsuya Morimura on drums, that they decided to name Seikatsu Kōjyō Iinkai (Lifestyle Improvement Committee) in joking reference to the Marxist discourse of the student radicals of the time. Around 1973, Umezu and Harada decided to call it a day and go their separate ways. Umezu began playing with the Toshinori Kondo Unit and Harada with the Tadashi Yoshida Quintet. In 1974 Harada formed his own trio and began to play at jazz coffeehouses across Japan. In September 1974 Umezu travelled alone to New York. Umezu soon became known on the scene as Kappo and he started to make connections with some of the young musicians. Umezu wrote to Harada and invited him to come to New York. He accepted and arrived in the city in July 1975. Harada and Umezu took the opportunity to resume their artistic collaboration. Their first concert together in over two years took place on July 20th at another loft, Sunrise Studios at 122 2nd Avenue. Umezu invited along trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah. Abdullah led his own group and was a long-term Sun Ra sideman. William Parker, one of the key figures in the loft jazz scene of the period, was on bass. Abdullah also brought along Rashid Sinan on drums. Sinan played on Frank Lowe's immortal Black Beings (1973) and Arthur Doyle's Alabama Feeling (1978). By all accounts the evening was a huge success, with speed and dynamism of Harada's piano playing gaining him lots of support. Since they had managed to save some money from their day jobs, Umezu and Harada decided to set up a recording session with the same line-up on August 11 at Studio We, where there was a well-equipped studio on the third floor. On their first recordings, the humor element, which is key to their sound, is not yet present. Instead, there is a febrile sense of joy in creation and connection. Old-style gatefold with rare photographs and liner notes by Alan Cummings.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
BE 014LP
|
Masayuki Takayanagi was one of the truly iconoclastic musicians to emerge from Japan, or anywhere else, in the 20th Century. Though he won acclaim in the 1950s and '60s as a master of the electric guitar and jazz improvisation, Takayanagi was a restless spirit, deeply engaged with the era's new movements in contemporary art, music, literature, and philosophy. His work, beginning in the late 1960s placed him on the leading edge of these developments; he began expanding on the most radical elements of American and European free jazz, infusing them with the raw feedback and dissonance of electronic and avant-garde music. With his various New Direction groups, Takayanagi broke free of traditional structures and developed a new theory of music that embraced an aggressive and unrelenting style of playing that has remained almost completely unparalleled in its ferocity. Of all the albums to be released during Takayanagi's lifetime, 1975's Eclipse was perhaps the most enigmatic and sought after. Released in an edition of only 100, it almost immediately disappeared and became a holy grail for Japanese connoisseurs of adventurous music, and rightly so. It's first side contained a two-part realization of Takayanagi's "Gradually Projection" modality -- a searching interplay between instruments -- slowly emerging from a sparse open field and building with the tension of a looming thunder storm. The second side contains an epic performance of a "Mass Projection", a high energy, densely layered barrage of sound that in its 25 minutes, never once slackens its intensity. It would be another 31 years before this key album in Takayangi's oeuvre would finally have a (slightly) wider audience through a CD release by Japan's P.S.F. Records.
Black Editions present a deluxe vinyl edition of this masterwork, revealingly remastered from the original tapes by Elysian Masters. The album is packaged in a heavy double tip-on gatefold jacket that pays tribute to the original handmade packaging and features a previously unseen studio photograph of Takayanagi by Tatsuo Minami. Recorded in Tokyo, March 14, 1975. Engineer: Mikio Aoki. Cover, photographs and design by Kazuharu Fujitani. Gatefold photograph by Tatsuo Minami. Insert Notes by Yasunori Saito. Produced by Satoru Obara, Yoshiaki Kamei, Nihon Gendai Jazz Ongaku Kenkyukai. Originally released in an edition of 100 by ISKRA Records, Japan in 1975. Remastered from the original master tapes by Dave Cooley, Elysian Masters, and produced by Peter Kolovos. Deluxe heavy tip-on gatefold LP with matte black paper, second tipped-on metallic gold wrap and insert.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
FKR 019X-LP
|
Finders Keepers presents this uber-rare soundtrack to a film that never existed, performed by an imaginary pop group. Incredible Polanski inspired German hip-hop psychsploitation beats from 1969. You couldn't script it... You are nineteen minutes and twenty-two seconds in to your peak-season cruise around the kraut-schlock peripheries. To say the trip has been an eventful one would be an understatement -- you don't know what to expect next and your 12"x12" Germanic tour guide has proved quite unreliable thus far. As your diamond tipped vessel maneuvers through the grooves of your ninth horrific attraction (entitled The Soaked Body) the soundtrack awkwardly becomes background music and you are overcome with the sound of gushing water... "Help!" you think sarcastically, the music, or is that muzak, is drowning! This is the movie soundtrack to a film that never existed. This is the movie soundtrack by the band that was never requested. These were the sound library musicians who had to invent their own clients and imaginary cast, crew and plot to get their music heard, by a niche audience, before floating deep into the depths of the rare record reservoir gasping for breath. To take a cinematic cue the record in question is the Eurotrash pop equivalent of Jean Renoir's tragic/triumphant Boudu character who as a homeless, confused, and desolate down-and-out plunged to the depths to be unwillingly rescued, resuscitated then after gradually winning the hearts of an entire family becomes respected and revered as royalty. Over twenty years after the mad scientists, Dr. Horst and Ackermann, first breathed life into this short-lived beast, brave and intrepid vinyl explorers have sporadically returned to the doors of Dracula's Music Cabinet to resurrect the sonic spooks and mutated melodies to share with nerds, mods, rockers, hip hoppers, psych nuts, and krautsiders alike. The lifeless corpses of The Vampires Of Dartmoore that lay six feet beneath the belly of the Eins Deutschmark bins has since crept through the record collections of the aforementioned social circles devouring continental currencies and demanding random ransoms of 250 euros plus, not to mention sweat, tears (of laughter) and a lot of blood.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
AUK 004LP
|
2022 repress; black vinyl. Gatefold 180 gram double vinyl version. Truth in advertising: the Brian Jonestown Massacre's sophomore album does, as promised, spring forth from the Rolling Stones' long-underrated 1967 masterpiece Their Satanic Majesties Request, copping not only Mick and Keith's leering bad-boy attitude but also their rock-and-roll-circus spirit. Opening with the brilliant "All Around You (Intro)," a tongue-in-cheek guide to the mind-altering journey ahead, the record is a kaleidoscopic, drug-fueled freakout -- like the Stones' namesake album, Second Request is painted by Eastern drones and psychedelic tangents, each track bubbling with dozens of sound effects including sitars, mellotrons, farfisas, didgeridoos, tablas, congas, and glockenspiels. Travelling through the past, darkly, the Massacre arrives on the other side unscathed; their music is too rich to be merely retro, and too knowing to be merely slavish -- the Stones themselves haven't made a record this strong or entertaining in years.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
DEL 75033LP
|
2022 repress. "The super group Deltron 3030 is composed of producer Dan the Automator, rapper Del tha Funkee Homosapien and DJ Kid Koala and sometimes features guest artists who also take on varying futuristic pseudonyms. Originally released in 2000 on the now-defunct 75ARK record label, this hip hop concept album was released the same year as the Gorillaz' first 12" and is on a similar plane. Following the release of Deltron 3030, all three members participated in the Gorillaz' self-titled debut album. With Del aka Deltron Zero on vocals, Dan the Automator aka The Cantankerous Captain Aptos on production, and Kid Koala aka Skiznoid the Boy Wonder on turntables, this album takes the listener on a paranoid journey set in a dystopian year 3030 dealing with viruses, the apocalypse, an oppressive government, and a war waged against a huge company called the Corporate Bank of Time that rules the universe, all to the well-crafted and consistent musical backing of the Automator. Appearances by Damon Albarn (The Gorillaz, Blur), Prince Paul, Peanut Butter Wolf, DJ Money Mark, Paul Barman, Mark Bell (Bjork, production), Sean Lennon, and Mr. Lif compliment Del's vocal style and add the right amount of flavor to this classic period piece."
