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Recent Best Sellers
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2LP
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AALP 086LP
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Double LP version. 140 gram vinyl; Gatefold sleeve; Includes 24-page, LP-size booklet. Who knew that some of the most exciting Afro-funk records of all time were actually made in the small West African country of Benin? Once Analog Africa released the first African Scream Contest in 2008 (AACD 063CD/AALP 063LP), the proof was there for all to hear; gut-busting yelps, lethally well-drilled horn sections and irresistibly insistent rhythms added up to a record that took you into its own space. Ten years on, intrepid crate-digger Samy Ben Redjeb unveils a new treasure trove of Vodoun-inspired Afrobeat heavy funk crossover greatness. Right from the laceratingly raw guitar fanfare which kicks off Les Sympathics de Porto Novo's pile-driving opener, it's clear that African Scream Contest 2 is every bit as joyous a voyage of discovery as its predecessor. Ignace De Souza & The Melody Aces' "Asaw Fofor" would've been a killer instrumental but once you've factored in the improbably-rich-to-the-point-of-being-Nat-King-Cole-influenced lead vocal, it's a total revelation. The screaming does not stop there, in fact it's only just beginning. Already familiar to fans of the first African Scream Contest as a mainstay of ruthlessly disciplined military band Les Volcans de la Capitale, Lokonon André vanished in a cloud of dust at Ben Redjeb's behest with a list of names and some petrol money, only to return a few days later having miraculously tracked down every single name he'd been given. The source of this Afrobeat bounty-hunter's impressive people-finding skills -- his training with the KGB -- highlights the tension between encroaching authoritarian politics and fearless expressions of personal creative freedom which is the back-story of so much great African music of the '60s and '70s. Happily, in this instance, Lokonon was tracking the artists down to offer them licensing deals, rather than to arrest them. Samy Ben Redjeb's determination to track this amazing music to its human sources pays huge karmic dividends. Features Stanislas Tohon, Elias Akadiri & Sunny Black´s Band, Picoby Band D´Abomey, Antoine Dougbé, Orch. Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, Black Santiago, Lokonon André et Les Volcans, Sebastien Pynasco and L´Orchestre Black Santiago, Super Borgou de Parakou, Cornaire Salifou Michel et L´Orchestre El Rego & ses Commandos, Gnonnas Pedro and His Dadjes Band, and Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou. African Scream Contest 2 includes meticulously researched text and effortlessly fashion-forward photography, supplied by the artists themselves.
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WRJ 001LTD-LP
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LP version. Mastered at half speed. 180 gram vinyl; Stoughton tip-on sleeve. 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/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.
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AUK 043LP
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LP version. 180 gram, white-color vinyl. Something Else is the first full-length offering from The Brian Jonestown Massacre in 2018. A self-titled full-length album is to follow in the fall of 2018. This is the 17th full-length release from the band, and the style is less experimental and returns to the traditional sound of the band. Recorded between 2017 and 2018, this nine-track album will please old and new fans alike. In 2017 the band did a brief tour of the US and Mexico City to support the band's 2017 album release, Don't Get Lost (AUK 040CD/LP), a relatively quiet year for the Brian Jonestown Massacre.
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WRJ 002LTD-LP
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LP version. Mastered at half speed. 180 gram vinyl; Stoughton tip-on sleeve. 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/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.
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CD
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AACD 086CD
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Who knew that some of the most exciting Afro-funk records of all time were actually made in the small West African country of Benin? Once Analog Africa released the first African Scream Contest in 2008 (AACD 063CD/AALP 063LP), the proof was there for all to hear; gut-busting yelps, lethally well-drilled horn sections and irresistibly insistent rhythms added up to a record that took you into its own space. Ten years on, intrepid crate-digger Samy Ben Redjeb unveils a new treasure trove of Vodoun-inspired Afrobeat heavy funk crossover greatness. Right from the laceratingly raw guitar fanfare which kicks off Les Sympathics de Porto Novo's pile-driving opener, it's clear that African Scream Contest 2 is every bit as joyous a voyage of discovery as its predecessor. Ignace De Souza & The Melody Aces' "Asaw Fofor" would've been a killer instrumental but once you've factored in the improbably-rich-to-the-point-of-being-Nat-King-Cole-influenced lead vocal, it's a total revelation. The screaming does not stop there, in fact it's only just beginning. Already familiar to fans of the first African Scream Contest as a mainstay of ruthlessly disciplined military band Les Volcans de la Capitale, Lokonon André vanished in a cloud of dust at Ben Redjeb's behest with a list of names and some petrol money, only to return a few days later having miraculously tracked down every single name he'd been given. The source of this Afrobeat bounty-hunter's impressive people-finding skills -- his training with the KGB -- highlights the tension between encroaching authoritarian politics and fearless expressions of personal creative freedom which is the back-story of so much great African music of the '60s and '70s. Happily, in this instance, Lokonon was tracking the artists down to offer them licensing deals, rather than to arrest them. Samy Ben Redjeb's determination to track this amazing music to its human sources pays huge karmic dividends. Features Stanislas Tohon, Elias Akadiri & Sunny Black´s Band, Picoby Band D´Abomey, Antoine Dougbé, Orch. Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, Black Santiago, Lokonon André et Les Volcans, Sebastien Pynasco and L´Orchestre Black Santiago, Super Borgou de Parakou, Cornaire Salifou Michel et L´Orchestre El Rego & ses Commandos, Gnonnas Pedro and His Dadjes Band, and Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou. African Scream Contest 2 includes meticulously researched text and effortlessly fashion-forward photography, supplied by the artists themselves. CD version comes with a 44-page booklet.
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JBH 070LP
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Subtitled: ... That We Are Not Allowed To Mention For Legal Reasons. Rare and brilliant music as used in the late 1960s amazing animated series we are not allowed to mention for legal reasons. And the same music was used in all the NFL clip shoes throughout the '60s and '70s too. Way back in 1967, an animated superhero cartoon was released into the world. It was created by Grantray-Lawrence Animation and was based on a web-spinning, crime fighting blue-and-red dressed character that had originated in 1962, through Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. This amazing series ran on ABC TV in the USA, then Canada, then a few years, it ran in the UK. The series was notoriously low budget. After Series One the company Grantray-Lawrence went bankrupt, so the amazing spider series was taken on by producer Steve Krantz. He brought in new talent, including animation director Ralph Bakshi who later went on to turn a Robert Crumb strip cartoon into the feature Fritz The Cat (1972). Krantz also slashed the already cripplingly small spider budget and brought in the idea of using economic library music. Here, thanks possibly to an independent sync agent production turned to the KPM catalog. This was one of the few really established library catalogs around at the time with a modern edge; it was full of fabulous, modern dramatic music tracks -- often all on the same LP. But more importantly all the tracks were far longer than the one-minute musical cuts that many of the fledgling USA library companies were issuing at the time. Krantz produced two amazing spider series, and both were smothered with KPM music. In fact barely a spider second goes by without music playing in either the background or foreground. For many enthusiasts this really is formative music -- a junior foray into hip swinging crime jazz and esoteric musical grooviness. So, what features on this Spider-Jazz LP? Well it's music from the amazing TV series, but, not music from Series One. No, but it is all from Series Two and Series Three. From looking at archival cue sheets, over 50 tracks from various early KPM 1000 series albums were used across the episodes. It's all distilled down into one exciting and enthralling LP. Features Syd Dale, Johnny Hawksworth, Bill Martin/Phil Coulter, David Lindup, Johnny Pearson, Keith Mansfield, and Alan Hawkshaw.
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3CD/DVD/Book
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DTD 053CD
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This watershed release represents the life's work of William Ferris, an audio recordist, filmmaker, folklorist, and teacher with an unwavering commitment to establish and to expand the study of the American South. William Ferris was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1942. Growing up on a working farm, Ferris began at a young age documenting the artwork, music, and lives of the people on the farm and in his local community. The archive of recordings that he created and the documentary films that he had a hand in producing have served as powerful tools in institutions of higher learning for decades. Dust-to-Digital present these films and recordings. The label's hope is that the enjoyment and educational value that has been received by Ferris's students over the years will be transmitted to listeners around the world and further the understanding of Southern culture. Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris includes: a 120-page hardcover book in full color edited by William Ferris Writings by Scott Barretta, David Evans, and Tom Rankin; three CDs -- two of the CDs feature blues and gospel recordings (1966-1978), and the final CD features interviews and storytelling (1968-1994); and one DVD featuring documentary films (1972-1980). Transcriptions and annotations are provided for each track. Comes in a cigar box.
In addition to being a groundbreaking documentarian of the American South, William Ferris is Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ferris co-edited the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (1989) and is the author of multiple books. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine named him among the top ten professors in the United States.
The recordings feature James "Son Ford" Thomas, Lovey Williams, Wallace "Pine-Top" Johnson, Maudie Shirley, and Jasper Love, Scott Dunbar, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Louis Dotson, Sonny Boy Watson, Sam Myers, Tom Dumas, Unidentified Musician with Mississippi Fred McDowell, Walter Lee Hood, Wash Heron and "Big" Jack Johnson, James Hughes, Leland Musician, Inmates at Parchman Farm, George Lee "Sun Bud" Spears, James "Son Ford" Thomas with Sonny Boy Watson, Mary and Amanda Gordon, The Southland Hummingbirds, Lovey Williams, Reverend Smith and Family, Liddle Hines, Providence Missionary Baptist Church, Church of God in Christ, Fannie Bell Chapman, Mary Alice and Alan Mcgowan, Reverend Ott and Family, Rose Hill Church, Lovey Williams and Family, Fannie Bell Chapman and Family, Reverend Isaac Thomas and Rose Hill Church, Barry Hannah, Alice Walker, Alex Haley, Ray Lum, Bobby Rush, Joe "Skeet" Skillet, Joe Cooper, Shelby "Poppa Jazz" Brown, B.B. King, Allen Ginsberg, James "Son Ford" Thomas, and Bill Ferris, Robert Penn Warren, Pecolia Warner, Victor Bobb, and Pete Seeger.
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2LP
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BE 004LP
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Black Editions present the first ever vinyl release of Ché-SHIZU's signature album A Journey, originally issued in 1994 by Tokyo's legendary P.S.F. Records. Ché-SHIZU is one of the most original and mystifying groups to ever emerge from the Tokyo underground. Founded by master improviser Chie Mukai in 1981 the group has been guided by her singular vision for nearly 40 years. Throughout its history Ché-SHIZU has challenged traditional notions of song structure and improvisation. Mukai's signature instrument, the Chinese er-hu, is an ancient two stringed bowed instrument rarely found outside of traditional music. Even within the wildly diverse roster of artists on P.S.F. Records, Ché-SHIZU is a playful and confounding outlier. Early on Mukai became active within the avant-garde movement flowering in Tokyo during the mid-1970s. She studied with renowned Fluxus composer and violinist Takehisa Kosugi, recalling, "that encounter was so huge for me, much more than any one technique. Even in terms of the er-hu, I only started playing it because Kosugi gave it to me." In 1975 she joined his East Bionic Symphonia, a large improvising ensemble featuring students from Tokyo's Bigakko art school. From there she contributed to improvising avant-garde groups including an early version of Marginal Consort and later the Vedda Music Workshop. Her work with Ché-SHIZU however is where her vision most clearly emerged. Ché-SHIZU released its first album I Can't Promise in 1984 on Zero Records, in time the album would become a revered classic. It would be another ten years before another full-length would be released. During that time the group performed extensively with various rotating line ups. In the summer of 1994, Mukai led the group to Studio J in Tokyo to record an album for the P.S.F. label. Released later that year, the album was titled A Journey. Fittingly, it is a sprawling excursion through ethereal dreamscapes, the group confident in its own resplendent joy. Over the album, the group creates a spontaneous, loose form of chamber pop that weaves folk and a light psychedelia into something entirely unique. Pop songs like "Juso Station" intersect with instrumentals such as the title track to create a varied yet coherent improvisational language. Remastered; deluxe double-LP edition cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin and pressed at Pallas Germany. Includes new expansive artwork and lyric translations, housed in a spot gloss heavy gatefold jacket; Includes high resolution digital download.
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2LP
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OP 048LP
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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.