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
FTR 639LP
|
"It has been a while since the release Myriam's acclaimed 2014 debut album, Not So Deep as a Well (FTR 146-4LP). The intervening years have brought a smattering of live performances, a bouquet of children, Trump's Pandemic, and much more . . .
Different concepts for a new album were broached, but the seed of Ma Délire was planted when Myriam recalled a paper she written in university. It was about Leonard Cohen's recording of "The Lost Canadian (Un canadien errant)" from Recent Songs. Ostensibly a cover of an old Quebecois ballad, Cohen stripped away the specificity of the lyrics, tying the song's titular figure to the archetype of 'The Wandering Jew'.
The theme of this paper returned to Myriam when she had a residency at the Old Mill in Le Bic, QC in August 2016. Benoit Chaput had turned her on to the traditional tune 'Au Coeur de ma Délire,' from a 1971 album by Dominique Tremblay and Philippe Gagnon. The song was so haunting, she decided to record it right there in the Mill's boat repair workshop. That is the very recording used here . . .
This started Myriam musing about how the end of the Catholic hegemony in Quebec had the unanticipated consequence of making people think less of traditional Quebecois folk music, because so much of it was soaked in the blood of the lamb. It made sense this music should be explored and updated despite its dogmatic origins which Cohen had proved could be effectively expunged . . .
Just as the world was shutting down, Myriam was awarded a grant which allowed her the time and space to fully investigate and develop this material. She had spent years sifting through traditional music from Quebec, France and the U.S., highlighting parts of songs and ideas she liked, discarding some she found abhorrent, and merging the good bits with her own writing or other cannibalized shards. At some juncture she flashed on this work's common thread -- its thematic roots were always in one type of romantic longing or another. And so, this album came together during the dark days of the General Lockdown. Mixing vocal tracks with instrumentals, singing in both French and English, using a syncretic blend of original, modern and traditional lyrics, Ma Délire fearlessly wanders through a universe of its own invention, daring us to open our minds wide enough to take it all in.
Myriam initially recorded with just guitar and vocals. But when she began working with the sound engineer Tonio Morin-Vargas, he had some insightful suggestions about additional instrumentation that might broaden the album's sound without confounding it. Myriam had already planned to ask her friends, Bill Nace and Chris Corsano, to add some things, so the whole shebang evolved as organically as most great records do..." --Byron Coley, 2021
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
FKR 024X-LP
|
Back in 1968 a pair of Germanic behind-the-scenes sound librarians called Horst Ackermann and Heribert Thusek left a tiny, but indelible, pinprick on the history of German pop in the misshaped form of a sexy horror cash-in concept album called Dracula's Music Cabinet (FKR 019X-LP). Shelved at a micro-cosmic axis where krautrock meets lesbian vampire Horrortica and easy listening meets psychedelia the delayed reaction of this mutant concoction eventually exploded in the mid-1990s in the hands of a generation of "record diggers" sending currency-crushing tremors through the wallets of mods, rockers, hip-hoppers, psych nuts and kraut kompletists around the plastic-pillaging planet. The vinyl junkies had resurrected a monster, but, like addicts do, they ravenously sucked it dry and moved on looking for the next fix to feed their habit. Luckily for some, Ackermann and Thusek were also creatures of habit. And it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that they were holding the next dose, but by the turn of the millennium the mad scientists had been given a thirty-five-year head start on the pop archeologists and their mythical sequel was literally light-years ahead of their previous Draconian installment... Encouragingly the unclosed cabinet left a shiny white clue in the form of its closing track "Frankenstein Meets Alpha 7"... Perhaps space was the place. Always read the label. The Ackermann and Thusek duo were far from dynamic. They were undercover agents hiding behind user-friendly mock-rock monikers and, like most B-musicians, the only way to sniff them out would be to read the small print. But when an unidentified record on an unknown label with a title like Science Fiction Dance Party crops up in the Eins Deutschmark crates it's not exactly rocket science -- although the track titles might suggest otherwise. "The End Of A Robot", "Monster On Saturn 1", "Galactic Adventures Of The Outer Space Fleet", "The Whistling Astronauts", "Death Rays Out Of The Universe"... The telltale signs are all there and if that vintage psycoplasmodic colored vinyl doesn't clench the deal then what will. When rumors about a space-age follow-up to Dracula's Music Cabinet hit the straße Deutsche-o-phile diggers fingers started twitching nervously.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
FARO 229LP
|
Double LP version. On a balmy Brazilian night in February, 1981, a crowd gathered in Rio de Janeiro's Gávea neighbourhood under the iconic dome of the city's Planetário (Planetarium). Alongside musicians like Helio Delmiro and Milton Nascimento (who were in the audience that night), they were there to see the great "Bruxo" (sorcerer) Hermeto Pascoal live in concert, with his new band formation which would become known simply as "O Grupo" (The Group). On the Planetário Da Gávea recordings, Hermeto is cast as the "sorcerer" or the "cosmic emissary", exhibiting an intuitive sense of harmony and melody beyond that of our own world. "Tudo e Som" (All is Sound). It's an understanding of the universe as being in a state of constant movement, forever vibrating at the quantum level, like the string of a guitar, or a saxophone's reed. The series of concerts at the Planetário marked the birth of "O Grupo" which would last with the same line-up (apart from Zé Eduardo Nazário) for the next eleven years. Every member of O Grupo was a phenomenal musician in their own right. It was one of saxophonist/flautist Carlos Malta's first gigs with the group, and the concert unusually featured two drummers, Zé Eduardo Nazário and Marcio Bahia. Nazário, from São Paulo, had played with Hermeto during the mid-70s. Acclaimed keyboard player Jovino Santos Neto was on keyboards, piano and organ, and the great Itiberê Zwarg, played bass. Rounding the group off was the percussionist Pernambuco. During this period (up until the early '90s) the group would rehearse for hours on end, virtually seven days a week, with a total dedication to music and Hermeto's musical vision. Most of the compositions performed that night at the Planetário had never been recorded before, and many are unique to this album. The show also features the first recorded performances of "Era Pra Ser e Não Foi" and "Ilza na Feijoada" (inspired by Hermetos' wife Ilza's famed black bean and meat stew), which Hermeto later recorded on his 1984 studio album Lagoa Da Canoa Município De Arapiraca. Dubbed by Miles Davis as "one of the most important musicians on the planet", a Hermeto Pascoal live show was (and still is) an experience like no other. Across the recording of the Planetário concert, wild improvisation meets groovy, virtuosic vamping on progressive, extended psychedelic jams. The tracks are generally built around a beautiful, transcendent melody; instantly recognizable as being Hermeto's, and for the most part, the musicians then solo over extended two chord vamps. There's a plethora of powerfully delivered rhythms, wild solos and the performances are punctuated by Hermeto's unpredictable, at times comical sonic antics.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
BEWITH 028LP
|