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2LP
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SOMA 028LP
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Double LP version. "Around ten years ago, deep into a cozy and hazy night following a concert with my sound brothers Daniel O'Sullivan and Kristoffer Rygg in London (as Æthenor), they graciously introduced me to a recording of rudra veena (a kind of noble deeper bass relative to the sitar, in a way) as performed by dhrupad master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar. Dhrupad, for those who do not know, is a branch of Hindustani classical music said to 'show the raga in its clearest and purest form'. It's pacing concentrates heavily on the slow, contemplative alap section and works with specific microtonal gestures and deep characteristics of resonance . . . In early 2015 I was able to make contact with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's son Bahauddin and some of his American students/disciples, primarily Jeff Lewis. Over time we developed a friendly and educational exchange, access to a massive archive of recordings and developed these two paired titles for my label . . . I'm proud to be able to reveal these to date unreleased archival recordings of one of the masters of dhrupad, Z. M. Dagar, to the public for the first time. Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was the nineteenth generation in a family tradition known as Dagar gharana, a rich lineage which continued and performed the musical form of dhrupad. Initially, dhrupad was a rigorous, austere, devotional genre that was sung in Hindu temples. But between the 16th and the 18th centuries, it became the preeminent genre in royal courts in North and Central India, and the Dagar gharana developed and continued publicly following the eventual loss of court patronage for dhrupad in the 19th century. The French ethnomusicologist Renaud Brizard covers the story of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's life and teaching (a long story also in Seattle, my hometown!), the Dagar family and gharana, the rudra veena and more topics in an extensive set of liner notes in this release. Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani were recorded in a private house concert in Seattle at the home of the Benegals in March 1986 (the week before the accompanying release, Raga Yaman (SOMA 029CD/LP), was recorded). The Benegals were friends (and Shantha Benegal was also a student) of Dagarsahib who sometimes hosted Hindustani music concerts in their home. It's a rare glimpse of a more intimate, personal and perhaps different kind of performance considering the form of dhrupad." --Stephen O'Malley, March 2018, Paris, France Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering.
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2LP
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SOMA 029LP
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Double LP version. "Around ten years ago, deep into a cozy and hazy night following a concert with my sound brothers Daniel O'Sullivan and Kristoffer Rygg in London (as Æthenor), they graciously introduced me to a recording of rudra veena (a kind of noble deeper bass relative to the sitar, in a way) as performed by dhrupad master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar. Dhrupad is a branch of Hindustani classical music said to 'show the raga in its clearest and purest form'. It's pacing concentrates heavily on the slow, contemplative alap section and works with specific microtonal gestures and deep characteristics of resonance . . . In early 2015 I was able to make contact with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's son Bahauddin and some of his American students/disciples, primarily Jeff Lewis. Over time we developed a friendly and educational exchange, access to a massive archive of recordings and developed these two paired titles for my label . . . I'm proud to be able to reveal these to date unreleased archival recordings of one of the masters of dhrupad, Z. M. Dagar, to the public for the first time. Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was the nineteenth generation in a family tradition known as Dagar gharana, a rich lineage which continued and performed the musical form of dhrupad. Initially, dhrupad was a rigorous, austere, devotional genre that was sung in Hindu temples. But between the 16th and the 18th centuries, it became the preeminent genre in royal courts in North and Central India, and the Dagar gharana developed and continued publicly following the eventual loss of court patronage for dhrupad in the 19th century. The French ethnomusicologist Renaud Brizard covers the story of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's life and teaching, the Dagar family and gharana, the rudra veena and more topics in an extensive set of liner notes in this release. Raga Yaman was recorded at a public concert in Seattle at the HUB Ballroom at the University of Washington in March 1986 (the week after the accompanying release Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani (SOMA 028CD/LP) was recorded) at the end of his last tour of the United States. Yaman was a special raga for Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, one of his signature raags. For centuries, Yaman has been considered as one of the most fundamental ragas in Hindustani music and is one of the first ragas which is taught to students." --Stephen O'Malley, March 2018, Paris, France Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering.
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CD
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AUK 043CD
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Something Else is the first full-length offering from The Brian Jonestown Massacre in 2018. A self-titled full-length album is to follow in the fall of 2018. This is the 17th full-length release from the band, and the style is less experimental and returns to the traditional sound of the band. Recorded between 2017 and 2018, this nine-track album will please old and new fans alike. In 2017 the band did a brief tour of the US and Mexico City to support the band's 2017 album release, Don't Get Lost (AUK 040CD/LP), a relatively quiet year for the Brian Jonestown Massacre.
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2LP
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JMAN 096LP
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Repressed. Double LP; Part one of two double LP versions. Textured, gatefold sleeve; Obi strip. Jazzman Record's latest examination of esoteric, modal, and progressive jazz of the 20th century has taken them to Japan. The liberating force of jazz has been created and felt all around the world, but few nations on earth embraced the jazz message with the passion and intensity of Japan. From the dawn of the jazz age to the present day, Japanese audiences have been renowned tastemakers, enthusiasts, and champions of the music -- in the 1980s, Japan was the biggest per capita market in the world for jazz records, and it has even been said that Japanese jazz fans kept the jazz record industry alive through the lean years of the 1970s, when the music fell from commercial favor in the land of its birth. But while the jazz aficionados of Japan are celebrated as sophisticated fans and consumers of the music, comparatively little is known outside Japan of the remarkable and abundant music produced by generations of Japanese jazz musicians. Numerous Japanese jazzers have found enormous success on the international stage -- Toshiko Akiyoshi, Sadao Watanabe, Teramasu Hino, and many others are household names among jazz listeners all over the world, and with good reason. But if such global figures are put aside, the stunning heritage of Japanese jazz remains poorly understood outside Japan. As a result, the work of many celebrated Japanese jazzmen has remained largely unknown to international audiences, and the extraordinary scope and depth of Japanese jazz has not been widely recognized. Compiled for the Spiritual Jazz series in collaboration with the celebrated collector and DJ Yusuke Ogawa (Deep Jazz Reality, Tokyo), this set aims to correct that omission by uncovering the uniquely deep sound of esoteric, modal and progressive jazz from Japan -- music of the heart, soul, and Japanese spirit.
Part One features: Mitsuaki Kanno, Tadao Hayashi, Minoru Muraoka, Takeo Moriyama, Koichi Matsukaze, Sadao Watanabe & Charlie Mariano, Shungo Sawada, New Direction For The Arts.
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FFL 043LP
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LP version. Comes on clear vinyl; obi strip; Edition of 1000. Souffle Continu Records present the first ever reissue of Areski's Un Beau Matin, originally released in 1970. Only those who read all the credits on record liner notes will know the full details: Areski is of course Brigitte Fontaine's partner in life, but also her creative alter ego, and the composer of the music of most of her songs. Even though it was his wife Brigitte and not him who wrote the lyrics, Areski is a poet in his own right. Furthermore, he is polyvalent: composing, arranging, singing, improvising, playing every possible instrument, and even acting. Areski, to sum up, is the perfect mix of the tradition of Munir Bashir with the European "sophistication" of someone like Jean-Claude Vannier, one foot permanently in Versailles (where he was born) and the maghreb. Areski, is left bank French songs without the stylistic effects, revised and updated through contact with Arab-Andalusian music. He is a Living Theatre style happening with a dose of cosmic free jazz; surrealist poetry viewed through the prism of Kabyle culture... Areski honed his talent observing the stars of traditional chaâbi, testing it out in bars and dives before meeting, during military service, the singer Jacques Higelin with whom he would record his first cult album (1969), and who would present him to his wife-to-be, Brigitte Fontaine. Between 1969 and 1980, with Fontaine, Areski would contribute an essential chapter to French underground music including classics such as Comme à la radio (with the Art Ensemble of Chicago) (1969), Je ne connais pas cet homme (1973), L'Incendie (1973), Le Bonheur (1975), and Vous et nous (1977). For all that, Areski has never really tried to have a career under his own name, in spite of the wonderful Un Beau Matin first published in 1970, and which it is high time to (re)discover. Those already in the know will not be surprised to see, especially, Jean-Charles Capon, author of the inspired L'Univers-solitude (1972), Brigitte Fontaine of course, or Daniel Vallancien, author of a no-less inspired duo with saxophonist Philippe Maté. All contributing to an acerbic poetic universe, concerned but never militant, and open to worldwide influences long before they became a fashion. Inspired, poetic, in a word essential: Un Beau Matin is one of the best albums of the French underground produced by Pierre Barouh on his label Saravah.
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ARCHIVE 042LP
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Separated from both its reputation and its sleeve art, the music of Muslimgauze explores the relationship of visual sensations -- space, color, depth, illusion -- to the listening experience. The music on Maroon is dub-like inspired techno music, laidback with voices appearing randomly in the mix. The thick drums and rich found sounds that densely populate the soundscapes on Maroon give materiality to the warm presence of the synth washes. The music is so layered and textured that it ceases to be aural and exists almost solely in the realm of sight and touch. Devoid of reference to any external reality, Muslimgauze's ambience gets remolded by subjective experience and moved around in the memory. By shifting the quality of perception with the producer's sleight of hand, Bryn Jones (the Mancunian behind Muslimgauze) makes explicit the interiority of the senses. Thus, the fact that our inner life determines our relationship to the world outside becomes the music's unspoken subject. Divorcing Muslimgauze's music from its image is like listening to Take That without seeing Robbie's pelvis or Mark's pouting. This is precisely why the music is so effective. Relocating music's power within the listener instead of as an external force acting upon the listener forces reappraisal and reinterpretation. The muezzin's wailing call to prayer and the shrieks of women mourning the dead conjure up images of a fierce "death-to-the-infidels" fervour in the Western imagination, and are recast as holy prayers for the ultimate, womb-like peace that most ambient music aims to express. The usually easy exoticism of sampled tablas and ouds instead hint at the dread on the road to the water-colored bliss of run-of-the-mill ambient and force the listener to internalize difference and confront the received images of Islam that Muslimgauze detour by such strong powers of suggestion. Handmade thick cardboard cover, sewed, with text gold screen-print. Mixed By John Delf. Originally released on CD in 1995. Limited edition of 500 (numbered).
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2LP
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JMAN 097LP
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Repressed. Double LP; Part two of two double LP versions. Textured, gatefold sleeve; Obi strip. Jazzman Record's latest examination of esoteric, modal, and progressive jazz of the 20th century has taken them to Japan. The liberating force of jazz has been created and felt all around the world, but few nations on earth embraced the jazz message with the passion and intensity of Japan. From the dawn of the jazz age to the present day, Japanese audiences have been renowned tastemakers, enthusiasts, and champions of the music -- in the 1980s, Japan was the biggest per capita market in the world for jazz records, and it has even been said that Japanese jazz fans kept the jazz record industry alive through the lean years of the 1970s, when the music fell from commercial favor in the land of its birth. But while the jazz aficionados of Japan are celebrated as sophisticated fans and consumers of the music, comparatively little is known outside Japan of the remarkable and abundant music produced by generations of Japanese jazz musicians. Numerous Japanese jazzers have found enormous success on the international stage -- Toshiko Akiyoshi, Sadao Watanabe, Teramasu Hino, and many others are household names among jazz listeners all over the world, and with good reason. But if such global figures are put aside, the stunning heritage of Japanese jazz remains poorly understood outside Japan. As a result, the work of many celebrated Japanese jazzmen has remained largely unknown to international audiences, and the extraordinary scope and depth of Japanese jazz has not been widely recognized. Compiled for the Spiritual Jazz series in collaboration with the celebrated collector and DJ Yusuke Ogawa (Deep Jazz Reality, Tokyo), this set aims to correct that omission by uncovering the uniquely deep sound of esoteric, modal and progressive jazz from Japan -- music of the heart, soul, and Japanese spirit.
Part Two features: Four Units, Tohru Aizawa, Keitaro Miho, Tee & Company, Takeo Moriyama, Kiyoshi Sugimoto, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Yoshio Ikeda.
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LP
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FTR 337LP
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"The Chicago-based string genius Joshua Abrams first talked to us about the idea of this album a while back. It took a couple of years to get together, but in a way, it's cool that it's being released in 2018 -- the 50th anniversary of the recording of the first free bass solo LP, Barre Phillips' Journal Violone. Issued by Opus One in the U.S., Music Man in the UK (as Unaccompanied Barre), and Futura in France (as Basse Barre), Phillips' groundbreaking album was a gorgeous and gritty exploration of textures that are usually bound deep inside the creative flow of unit improvisation. Hearing these sonorities explored, at length, without extraneous gabble was revelatory, but not easy to replicate. I could only think of a dozen other LPs of the stuff that have been done in the intervening years (CDs don't count)*. But Abrams is undaunted by such shit. Anyone who has seen him play or listened to him on record knows he has an aggressively wide palette and a fearless drive to explore new regions of sound. The tones on Excavations 1 have a much gnarlier feel than many of the tones Joshua explores inside group dynamics. Almost more like some of the bassists associated with avant garde composition (Bertram Turetzky, Fernando Grillo, etc.), Abrams' work here is about pushing against accepted precepts of melody and rhythm, freeing the bass from its accepted role, and allowing it to scream for real." --Byron Coley, 2018 Edition of 500.
* 1974, Alan Silva - Inner Song (Center of the World); 1974, Harry Miller - Children at Play (Ogun); 1975, Kent Carter - Beauvais Cathedral (Emanem); 1976, Henri Texier - Amir (Eurodisc); 1976 - Fernando Grillo - Fluvine (Cramps); 1977, Henry Texier - Varech (Eurodisc); 1978, Dave Holland - Emerald Tears (ECM); 1978, Brother Malachi Favors - Magoustos Natural & Spiritual (AECO); 1980, Roberto Miguel Miranda - The Creator's Musician (Nimbus West); 1985, Joëlle Léandre - Sincerely (Plainisphare); 1986, Miroslav Vitous - Emergence (ECM); 1988, Klaus Koch - Basse Partout (Creative Works).