2022 repress. Be With Records present the first ever official reissue of Kimiko Kasai with Herbie Hancock's Butterfly, originally released in 1979. The positively sublime and very rare Butterfly LP, recorded in Tokyo in 1979 by Japanese songstress Kimiko Kasai and jazz legend Herbie Hancock. Due to its super-rare status as a Japan-only release, this exquisite collection of covers never got the recognition it deserved at the time, despite incredibly inspired performances from Kimiko, Herbie, and the supremely talented musicians assembled for the project. From heavenly drummer Alphonse Mouzon and renowned organist Webster Lewis to bassist Paul Jackson, reedman Bennie Maupin, and the master percussionist Bill Summers, the legendary performers crafted amazingly good vocal versions of Herbie/Headhunters jazz-funk. Unsurprisingly, it has been heavily in demand for many years. The LP opens with Kimiko's highly desirable version of "I Thought It Was You", an elegant take on Herbie's own anthem. Other superb re-workings include the delicately soulful "Butterfly", jazzy groover "Sunlight", the smooth and sexy "Tell Me A Bedtime Story", and the beautiful ballads "Maiden Voyage" and "Harvest Time". A wonderful example of perfectly understated and masterful jazz-funk soul fusion that shouldn't be missed, the set closes with a jaw-dropping version of Stevie Wonder's "As". This lovingly curated reissue enables a long overdue reappraisal of this hitherto unavailable masterpiece. The stunning artwork which adorned the original jacket -- complete with obi strip and sumptuous four-page folded insert -- has been faithfully restored. Mastered by Simon Francis, and pressed on 180 gram vinyl.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
WRJ 008LTD-LP
|
LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Half speed mastered; Heavy sleeve and obi. We Release Jazz announce the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's final album, the very personal contemporary jazz offering, A Letter from Slowboat, sourced from the original masters. Known for his miraculous albums 1976's Scenery (WRJ 001CD/LP) and 1977's Mellow Dream (WRJ 002CD/LP), legendary Hokkaido pianist Ryo Fukui, with the help of his wife Yasuko, opened his very own jazz club in Sapporo in 1995, Slowboat. This is where Ryo Fukui spent the latter half of his career, playing again and again, welcoming peers for unforgettable sessions, and perfecting the craft he lived for: jazz. A Letter from Slowboat is a poetic, soulful, and honest love letter to Hokkaido, to Fukui's jazz club, and to endless hours of practicing artistry in a place called home. Backed by longtime collaborators Takumi Awaya on bass, and Ittetsu Takemura on drums, Ryo Fukui flows through classics and originals with natural class, fluidity, and absolute precision, expressing a smooth balance between skills and heart. Slowboat, full of breathtaking solos and exquisite moments of clarity, is another crucial piece in the career of one of the most fascinating jazzmen to ever grace the piano. It was released in 2016, sadly the year Ryo Fukui passed away, leaving behind a legacy of works that is sure to captivate jazz lovers for generations to come, and Slowboat, where the magic still happens to this day. Reissued in conjunction with 1999's Ryo Fukui in New York (WRJ 009CD/LTD-LP), also available via We Release Jazz.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
MR 256LP
|
2022 repress; 2003 release. Jeffrey Lee Pierce -- reggae enthusiast, heroin addict, and former president of the Blondie fan club -- suffered a lonely, depressing death on March 31st, 1996 of a brain hemorrhage, after untold years of drug use and alcoholism. Why this event mattered much to anyone lay in a fantastic record his band, The Gun Club, recorded 16 years earlier: the masterful Fire Of Love. A visionary and fierce moment in time when The Gun Club took the raw, dripping meat of shopworn delta blues and infused it with the energy and fire of the LA punk rock scene. Inspired by bands like X, Television and the Cramps, he met Kid Congo Powers (who later played with Nick Cave and Cramps) and they formed the Creeping Ritual in 1979, soon to be renamed The Gun Club. Pierce was already a notorious drunk, exhibitionist, poet and fanboy. The Gun Club were quickly a dangerous new spoke on the spinning wheel of dynamic LA alt-culture. By 1980, Jeffrey Lee had moved into a deep reverence for Mississippi delta blues. The Gun Club paid more than passing homage: they wholeheartedly swiped complete riffs, words and attitude from the masters. Pierce participated in the great blues singer tradition by cobbling together distinct lines from other people's songs to create new ones. Snatches of Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson can be heard throughout this debut LP -- released in 1981 on Slash's Ruby Records. What makes Fire Of Love such a brilliant listen long after its time is that this blatant homage to the blues was amplified, energized and kicked into overdrive -- in a new style that combined the ghostliness of the original model with a FAST, unwound and supremely energetic beat. The engineering feats of Pat Burnette contributed to that sound: he wielded his Quad-Teck studios like a weapon, and mastered some of the greatest sides in LA music history (such as Germs' GI). Pure fullness of sound and the raw hot throb of records that were made to stand the test of time. From the immensely dark and aggressive sexuality of "Sex Beat," Gun Club's most recognizable number, to the fetishistic salute to fellow traveler Poison Ivy of The Cramps in "For The Love Of Ivy," including the hellfire classic "She's Like Heroin To Me," a 2:33 masterpiece in which everything comes together; Fire Of Love is pure perfection. It stands among the greatest classics of rock history, and shows the genius of the great Jeffrey, whose haunted singing has never been replaced. It proved out to be one of the most influential records of the '80s, with countless musicians declaring their love for the Club.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
PALTO 011LP
|
LP version. "Unreleased until now, Kiren represents an important period of Shimizu's artistic expression, an artist at his peak, while successfully exploring the intersections of fusion, synthpop, new wave, and jazz. By the early 1980s acclaimed saxophonist, producer and composer Yasuaki Shimizu had established himself on the Japanese new wave scene, producing many important experimental pop records and releasing several albums as the bandleader of Mariah. Following the release of his widely regarded solo classic Kakashi, from 1982, and the otherworldly Utakata No Hibi, by Mariah in 1983 (both reissued by Palto Flats), he went into the studio the following year with frequent collaborators, producer Aki Ikuta and Morio Watanabe (bassist of Mariah), to record a mystifying collection of experimental dance music. Utilizing cutting-edge technology and studio trickery, Kiren showcases Shimizu's trademark playfulness, marrying richly layered production techniques to off-kilter, sometimes traditional sounding rhythms and melodies." "Shimizu spent his entire life invigorated by sounds from around the world; with Kiren, he was able to partake in this ecosystem, to contribute something that was unmistakably his own." --Pitchfork
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
WRJ 001LP
|
Currently sold out, next repress available March/22; New "regular edition" on 140 gram vinyl. We Release Jazz (WRWTFWW Records' new sister-label) presents its first release, the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's highly sought-after masterpiece Scenery, originally released in 1976. Unquestionably one of the most important Japanese jazz albums ever recorded, Scenery reveals Ryo Fukui as a miraculously brilliant self-taught pianist fusing modal, bop, and cool jazz influences for a very personal, dexterous, and game-changing take on classic standards made famous by Bing Crosby and John Coltrane among others. From "It Could Happen To You" and its serene and calm intro which magically flows into a jubilant and upbeat piece, to the out-of-this-world piano solo of "Early Summer", or the incredible teamwork of "Autumn Leaves" where Fukui leads Satoshi Denpo (bass) and Yoshinori Fukui (drums) into groove heaven, every single note on the album oozes precision, confidence, and flair and every single section slides seamlessly into one another, creating a supreme and elegant blend of jazz. Often compared to McCoy Tyner or Bill Evans, Ryo Fukui was a genius in his own right, a true master of his craft whose perfectionism gave birth to some of the greatest music ever recorded. Scenery is his magnum opus and an absolute must-have. The Hokkaido wizard-pianist followed Scenery with the soulful gem Mellow Dream (WRJ 002CD/LP/LTD-LP) in 1977. He then focused on improving his live skills, often performing at Sapporo's Slowboat Jazz Club (which he co-founded with his wife Yasuko Fukui) and releasing two live albums. Ryo Fukui sadly passed away in March 2016, leaving behind a legacy of works that is sure to captivate jazz lovers for generations to come. Sourced from the original masters. LP version is mastered at half speed; 140 gram vinyl with sticker.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