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2CD/BOOK
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DTD 052CD
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Legendary ethnomusicologist and field-recording pioneer, Hugh Tracey founded the International Library of African Music (ILAM) in 1954. Today, ILAM preserves thousands of historical recordings and has become the greatest repository of African music in the world. Dust-to-Digital partner with ILAM to present Listen All Around: The Golden Age of Central and East African Music -- a compilation of newly-transferred and remastered recordings that Hugh Tracey made between 1950-1958. The recordings presented here were made in central and eastern Africa -- specifically, the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Kenya, Tanganyika, and Zanzibar (now Tanzania). The genre of music Tracey documented, and the focus of this double-CD and book is rumba and its variations -- Congolese rumba, dansi, and benga. The recordings, photographs and detailed liner notes included in this set provide a rich point of immersion into the mid-20th-century music of eastern and central Africa. Including 47 newly-transferred and remastered recordings that Hugh Tracey made in central and eastern Africa between 1950-1958, Listen All Around includes 84-page hardcover book and two CDs.
Listen All Around features Kalenga Antonance, Ilunga Patrice, Misomba Victor and Friends, Vijana wa Mbeya with Jim D. Gondwe, Henri Bembele and Orchestra Tinapa, Dar es Salaam Jazz Band, Lang Obiero, Joseph Eluka and Soldiers, Yemba Jean Batiste and Soldiers, Société Edemi de Stanleyville, Bakia Pierre, Morris Kalala, Tauni Mwenasasu and Friend, Coast Social Orchestra, Chemutoi Ketienya and Kipsigis Girls, Sunderland String Band, Lang Obiero, ORCLOS, Kimambo Brothers, ECO African Band, Norbert de Magaro, Ezekiel Kamenga and Luba Men, Mwenda Jean Bosco and Singers, Samuel Colon and Baninga Baye, Chipukizi Rumba, Vijana wa Mbeya, Merry Black Birds, Katanga Dance Orchestra, Salum's Brass Band with Salum Seliman, Chibanda Baudouin, Lake Victoria Band, and Kamwema Jean and His Friends.
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CD
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HH 3097CD
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Pharoah Sanders, live from the Juan Les Pins Jazz Festival, Antibes, France on July 20th, 1968. Having made his name playing with John Coltrane as of 1965, Pharoah Sanders soon came to be recognized as one of the most innovative jazz players of his generation. Having formed his own quartet, he was invited to perform at the Antibes Jazz Festival in Juan-les-Pins, France in July 1968. Originally broadcast on French radio station WDR3, this superb recording captures a great musician in his early prime. Includes the entire WDR3-FM radio broadcast is presented here, digitally remastered, with background notes and images. Personnel: Pharoah Sanders - tenor saxophone, percussion; Lonnie Liston Smith - piano; Norman "Sirone" Jones - bass; Majeed Shabazz - drums.
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LP
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CMR 003LP
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LP version. "God Is More Than Love Can Ever Be is something of a rarity in the Sun Ra catalog -- a cohesive album with none of the stylistic eclecticism and musical chair shifting many of the artist's self-released LPs were known for. Recorded at Variety Studios one day in 1979, the album's five tracks comprise a solid jazz trio set. God Is More Than Love... is the only complete piano-bass-drums studio session in the massive Sun Ra catalog. The album offers an intense set of cosmic vagabond moods, reflecting the telepathy that is the essence of small combo jazz. Other than an overdubbed second piano on 'Days Of Happiness' the five works were spontaneously generated and forever fixed: none of the titles recur in the encyclopedic Ra discography. Originally released on Saturn in several small press runs under the alternate title 'Days Of Happiness' between 1979 and 1981, fully realized artwork was never established and the album never got much circulation, thus it has remained a largely overlooked session in the Ra omniverse. Nearly 40 years later, the record is long overdue for acclaim on its second time around. Newly remastered edition on CD and LP (with tip-on style jackets/ RTI vinyl)"
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LP
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MFM 032LP
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The Japanese producer and DJ Kuniyuki Takahashi is the subject of Music From Memory's latest retrospective compilation with Early Tape Works (1986-1993). Composed of two volumes, the compilations gather together a selection of tracks from a tiny run of privately released tape only albums, highlighting a fascinating early period in Kuniyuki's musical output, one of which little is known. After discovering the world of nightclubs in Japan around 1986, and the seemingly boundless freedom expressed there through music as well as art, Kuniyuki became inspired to experiment with electronic music. Excited by the possibilities of new music technology, he would begin to gather together a number of, at that time, reasonably accessible and inexpensive local keyboards, drum computers, and recording equipment. This became for a way for Kuniyuki to explore music not as such made for nightclubs, but certainly inspired by them. Setting up a home studio in his hometown of Saporro, Kuniyuki would record extensively during this period with the equipment he had gathered together, equipment such as Roland's Juno60, TR-606, TB-303, Casio FZ-1, Korg 770, Boss DE-200, Foster A8, and a Yamaha MT44 track cassette recorder. Driven to develop a musical language derived as much by an exploration of music technology and a desire to create new sounds, Kuniyuki was also looking to evolve the possibilities of what he refers to as a "new Oriental sound". Early Tape Works )1986-1993) then brings together two albums of material which not only highlights the evolution of Kuniyuki's own work but also of Japanese electronic music as a whole.
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LP
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ROKURE 002LP
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Following on from the re-issue of Topography of the Lungs, Otoroku is proud to follow up with another legendary free-improvised document, this one from the duo of Derek Bailey and Evan Parker, originally released on the INCUS label in 1975. "The London Concert is one of those rare recordings that capture musicians at a special moment of confluence, a moment when procedures are proving fruitful and before practice has hardened into dogma, when different visions are not yet turned into position papers (insert your list here). There are clearly moments in the London Concert when things that have not precisely happened before emerge from one partner, are caught and supported by the other in a way that, too, is still new 40 some years on, and which prods the initiator to hold and develop a particular line with the clear support of the other." -- Stuart Broomer. The London Concert comes in a limited edition of 500 copies printed on reverse board with printed inner sleeve and newly commissioned liner notes by Stuart Broomer.
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2LP
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KOM 386LP
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Double LP version. Includes download code. "Rausch with no name / My beautiful shine / You are the sun / This is where I want to be / Rausch with no morning / This is where we burn / The Stars sparkle / In a sea of flames / Horns and fanfares / Fanfares of joy / Fanfares of fear / The wine we drink through the eyes / The moon pours down at night in waves / Careful with that axe Eugene / Personal Jesus / No beginning no end / Eighteenth of Oktember / The night falls / The king comes / The hunt starts / Freude schöner Götterfunken / The long march through the underwood / Trust me there's nothing / Once upon a time, there was a bandit / Who loved a prince / That was long ago / Spring Summer Fall and Gas / There is a train heading to Nowhere / Drums and Trumpets / Future without mankind / Warm snow / Alles ist gut / The bells toll / You are not alone / The murmur in the forest / The murmur in the head / Light as mist / Heavy as lead / Music happens / To flow like gas /A clearing / Heavy baggage / Debut in the afterlife / Death has seven cats / World heritage Rausch / Finally infinite." --Wolfgang Voigt, 2018; Rausch was created as a single composition. The intention is to listen to the album as a whole from beginning to end. Following a global tour, GAS will continue to perform live throughout 2018 to support Rausch.