FTR 617LP
|
Sold out, repress in 2023... "Tom Recchion is a legendary character. He is a world-famous art director, a founding member of the L.A.F.M.S., and was even the drummer for Sonic Youth for a brief period. Since the '70s, Tom has been creating screwed-up music in a dizzying array of formats, from large fully-clothed ensembles to buck naked solo explorations. The Japanese Cassette album falls into the latter category, and it is a head spinning doozy. The music here was originally created in 1986, to be featured on a multi cassette collection being assembled by the Japanese noise musician Hitomi Arimoto. Other musicians involved in the Journey into Pain set (1987) included a host of heavies from the experimental/noise underground. And although the collages here are similar to work Tom did that same year for a Slowscan compilation, that eventually became Chaotica, Mr. Arimoto was apparently hoping for something a little more harsh. So only a smattering of the material was used. We had been talking to Tom about doing a project together for a long time, and when he eventually suggested issuing the full '86 session, we were on it. The music mixes tape loops, keyboards, records and effects to create constantly shifting anti-patterns of sound, largely based on the use of previously extant commercial recordings. But even knowing much of this stuff began its life as something quite ordinary, the aesthetic reconfiguration involved in Tom's process turns each bit into something absolutely new. We think you'll agree the music on Japanese Cassette is both beautifully twisted and virtually impossible to trace back to its natural state. Featuring liner notes by the inimitable David Toop and expertly mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Like John Zorn and Eugene Chadbourne on the East Coast, Tom was then captivated by the music of Carl Stalling, whose work for Warner Bros. cartoons would be collected and made more widely known in the '90s. Like Stalling's work, the quick cuts and radical mood shifts Tom employs have both disorientational and familiar qualities. But potentially recognizable shards of sound move with such antic patterning you'd need to be a real fucking idiot to even care where they're from. Just close your eyes, tip you head back and let your brain soak in the maniacal musical miasma Mr. Recchion has put together for you. There is just nothing like it. Except for some of Tom's other albums. Which you would do well to check out. Toot sweet!" --Byron Coley, 2022
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
HC 072LP
|
A classic and essential hi-life and Afro-funk album from one of the greatest Ghanaian singer and composer, reissued for the first time. The legendary K. Fimpong's fantastic rare album was recorded in 1980. K. Frimpong was born on July 22nd, 1939 at Ofoase in the Ashanti Akim district and entered right into music after elementary school by joining "Star de Republic" and later Oko's Band after which he left to K. Gyasy's band where he worked for more than six years. As a prolific songwriter and singer, here's the reissue of his amazing album, a modern fusion of hi-life and soul. The excellent background is given by the famous Cubanos Fiesta with members of Vis-A-Vis band. Originally produced on the major Polydor, this four songs recording is a blend of danceable and spiritual soul and straight hi-life. A must have vinyl of percussive Afro-funk for all the music connoisseurs, Me Da A Onnda a true masterpiece. Remastered by Frank Merritt at The Carvery; Pressed on Replika format; Fully licensed by the Alhadji Kwame Frimpong Family.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
BORNBAD 064LP
|
2022 repress. Double LP version with printed inner sleeve. Born Bad Records presents the music of Cameroonian musician Francis Bebey, circa 1982-1984. "The first time I saw a sanza (a type of African 'thumb piano'), it was just sitting there on a piece of furniture in my family's living room/dining room -- a space that our father also transformed into a recording studio every day. It seemed more like a box than a musical instrument: a mysterious instrument, which arrived at our house, like many things, in a somewhat miraculous way. The sounds it produced seemed particularly bizarre; to my young musician's ears, trained in Western classical music, it sounded out of tune. That's because, like my brothers and sisters, I had been trained on the piano. I had trouble understanding how anyone could endure these tones and, honestly, our father's passion for 'unusual sounds' did not interest me. I was in secondary school at the time (the very late 1970s) and was not at all oriented toward musical projects. I planned to graduate, and then become a chef. In the early 1980s, my interest in music picked up. I was still undecided about my career. I was content to pursue my 'serious' English studies while hanging out at jazz clubs at les Halles in Paris, where I sometimes joined jam sessions. Next, I put together my first band with professional musicians; I had hidden my age and lack of experience from them. France was just beginning to accept 'world music.' Musicians of every nationality were performing in Paris. It was a wonderful period. My father asked my brother Toups and me to accompany him for a few concerts. In particular, we toured Tunisia together at the time of the 1983 Carthage International Festival. Back then, my father was renowned across the French-speaking world. Everyone looked forward to hearing his humorous songs, like 'Agatha' and 'La condition masculine.' But, behind the scenes, he continued his research concerning electronic music, the sansa, pygmy polyphony, etc. One day he put a sansa in my hands, without saying a word. He was sending me a message: 'Let's see what you can do with it!' That's when I really discovered something. Exploring the instrument and playing, I transcended the 'imperfect' aspect of its sound and began to discover its fascinating potential. Playing the sansa, you enter a world that enraptures you in a very serene and mesmerizing way. I think its sounds evoke a rainbow, with rain falling while the sun shines. A very peaceful feeling. It allows you to make music that truly sounds like life. The sansa is also the instrument that my father and I shared the most because I am a pianist and he was a guitarist. I also share this eminently African instrument with my musician brother, Toups. Our father loved to tell us one of the legends of the sansa: how it even managed to dispel the boredom felt by... the Creator himself! This instrument gives life to the world, to beings and things. I did not participate in the production of the various records that my father devoted to the sansa. He did it himself, you might say, in his 'laboratory.' Yet today, I cannot imagine playing a concert without using a sansa. The piano remains present so that listeners don't become disoriented and wonder about the weird sounds invading their ears! However, I find the eccentric and disturbing side of sansa interesting. And the sansa always affects the audience: in reality, it excites them. The secrets of this instrument are surely its beneficial powers and... its magic!" --Patrick Bebey
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
Book
|
|
SPECTRES 003BK
|