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LP
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ROKURE 001LP
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2018 repress. OTOROKU caps off the 2014 celebrations of saxophonist Evan Parker's 70th birthday with a vinyl reissue of The Topography of the Lungs, by Parker, guitarist Derek Bailey, and percussionist Han Bennink -- Parker's first recording as a leader. Originally released in 1970, this was the first LP issued by Incus, the label that Parker founded with Bailey and drummer Tony Oxley. This reissue has been produced from an original vinyl pressing from Parker's archives, carefully transcribed and restored by Andreas (Lupo) Lubich at Calyx Mastering, Berlin.
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2LP
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SV 154LP
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Housed in a gatefold sleeve with download code; includes the "legendary Northampton demos from 1986". "Amidst the swirl that is Spacemen 3's discography, Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To occupies a pivotal position -- one right at the nexus between their garage beginnings and their expansionist future. While much of this material is expanded upon via Sound Of Confusion and The Perfect Prescription, many devotees consider these urgent, minimally treated recordings as the prime document of Spacemen 3 at this stage. Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To casts Spacemen 3 alongside the mid-80s cadre of UK front-line rockers, contributing a distinct variation of high pop shining through layered noisy guitars. Ultimately, this collection serves to exalt the strength of Spacemen 3's songwriting over the atmospherics and production assemblage that would permeate their later efforts. Be it the rave-up rendering of 'The Sound Of Confusion' or the churning take on 'Losing Touch With My Mind', these full band recordings capture the excited and inspirational spark of psychedelia rather than deep-dive ruminations on sonics and space."
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2LP
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DTR 004LP
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Double LP version. Includes download code. Surgeon's new full-length, Luminosity Device, takes Bardo Thödol -- the Tibetan Book of the Dead -- as a starting point for a rhythmic journey into those interstitial spaces where body, mind, and soul no longer seem like distinct categories. It has the potential to turn anything from a club visit to a train commute into a collision with the otherworldly. Since the 1990s, Anthony Child has been one of the most consistent and pivotal electronic music producers to use that craft as a tool for achieving transcendence. Under his aptly chosen DJing and production alias Surgeon, his technical precision and clarity of creative vision have resulted in a highly influential form of techno-mesmerism documented in exhaustive live sets and incisive studio recordings. His talent for wielding beats and sonic textures as healing technologies and as magical weapons simultaneously, and particularly for excelling in "long-form" treatments, has made him not only a key contributor to the legacies of touchstone labels Tresor and Downwards, but also a prized collaborator (his British Murder Boys duo with Regis has capitalized on both producers' natural intensity to devastating effect). The pure techno idiom has never been his sole method of exploring the vastness of inner space, or of illustrating the interaction of thought and memory with the external environment: the work published under his own name, e.g. the two-volume set Electronic Recordings From Maui Jungle (EMEGO 215CD/LP, EMEGO 230CD/LP), along with newer collaborations like the Transcendence Orchestra with Daniel Bean (EMEGO 246LP), have shown Child to have a masterful knowledge of the intimate qualities of drone and atmospheric sound: the sound-scaping talent utilized in these projects is capable of drawing out acute emotional reactions from a broad spectrum of listeners.
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5LP BOX
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SRSBX 3500LP
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Repressed. Silence present a five-LP box set featuring International Harvester titled Remains. The box contains their debut album from 1968 Sov Gott Rose-Marie and Hemåt from 1969, along with three full bonus albums with live material dating from 1967-1969. It also includes a poster, lots of pictures, and a long interview with member Thomas Tidholm made by Mats Eriksson Dunér. 180 gram black vinyl; Edition of 1000.
International Harvester emanated from Pärson Sound and later became Träd, Gräs och Stenar ("Trees, Grass and Stones"). Member Thomas Tidholm on the recordings: "We talked about making the music stop and stand perfectly still. And that did happen sometimes. We never let go of the drone. We hardly made any key changes and never changed chords." Thomas Tidholm and Anders Lind, the engineer for the early albums, have listened to two cases full of live recordings from 1967 to 1969. After editing them, Anders has restored and mastered the live material from the old cassette tapes and for the two original albums -- original analog master tapes have been used. Digitally transferred at 96 khz/24 bits and gently remastered by Anders Lind.
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LP
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IMPREC 170LP
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2018 repress; Pressed on glow-in-the-dark vinyl. Big Bill's Blues Vinyl version of the A Place To Bury Strangers' break-out self-titled release, originally released on CD in 2007. A Place To Bury Strangers have often been called "the loudest band in New York." This may very well be the case, but unlike much so-called "loud" rock and roll that's out there, APTBS is not loud simply for the sake of it. The sonically overdriven sound they've accomplished is no clumsy accident, but a carefully-cultivated and well-maintained entity all its own, fostered by an unbridled passion that's clearly evident in every live show they play and each recording they make. A Place To Bury Strangers does not so much play songs as allow them to pour out. They are songs about longing, heartbreak and confusion played extremely well and at a passionately loud volume. While there are obvious reference points: Pornography-era Cure, early Ride, My Bloody Valentine, and pre-1990s Jesus And Mary Chain, the sound is all their own. On its original release, A Place to Bury Strangers was named "Best New Music" by Pitchfork, who awarded the album an 8.4 rating.
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LP
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PP 034LP
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First in a series of two releases unveiling the previously unissued soundtracks made for the films of Ursula Reuter Christiansen by her partner and collaborator Henning Christiansen. The Executioner ("Skarpretteren") is Ursula's first film from 1971 and is now considered one of the most important works of early Danish feminist art. A highly praised recent show at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen highlighted the pertinent themes and ongoing urgency which lies within this bold symbolic work. The exquisite score is one of the key neo-romantic works in Henning's far reaching output. A deeply melancholic set of vocal based works which place the listener deep within the tension and despair of Ursula's themes. This unique vinyl presentation also features nature sounds recorded for the film on the island of Moen along with surprising works that defy anything else in Henning's output. Assembled from the original master tapes sourced from the Henning Christiansen Archive by Mark Harwood. Remastered for vinyl by Giuseppe Ielasi. Comes in a reverse board sleeve with printed gloss inner sleeve featuring a host of images from the film; sorrowful black vinyl; Edition of 500.