The expression "ghost in the machine" emerged within a particular context, namely as a critique of Cartesian dualism's separation of soul and body, and thus served to revive a certain mechanistic materialism. In simple terms, this critique denies the existence of an independent soul (the "ghost") contained in a corporeal organism (the "machine"). It asserts, on the contrary, that the "soul" is just a manifestation of the body -- that ultimately, they are one and the same. The artificial always brings with it the fantasy of emancipation and autonomy, and a break with a supposedly natural order of things. In a certain respect, the domain of musical creation constitutes a kind of front line, at once a terrain of exploration for possible applications of AI and a domain that boasts an already substantial history of the integration of machines and their calculative power into creative processes. From algorithmic composition to methods of resynthesis, from logical approaches to the creation of cybernetic systems, from the birth of computer music to neural networks, for more than half a century now music has been in continual dialogue with the binary universe of electron flows and the increasingly complex systems that control them. Each of the texts included here, in its own way, reveals a different facet of the strange prism formed by this alliance. Each projects its own particular spectrum -- or spectre; each reveals a ghost, evokes an apparition that is a composite of ideas, electricity, and operations. This book, then, does not set out to cut the Gordian knot constituted by the question of the possible mutations and becomings of binary logic, and in particular its most recent avatar, AI. On the contrary, it seeks to shed a diverse light upon the many possible ways of coming to grips with it today, and upon the dreams, promises, and doubts raised by these becomings, whether actualized in the creation of codes and programs to assemble sounds or infusing a whole compositional project. Above all, though, what is at stake here is to discover how these developments resonate together, and how this resonance manifests itself through all these approaches, all these reflections, all these modes of creation and of living. For the artificial, the artefact, is always the extro-human brainchild of a human, all too human dream. Authors: Keith Fullerton Whitman, Émilie Gillet, Steve Goodman, Florian Hecker, James Hoff, Roland Kayn, Ada Lovelace, Robin Mackay, Bill Orcutt, Matthias Puech, Akira Rabelais, Lucy Railton, Jean-Claude Risset, Sébastien Roux, Peter Zinovieff.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
CD
|
|
OR1CD
|
Éliane Radigue: "We live in a universe filled with waves. Not only between the Earth and the Sun but all the way down to the tiniest microwaves and inside it is the minuscule band that lies between the 60 Hz and the 12,000 to 15,000 Hz that our ears turn into sound. There are many wavelengths in the ocean too and we also come into contact with it physically, mentally and spiritually. That explains the title of this body of work which is called Occam Ocean. The main aim of this work is to focus on how the partials are dealt with. Whether they come in the form of micro beats, pulsations, harmonics, subharmonics -- which are extremely rare but have a transcendent beauty -- bass pulsations -- the highly intangible aspect of sound. That's what makes it so rich. When Luciano Pavarotti gave free rein to the full force of his voice the conductor stopped beating time and you could hear the richness in its entirety. Music in written form, or however it is relayed, ultimately remains abstract. It's the performer, the person playing it who brings it to life. So, the person playing the instrument must come first. I've always thought of performers and their instruments as one. They form a dual personality. No two performers, playing the same instrument, have the same relationship with that instrument -- the same intimate relationship. This is where the process of making the work personal begins. The purely personal task of deciding on the theme or image that we're going to work from. Obviously, because this is Occam Ocean, the theme is always related to water. It could be a little stream, a fountain, the distant ocean, rivers. Out of the fifty or so musicians I've worked with no two themes have been the same. Each musician's theme is completely unique and completely personal. The music does the talking. This is one of those art forms that manages to express the many things that words aren't able to. Even at an early stage, all those ideas need to have been brought together."
Composed by Éliane Radigue. Performed by Frédéric Blondy. Commissioned by Organ Reframed, curated by Claire M Singer. Recorded on January 8, 2020 by Daniel Halford at Union Chapel on the organ built by "Father" Henry Willis, 1877. Mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering. Cover organ photography: Daniela Sbrisny. Designed by Philip Marshall, Berlin, June 2021. This commission was generously supported by Arts Council England, the London Community Foundation/Cockayne, PRS Foundation, and SACEM.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
HJR 111LP
|
2022 restock; Double LP version. A stunning survey of the 1970s heyday of great Japanese singer and countercultural icon Maki Asakawa (1942-2010). Deep-indigo, dead-of-night enka, folk, and blues, inhaling Billie Holiday and Nina Simone down to the bone. A traditional waltz abuts Nico-style incantation; defamiliarized versions of Oscar Brown Jr. and Bessie Smith collide with big-band experiments alongside poet Shūji Terayama; a sitar-led psychedelic wig-out runs into a killer excursion in modal, spiritual jazz. Existentialism and noir, mystery and allure, hurt and hauteur. With excellent notes by Alan Cummings and the fabulous photographs of Hitoshi Jin Tamura. "Japan's answer to Scott Walker, with a visual aesthetic and a death-decadent appeal that is straight out of the Keiji Haino songbook." --Volcanic Tongue
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
VAMPI 250LP
|
Vampisoul present a reissue of Jorge Ben's Bem-Vinda Amizade, originally released in 1981. Jorge Ben is someone who needs no introduction. Since his first hits in the '60s, this artist has become one of the greatest icons of Brazilian pop music. His anthems "Mais Que Nada" or "Pais Tropical" are probably two of the most ever-listened Brazilian songs of all time. After being involved in the Tropicalia movement and incorporating the influences of Afro-American funk into his repertoire, with the support of his backing band -- Trio Mocotó --, his very personal samba sound also opened up to the new musical trends coming from the States at the edge of the '70s. Boogie and disco music were making headway and soon became popular in the Brazilian market. Jorge Ben's albums recorded at the beginning of the '80s reflect this trend and deliver a good number of outstanding tunes. Bem-Vinda Amizade is one of those albums. Recorded in 1981, it is a solid album, start to finish. It comprises the usual samba funk numbers, so characteristic of Jorge Ben, with killer boogie and disco tracks ("Oé Oé (Faz O Carro De Boi Na Estrada)", "Ela Mora Em..."). And it also contains downtempo soulful slow burners like "Lorraine" or "Katarina, Katarina", funky as hell! An essential addition to any Brazilian music collection.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
WRJ 009LTD-LP
|
LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Half speed mastered; Heavy sleev and obi. We Release Jazz announce the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's New York sessions with Lisle Atkinson and Leroy Williams, the aptly titled album Ryo Fukui in New York, sourced from the original masters. Recorded in February 1999 at Avatar Recording Studios in New York and inspired by Ryo Fukui's idol and mentor Barry Harris, the fourth album from the famed Sapporo pianist captures memorable sessions with seasoned American jazz musicians (and frequent Barry Harris collaborators) Lisle Arthur Atkinson on bass and Leroy Williams on drums. Ryo Fukui in New York is pure bop heaven, glowing with poetic takes on classics by Charlie Parker, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Bud Powell, plus a supreme remake of Fukui's very own Mellow Dream (WRJ 002CD/LP). It's expressive, soulful, and vibrating with a bouncing swing feel all the way through; every note falls exactly where it should, undeniable brilliance. Much like the other albums by the genius from Hokkaido, it's got that "special something", hard to grasp, hard to describe, but 100% felt. Skills and heart, the Ryo Fukui way. Following his New York adventures, Ryo Fukui headed back to Sapporo, and more precisely to his jazz club Slowboat, where his newly acquired experience inspired numerous jam sessions and a full dedication to perfecting his craft. He sadly passed away in 2016, leaving behind a legacy of works that is sure to captivate jazz lovers for generations to come, and Slowboat, where the magic still hap-pens to this day. Reissued in conjunction with 2016's A Letter from Slowboat (WRJ 008CD/LTD-LP), also available via We Release Jazz.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