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LP
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PP 035LP
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Second in a series of two previously unreleased soundtracks Henning Christiansen made for the films made by his partner and collaborator Ursula Reuter Christiansen. Den Røde Skov ("The Red Forest") was Ursula's second film made in 1986. In stark contrast to the exquisite romantic melancolia of their first collaboration, The Executioner (PP 034LP), Den Røde Skov resides as one of the wildest recordings in the entire Christiansen catalog. Aligned more with works like the legendary collaboration with Nam June Paik and Joseph Beuys, Abschiedssymphonie (1988), Den Røde Skov unfolds as a delirious and demonic audio exhibit, at once deeply eccentric and utterly enthralling. Featuring the exceptional sound work of Ernst Kretzer and contributions from Ursula Reuter Christiansen, Addamaria Reuter Christiansen, Bjørnstjerne Reuter Christiansen, Carla Tató, and Werner Durand this is a rich tapestry of sounds, voice, and obtuse atmospheres drifting from the deeply meditative to the outright hysterical. Remastered by Giuseppe Ielasi from the original master tapes sourced from the Henning Christiansen Archive. Comes in a full-color gatefold sleeve incorporating a full-sized eight-page booklet with a selection of striking images from the original film; Red vinyl; Edition of 500.
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LP
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AUK 043C-LP
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Clear, 180 gram vinyl; Edition of 500. Something Else is the first full-length offering from The Brian Jonestown Massacre in 2018. A self-titled full-length album is to follow in the fall of 2018. This is the 17th full-length release from the band, and the style is less experimental and returns to the traditional sound of the band. Recorded between 2017 and 2018, this nine-track album will please old and new fans alike. In 2017 the band did a brief tour of the US and Mexico City to support the band's 2017 album release, Don't Get Lost (AUK 040CD/LP), a relatively quiet year for the Brian Jonestown Massacre.
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2LP
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BB 282LP
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Double LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's third album Third (It's Always Rock 'N' Roll), originally released on Disjuncta in 1975. Third album from the French space-rock electro combo masterminded by Richard Pinhas. Heldon's darkest work lays another stone in their sonic mosaic: synths, drones, fuzz, and trippy improvisations. There's something wicked happening on Heldon's third album It's Always Rock And Roll. Richard Pinhas's essential attack of searing guitar and space-bound synthesizer didn't change radically after the first two Heldon albums, 1974's Electronique Guerilla (BB 280CD/LP) and 1975's Allez-Teia (BB 281CD/LP). But there's dark energy coursing through this double album, a chilly aura that makes even the quietest pieces shiver with tension. "At this time, I tried to turn Heldon into a darker band," Pinhas admits. "But dark is not negative to me." The darkness of It's Always Rock And Roll is more about exploring what's hidden and overturning convention -- about diving beneath bright surfaces to find something more mysterious. If It's Always Rock And Roll stands up in Heldon's catalog, perhaps it's due to expansion -- both in the sense of big ideas and lengthy durations. Most tracks last over seven minutes, and two are side-covering epics. "I think the length of a track is part of the creation of the track," says Pinhas. "There are imperatives. You can do something very complex with a lot of events in four minutes, and then some other things need to be done very slowly. You have to do the length that it demands." "We recorded this after having met with Philip K. Dick in California for two days," recalls Pinhas. "It was such an event for a 23-year old; he was to me one of the last real prophets. We talked about Jung, we talked about a lot of things. Maybe this encounter gave birth to all of Heldon Third." So the sci-fi master spawned a dark audio creation to rival his own work. Like the Heldon albums that precede it, It's Always Rock And Roll is undoubtedly Pinhas' baby. But its depth-probing sounds earned it a godfather, too. 2018 remaster by Willem Makkee.
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CD
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WRJ 001CD
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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/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. CD comes in digipack.
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LP
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MENT 022LP
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LP version. Includes download card. 33 minutes of pure, unadulterated, psychedelic krautrock courtesy of Pyramid, an obscure studio project produced by Toby Robinson, aka The Mad Twiddler. These sessions were recorded circa 1975-76 in Cologne for the underground Pyramid label, which was operated by Toby and his friend Robin Page (the Fluxus artist). During that time, Toby worked as engineer and assistant at various studios in Cologne, including the famous Dieter Dierks studios, where most of the albums from the Ohr/Pilz/Cosmic Courier catalog were registered. Having access to the studios during dead hours, Toby recorded lot of sessions just for fun without any commercial interest, featuring friends and musicians who frequented the studios and the underground art/music scene of Cologne. Some of these sessions were later released as handmade vinyl micro-pressings on his Pyramid label with help from artist Robin Page. Master tape sound. Includes insert with liner notes by Alan Freeman. RIYL: Pink Floyd, Cosmic Jokers, Agitation Free, Ash Ra Tempel, Gila, Porcupine Tree, Amon Düül II. "... from trippy phases with echo guitars and Mellotron onto headfirst plunges into space-rock overdrive territory. In all, an excellent album of spacey krautrock" --Alan Freeman
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LP
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BB 283LP
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LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's fourth album Agneta Nilsson, originally released on Urus Records in 1976. Agneta Nilsson opens with a mind-paralyzing track that proves stillness can have a pulse. "Perspective I" spends ten minutes poring through tectonic layers of heavy sound, piling everything so thick that the song becomes like quicksand for your brain. It's one of the most daunting works in the Heldon catalog, made all the more impressive by how simple it is. It's just sounds put together and turned up. It's the vital alchemy of Richard Pinhas's wizardry, deployed with maximum force. As on other early Heldon albums, the rest of Agneta Nilsson is diverse in a nearly contrarian way. Each track refuses to mimic its predecessor in a way that feels rebellious, like a child running away from home. This is true despite the fact that three of the four pieces are actually chapters of "Perspective", partners in a thematic whole. "Each one is a different point of view on the same field," explains Pinhas. "Different parts, different arrangements, but with a full concept in place." It's not easy to divine that concept in these pieces, but their sibling nature has a subconscious effect. The album-closing "Perspective IV" is one of Pinhas's most unabashedly proto-prog guitar-hero epics, boosted by a technical upgrade. "This was the first album where I had enough money to rent one or two days in a real studio to do the drumming," says Pinhas. "After that we had real budgets for studio time. That all changed with and after Agneta Nilsson -- that was a good turn." Pinhas parlayed Heldon's change of direction into three more adventurous albums in the '70s, and simultaneously spurred himself toward a solo career that continues to prod and probe the sonic universe today, over 40 years since he began. It would be wrong to say this album was the big bang of this singular career; the seeds of were planted years before, and every work Pinhas has been involved with sprouts more sounds and ideas that can grow into their own branches. But Agneta Nilsson is one of the most convincing pieces of evidence that Pinhas is incapable of sitting still. 2018 remaster by Willem Makkee.