OP 048LP
|
2022 repress. Nicolas Jaar shows he is paying attention to the masses by issuing a widely called for vinyl press of his A.A.L. (Against All Logic) album 2012-2017. Originally issued as a digital-only release back in February of 2018, it's slowly grown to become one of the most cherished releases in the entire Other People discography. Much like Kerrier District did to disco, A.A.L. (Against All Logic) borrows heavily from the samples and sounds ingrained deep within Jaar's listening habits and evidently a record collection packed to the brim with classic soul, house, and most importantly, funk hooks. Keenly twisting these sounds and filtering them through a studio set up that's leaning heavily on the beefed-up kick drums and reverb units to make a well-executed homage to these sounds, pieced together with the inherent idea of making the listener unable to resist the urge to move, be it in a bedroom, basement, or just sat in work staring at a computer screen. A.A.L. (Against All Logic) is both a well-executed homage to all of the above references, yet also just a really strong and enjoyable record from Nicolas Jaar. Its undeniable popularity digitally is sure to see the vinyl evaporate in no time at all.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
EMEGO 104LTD-LP
|
Special mirrored silver foil gatefold cover with banderole. Pressed on crystal clear vinyl; one time pressing. Returnal is the fourth album from Daniel Lopatin's Oneohtrix Point Never project, after Betrayed In The Octagon (Deception Island, 2007), Zones Without People (Arbor, 2009) and Russian Mind (No Fun, 2009). All three albums being superbly compiled on the Rifts double CD set (No Fun, 2009). It sees Lopatin fine-tune his craft for the creation of deep atmospheres and textures even further. Starting off with the mind-blowing triptych of "Nil Admiari"/"Describing Bodies"/"Stress Waves," which fires off into a noise/rhythm excess before entering a zone of relative calm, building to the melancholy of the final part. This sets the tone perfectly for the album's title track, a stunning, out-of-this-world ballad featuring Lopatin's near-desperate vocal delivery, ending what could be seen as one of his most chilling and thought-provoking sides to-date. The atmosphere is slightly lifted as the darkened sun comes up over the ruins on "Pelham Island Road" and "Where Does Time Go," with the album closing with edgy broken beats and the fourth-world possible landscapes of "Preyouandi," which fades into the distance with echoes of the "Returnal" chorus closing the loop. What's burnt into memory here is Lopatin's love affair with the long, slow path back home... the cycle... the hypnotic sector... the ghost in the machine... and whether people are making dance music or hip-hop or space head-music or metal, the ouroboros is present in every sector -- as it was in Bach's study, and in the elephant songs of the Ituri forests. Instrumentation: Akai AX-60, Roland Juno-60, Roland MSQ-700, Korg Electribe ES-1, Voice. Recorded using a personal computer. Mastered by James Plotkin. Tape-op & additional engineering by Al Carlson. Design by Stephen O'Malley.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
CVSDLP 002LP
|
In the first years of its existence, starting in 1997, the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet worked as a collective, inviting all and any of its participants to contribute compositions to the band's repertoire. Eventually, the Tentet would jettison scores and pre-planned structures altogether, opting for free improvisation, but on their early tours and initial recordings they played pieces written by the various band members. A marathon set of summer studio sessions in 2002, just off a US tour, yielded two CDs for Okka Disk, A Short Visit to Nowhere and Broken English. Of two Mars Williams compositions from the session, one was recorded but never issued... until now. Featuring the original line-up of the band, which combined seven stellar Chicagoans -- Williams, Ken Vandermark, Jeb Bishop, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Kent Kessler, Michael Zerang, and Hamid Drake -- with Mats Gustafsson, Joe McPhee, and the band's namesake, the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet was a sensationally versatile free music ensemble, capable of going into all sorts of unexpected territory. The group sports a four-saxophone frontline, with twin trombones (McPhee is on valve trombone here), two strings, and a ferocious drum section featuring Zerang and Drake, who had already worked together intimately for more than 25 years at this point. Recently rediscovered in his vaults by Williams, newly mixed by original engineer John McCortney, Ultraman vs. Alien Metron is a lost classic of improvised music by one of the premier improvised music bands of its era. With preposterous juxtapositions of mood, from monstrous lurching heavy rock (underpinning the Japanese Godzilla-esque theme) to hard-swinging free bop and even an incredibly delicate, poignant ballad section, this feature-length track (18+ minutes) is chock full of rock 'em sock 'em goodness. For its maiden voyage on vinyl, Corbett vs. Dempsey has prepared a special package, with artwork and design by Brötzmann, a one-sided LP, the other side featuring a silkscreened work by Brötzmann.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
AI 028LP
|
AI-28 arrives as a double-12" reissue of an album titled Lucid Dreams. Formerly released in 1996 as a CD on the now defunct UK imprint em:t, the album now becomes available for the first time on vinyl. Produced collaboratively by Chris Allen, David Thompson (both co-founders of em:t), plus label affiliates Tom Smyth and Will Joss, the record features outlier academic and philosopher Celia Green narrating passages of her classic book Lucid Dreams (published in 1968), seamlessly embellished with atmospheric soundscapes throughout. Brooding amorphously on the cusp of the unknown, the music captures the quintessentially mysterious quality of dreams and dreaming. Layer by layer, the listener is submerged deep into the subconscious stream. The record curls and unwinds with bewildering influence whilst exploring key themes of Green's studies, with topics covering hallucinatory states, apparitions, out of body experiences, and extrasensory perception. The collaborative handling of samples and sound material comes together powerfully to create a piece that is both artistically theatrical in flavor and sumptuously immersive -- a true documentary for the ears and imagination.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
HMRLP 014LP
|
Hive Mind Records offer this generous helping of Wet Tuna with their signature deeply fried rural psychedelia. Matt Valentine (MV) and Pat Gubler (PG Six) have been jamming together since the mid '90s, floating around in the US psych-folk scene, playing together in Tower Recordings and separately with influential underground crews Woods, The Golden Road, Garcia Peoples, and The Weeping Bong Band. Both MV and PG Six have been prolific with their solo work and over the years they've recorded for labels such as Ecstatic Peace, Drag City, Woodsist, 3 Lobed, and Crash Symbols. On these recordings, made during the first months of the COVID lockdowns in the forests of the Vermont wilderness, MV and PG Six handle the guitars and synths but they're joined by fellow forest freaks S. Freyer Esq, Jim Bliss, Coot Moon, and Carson "Smokehound" Arnold on bass and drums. Brought to you in their patented mind-expanding spectrasound, Eau'd To A Fake Bookie Volumes 1 & 2 delivers an irresistible gumbo of deep, cosmic psychedelia, primitive drum-machine grooves and woozy country-funk jams. These six songs are cover versions of artists as diverse as The Blackbyrds, Michael Hurley and Jimmy Cliff, but stretched out over four sides, the album is entirely Wet Tuna -- loose, free-flowing and lots of fun!
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
LIFE 013LP
|
Life Goes On Records present a reissue of The Beat Of The Earth's The Electronic Hole, originally released in 1970. Second album from the cultish experimental jam band formed in 1967 in Orange County, California. Their second effort from 1970 -- The Electronic Hole -- takes a step away from their earlier work, being composed with definite song structures versus the earlier drawn-out freeform jams. Sounding much like a west-coast version of The Velvet Underground & Nico, the album has melodic motifs but is much more primitive and mysterious than its cousin, with loads of fuzz, haunting organ, Phil Pearlman vocals, and even some sitar, acoustic strumming, and ballad-like moments ("Love Will Find A Way, Part I"). The album includes even a wild cover of Frank Zappa's "Trouble Every Day". Had the story ended here it would have been a real tragedy, as Pearlman's finest hour was yet to come. Six years later (with who knows what in between), recording commenced on the majestic Relatively Clean Rivers album with an entirely new band and musical vision.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2x10"
|
|
TONE 032LP
|
2022 repress. Issued for the first time on vinyl, this classic album from 2007 was the first full-length pairing of these two maestros, before releasing Flumina in 2013 (TONE 046CD). Ryuichi Sakamoto and Christian Fennesz blend the unstructured and imaginative qualities of improvisation with the satisfying sculpture of composition. Sakamoto's piano, his style reminiscent of Debussy and Satie, perfectly complements Fennesz with his powerful blend of shimmering guitar and passionate electronics. Cendre was recorded between 2004 and 2006, Fennesz would send Sakamoto a guitar or electronic track and Sakamoto would compose his piano piece. Vice versa -- Sakamoto initiating a track with a piano composition and Fennesz responding. Meanwhile they met for live shows, or communicated via digital means to compare notes, swap ideas and develop themes. The cyclical process continued right up until they met up for the final mix in New York City February of 2006. Together they have combined to create 11 tracks of satisfying and challenging possibilities...
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
EMEGO 135LP
|
2022 repress. Remastered, expanded gatefold double LP version (briefly available as a single LP in 2001 and o/p for 10 years now). This version features new artwork by Tina Frank, based on the original 2001 Mego release. Contains "Ohne Sonne" and "47 Blues," previously only available on the Japanese CD versions, as well as a new, extended version of "Happy Audio," exclusive to this release. Endless Summer, originally released in 2001 by Mego, was a breakthrough album for Christian Fennesz -- the album which brought his name and music towards the first steps of mainstream recognition. Following on from the more experimental Hotel Paral.lel (EMEGO 016CD) and the Beach Boys-homaged Plays single, Endless Summer brought the guitars more to the front, the electronics shimmered more, and the melodies shined more brightly. It went on to become a classic of its time, topping many end-of-year polls. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, September 2010.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
BS 007LP
|
2022 repress. Born and raised in Paris, Ariel Kalma studied electronics, computer science, music and art in Paris, he performed with several bands, then toured the world and visited Europe, Japan, India, Eastern Canada, and parts of the USA. Apart from rhythm & blues, pop and jazz, he acquired assorted experiences in Middle Age French, electro-acoustic, and modal music. All the travels broadened Ariel's musical horizons tremendously; listening to and playing with different styles, people, and instruments, intricate scales, techniques, timing and rhythms. After learning circular breathing from a snake charmer in India, Ariel practiced it on soprano sax (for many sleepless nights) in the basement of a cathedral in New York, when he was not playing upstairs on the large harmonium. Returning to France in late '76, Ariel could include those endless notes into his own long-delay-effect system with which he toured, playing solo concerts. Ariel contributed to the birth of (then) new music genres: minimalist, space, ambient, new age, and electronic. In 1977, Paris, Ariel Kalma was preparing an album of new music. Through an INA connection, Ariel was recommended to Richard Tinti, who had just come back from Borneo (Papua New Guinea) with hours of rainforest ambiences in high quality recordings (on a Nagra recorder). To their amazement, birds and keyboards, flutes and crickets, saxophones and frogs, war drums and (very vintage) drum machines had much in common in terms of pitch, rhythms, effects (i.e. crickets and fast flanged synthesizer). Ariel decided to blend his new compositions with the rainforest atmosphere, and thus Osmose was created.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
HOL 128LP
|
First ever vinyl reissue of Jean-Yves Bosseur's visionary LP Musiques Vertes, recorded by the legendary French ornithologist and wildlife field recordist Jean-Claude Roché, originally issued by Atelier 82 in 1982. Utilizing handmade instruments constructed from plants and other natural materials, played by a collective of children and untrained musicians, its radically experimental sounds build a revelatory bridge between the avant-garde and ancient forms of folk. Jean-Yves Bosseur is a relatively obscure figure in the history of the French avant-garde. A student of Henri Pousseur and Karlheinz Stockhausen, as well as a close associate of Knud Viktor, he belonged to the legendary collective Groupe d'Etude et Réalisation Musicale GERM, widely celebrated for their realization of Terry Riley's Keyboard Study 2, issued by BYG/Actuel in 1970. The Musiques Vertes project began in South East France during the late 1970s, spearheaded by Christine Armengaud, who was investigating, via elderly people in the region, a long tradition of musical instruments made with organic materials and plants. With their help, she was able to construct 240 instruments, collected in her book Musiques Vertes, published in 1978 by Christine Bonneton éditeur, that had long been used for bird calls, dancing, toys of young shepherds and children, and much more, but had been lost to common usage following the First World War. In 1980, the Direction de la Musique awarded the composer Jean-Yves Bosseur a grant to start a collective practice of music using the instrument constructed/reconstructed by Armengaud. He chose to use locals and children he encountered in Aix-en-Provence between 1981 and 1982. The Musiques Vertes album is the result of hours of practice and recording by these players, in each case, within the album 11 musical excursions, utilizing a series of instructions or games set up by the composer in an attempt to create collective musical exchange, as well as a dialogic exchange between this practice and active listening within a natural environment. While the acoustic practices that underscore Musiques Vertes display a deep resonance with those embarked upon by artists like Akio Suzuki, Toshiya Tsunoda, and Jeph Jerman, the structural resemblance, held deeply within utopian avant-garde principles, falls far closer to experimental electronic works that might have emerged from experimental electronic studios like Groupe de Recherches Musicales or EMS, or subtle object oriented efforts in free improvisation. Bubbling textures and atonalities, blended with sounds from the natural environment, intermingle with staggering birdsong-alike tonalities and rattling percussive passages. A document of pure sonic magic and stunningly organic creativity. Includes 20-page booklet; edition of 300.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
HJR 052LP
|
2022 restock; 2LP version, housed in a radiant full-color gatefold sleeve. 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...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. 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 |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
HOS 999LP
|
Ninos Du Brasil returns with their fourth and dangerously festive album of ragged junk percussion, crushed bass, and deja vu gang vocals that make you sing along to something you have never heard. Expert and vast production by Rocco Rampino brings a new weight to the thick and invasion sequencing that pretty much wins over all those who have seen the barbaric face painted sneaker punks live. A surprising introduction of cinematic Morricone-esque guitar will break open what could otherwise be known as your dead heart. Guest drums by Iggor Cavalera seals the deal and your fate before the confetti guns of the most brutal electro punk band's return. The theme continues from previous album Vida Eterna (HOS 490LP) where Ninos Du Brasil was attacked by vampires and sick night creatures escaping in a foggy forest. Driven into hiding and imprisoned by a wall of crawling, growing cave bats; through the despair of primordial drumming and the mantra of stalactite voices, Antro Pop was conceived. Edition of 666.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
EFFICIENT 027LP
|
Hydroplane reinstate their formidable 1997 debut of sublime guitar atmospherics, fragile lyricism, and droning incidentals with an overdue vinyl reissue. An offshoot of the now-fêted The Cat's Miaow, the trio formed after drummer Cameron Smith decamped to London, charting new territory with tape loops, manipulated samples, and a borrowed Jupiter 4 in the wake of Endtroducing. Adopting a handle that Dean Wareham once considered calling Luna, Hydroplane intended to only ever release Excerpts From Forthcoming LP (1996), a single-sided 7" sonic collage, before imploding in mystery. Their label however insisted they deliver their taunted album. From the comfort of a Brunswick flat, they continued to record soaring melodies and restrained song structures to 4-track, sculpting dramatic Radiophonic Workshop cues weighted in reverb and near-perfect dream pop lead by Kerrie Bolton's empyrean vocals. Bored of industry expectation and largely ignored by local audiences, the reluctant performers followed the way of The Cannanes and formed meaningful overseas alliances by mail and phone, securing releases on Michigan outpost Drive-In and Broadcast launching pad Wurlitzer Jukebox. Championed by John Peel with twenty spins on his converted Radio One slot and even polling in Festive Fifty of 1997, the humble three-piece still walked to their neighborhood shops undetected. Previously only available as a US-issued CD, this reminiscent late-night suite establishes Hydroplane as an everlasting ember in Australia's beloved indie nexus.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
NA 5210LP
|
"The Tribe co-founder's debut, remixed from the original mutli-track master tapes under the direction of its creator and lacquered by Bernie Grundman. Now-Again presents the defi¬nitive Tribe Records reissues. Deep, spiritual jazz of the highest order. The Tribe label, one of the brightest lights of America's 1970s jazz underground, receives the Now-Again reissue treatment. This is your chance to indulge in the music and story of one of the most meaningful, local movements of the 20th Century Black American experience, one that expanded outwards towards the cosmos. In the words of the collective themselves, 'Music is the healing force of the universe.' Included in an extensive, oversized booklet, Larry Gabriel and Jeff 'Chairman' Mao take us through the history of the Tribe, in a compelling story that delves not just into the history of the label and its principals, but into the story of Black American empowerment in the latter half of the 20th Century. The booklet features never-before-seen archival photos and rare ephemera from Tribe's mid-1970s heyday."
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
BS 024LP
|
2022 repress! After the 1978 exploits of Osmose, Ariel Kalma returned to the studio in 1980 to create the space-ambient library record Interfrequence, reissued here for the first time. In a continuation of Kalma's personal research into the combination of electronic machines with natural sounds and acoustic instrumentation, the French musician plays the master of ceremonies with his synths, but he diverges from the symphonic, galactic suites composed by other standard-bearers like Richard Pinhas and Klaus Schulze. One finds 18 short sound-pictures (a few of them in collaboration with M. Saclays) that emanate an unparalleled variety of ideas and ethno-cultural influences. Kalma's distinctive compositional style always returns in a crescendo of ecstatic emotions reflecting on the hidden and secret aspects of the micro- and macro-cosmos. If in Osmose the sampling from the mother Gaia was more explicit, here nature is investigated not only in terms of pure tones, but also in the dynamics of flows and movements dictated by the frequency of Moogs and organs. Complete with embellishments of hyper-space flutes, trumpets, and clarinets, Interfrequence is yet another chapter in Kalma's personal saga of sound imagery discovery.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
AUK 008LP
|
2022 repress. Released on 180 gram black vinyl. Deluxe gatefold with printed inner sleeves. 2007 release -- originally released in 1995. Redolent with the spirit of such high priests of effects and delay as Loop, Spaceman 3, and My Bloody Valentine, not to mention a fair dollop of the Jesus And Mary Chain, Methodrone clearly is the sum of its influences. Thankfully, BJM does a very solid job with them throughout the album's course of over 70 minutes.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
LP
|
|
FOX 026LP
|
2022 restock. The musician and spiritual seeker Alice Coltrane was much more than just John Coltrane's second wife. One of the few harpists to feature prominently in jazz, she was also a renowned pianist and composer and her interest in spiritual matters greatly helped steer her husband deeper into Krishna consciousness, which had significant bearing on his music, most notably evident on A Love Supreme (1965). This mesmerizing performance, held at Carnegie Hall four years after John's untimely passing as part of a benefit event for Swami Satchidananda's Integral Yoga Institute, comprised a stunning and largely improvised rendition of Coltrane's "Africa," with Alice's subtle piano and harp expressions excellently framed by the wailing saxes of Pharaoh Sanders and Archie Shepp, Cecil McBee and Jimmy Garrison trading non-standard bass lines, a dual drum onslaught from Clifford Jarvis and Ed Blackwell, along with members of the Institute on harmonium and tamboura.
|
|
|
# |
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
|
2LP
|
|
WRWTFWW 042LP
|
2022 repress; double LP version. Heavy 350gsm sleeve. WRWTFWW Records reissue Swiss cult band Grauzone's self-titled album in an expanded "40 Years Anniversary Edition" packed with the original 1981 album plus nine extra songs, as well as extensive liner notes by Swiss music historian Lurker Grand. The pioneering band from Bern (Switzerland) had a short-lived but highly-regarded career which birthed a cult discography that still fascinates and resonates today. Consisting of core members Martin Eicher, Stephan Eicher, and Marco Repetto, and on-and-off participants Christian GT Trüssel, Claudine Chirac, and Ingrid Berney, the elusive group broke new grounds in the early '80s, experimenting with punk and industrial music, early techno sounds, minimalism, new wave, pop, and various electronics. With an innovative and polished approach to design, visuals, performance, and all-around style and philosophy on top of their superb music, the constantly transforming unit developed a whole experience -- the Grauzone experience: wild and unpredictable, yet sophisticated and cohesive, or as Swiss music historian Lurker Grand would call it, "an Art band with a Punk attitude." Completely rejecting the music industry rules and refusing to play the game of promotion, touring, release schedules, and TV appearances even though they had a multi-platinum international hit with the song "Eisbär", the band quickly disintegrated in full convention-defying glory, leaving behind an inspiring music legacy for the world to discover and discover again, one generation after the other. This extended version of their debut (and only) album beautifully crystallizes the Grauzone miracle/accident -- where pop and youthful experimentation meet at (new/cold/no) wave and industrial crossroads, and where classic hits ("Eisbär", "FILM 2", "Raum", "Träume Mit Mir", "Der Weg Zu Zweit") flawlessly mesh with unconventional deep cuts ("In Der Nacht", "Film 1", "Maikäfer Flieg"). Very simply put: good timeless music with an edge. Stephan Eicher went on to be, arguably, the most successful Swiss musician ever, with an international career extending from pop chanson to experimental escapades and collaborations with Moondog, artists Sophie Calle and Sylvie Fleury, and author Martin Suter among many other luminaries. Marco Repetto flourished as a techno and ambient producer, releasing multiple projects including releases on Aphex Twin's Rephlex label. Sourced from the original reels and put together under the supervision of band member Stephan Eicher.
|
|