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2LP
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ZORN 052LP
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Aguirre Records present a reissue of Taj Mahal Travellers' August 1974, originally released in 1975. A monumental work by the Japanese experimental music ensemble. In April 1972 a group of Japanese musicians set off from Rotterdam in a Volkswagen van. As they crossed Europe and then made their way through Asia they made music in a wide range of locations. They also paid close attention to the changing scene and to differing ways of life. Midway through May they reached their destination, the iconic Taj Mahal on the bank of the Yamuna river in Agra, India. The Taj Mahal Travellers had fulfilled physically the promise of the name they adopted when they formed in 1969. The double album August 1974 was their second official release. The first July 15, 1972 is a live concert recording, but on August 19th, 1974 the Taj Mahal Travellers entered the Tokyo studios of Nippon Columbia and produced what is arguably their definitive statement. The electronic dimension of their collective improvising was coordinated, as usual, by Kinji Hayashi. Guest percussionist Hirokazu Sato joined long-term group members Ryo Koike, Seiji Nagai, Yukio Tsuchiya, Michihiro Kimura, Tokio Hasegawa, and Takehisa Kosugi. The enigmatic Takehisa Kosugi, whose soaring electric violin was such a vital element in their music, had been a pioneer of free improvisation and intermedia performance art with Group Ongaku at the start of the '60s. Later in that decade, before launching the Taj Mahal Travellers, he had become known internationally through his association with the fluxus art movement. During the mid-70s the Travellers disbanded and while his colleagues more or less stopped performing as musicians Kosugi continued to reach new audiences across the course of several decades as a composer, regular performer, and musical director for the acclaimed Merce Cunningham Dance Company. August 1974 captures vividly the characteristic sound of the Taj Mahal Travellers, haunting tones from an unusual combination of instruments, filtered through multiple layers of reverb and delay. Their music has strong stylistic affinities with the trippy ambience of cosmic and psychedelic rock, but the Taj Mahal Travellers were tuning in to other vibrations, drawing inspiration from the energies and rhythms of the world around them rather than projecting some alternative reality. Films of rolling ocean waves often provided a highly appropriate backdrop for their lengthy improvised concerts. Licensed from Columbia Japan. Remastered and lacquer cut by Rashad Becker.
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LP
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ZORN 051LP
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Aguirre Records present a reissue of Distant Voices, Steve Lacy's rare Japanese collaboration album, originally released in 1976. Renowned for remarkable solo concerts that confirmed his mastery of the soprano horn and that carried its instrumental language into previously unexplored regions, Lacy also loved to collaborate with musicians who could inspire him to stretch the boundaries of his own artistry. During the summer of 1975 Lacy toured Japan, and on June 24th he entered a Nippon Columbia studio in Tokyo with Yuji Takahashi and Takehisa Kosugi, two adventurous kindred spirits, guaranteed to fire Lacy's creative imagination. The fascinating outcome of that dynamic session is Distant Voices, an album without parallel in Lacy's extensive discography. Composer Iannis Xenakis was so impressed when he heard Yuji Takahashi playing piano in 1961 that he later wrote music especially for him. His repertoire extends back to Bach and Purcell yet for Takahashi, music has remained an open quest and a process of discovery. Takehisa Kosugi on the other hand has been a legendary figure in the international avant-garde since the mid-1960s when his work was endorsed by the fluxus movement. In Japan he was by then already well established as leading practitioner of experimental music and intermedia performance art. At the time Distant Voices was recorded Kosugi had also developed a following for his electric violin playing with the Taj Mahal Travellers, a group whose sound had strong stylistic affinities with psychedelic rock and space music. Subsequently other audiences worldwide came to know Kosugi through his long association as a composer, performer, and musical director with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. On 24th June 1975 Takahashi sat at a grand piano, with celeste and vibraphone alongside him and small bells attached to his hands. Kosugi was equipped with violin, flute, mouth organ, an electronic modulator, porcelain bowls and at times he used his voice. Lacy played soprano saxophone, of course. Now and then he pressed the mouth of the instrument against the skin of a kettle drum. He occasionally fiddled with a transistor radio, and also found uses for a stepladder, a toothbrush, and a spinning wheel. This was in no sense a routine musical session. Distant Voices preserves a unique occasion when three singular musicians joined together to embrace the unknown. Licensed from Columbia Japan. Remastered and lacquer cut by Rashad Becker. 180 gram vinyl.
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LP
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WLV 82060LP
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After the release of his self-titled debut in 1962, Bob Dylan spent the rest of that year and 1963 working on songwriting demos of his various publishing company clients. Long Time Gone compiles the best songwriting demos from that fruitful period. Along with early versions of stone-cold classics like "Masters Of War", "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright", and "The Times They Are-A-Changin'", this collection of a young Dylan at the start of his brilliant half-century plus career also includes long-forgotten beautiful obscurities like "All Over You" and "Walkin' Down The Line". Essential early demos from America's greatest 20th century songwriter.
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LP
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DO XYZ004LP
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LP version, 2018 repress. Dark, hypnotic, tripping nyabinghi from 1974. Led by Jamaican Rastafarian singing hand-drummer Ras Michael over four extended excursions, the music is organic, sublime and expansive, grounation drums and bass-heavy (with no rhythm guitar; rather, Willie Lindo brilliantly improvising a kind of dazed blues). Lloyd Charmers and Federal Studios engineer George Raymond stayed up all night after the session to mix the recording, opening out the enraptured mood into echoing space, adding sparse, startling effects to the keyboards. At no cost to its deep spirituality, this is the closest reggae comes to psychedelia. Previously squandered in an incongruous 2-for-1 reissue, now lovingly returned to its original, singular glory at Abbey Road. Pressed on super-fly vinyl and housed in new standard-printed sleeves.
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LP
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FAITBACK 010LP
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Faitiche present the first vinyl issue of Improvisations And Edits, Tokyo 26.09.2001, originally released on CD in 2002 on Soup-Disk. Jan Jelinek and the Japanese trio Computer Soup (Satoru Hori - trumpet; Osamu Okubo - toys and electronics; Kei Ikeda - toys and electronics) present eight tracks, all recorded one afternoon in the trio's living room in Tokyo. They are excerpts from a joint group improvisation that subsequently underwent rudimentary editing, on which Jelinek and Computer Soup worked separately. Jelinek met the three musicians at his first concert in Japan in 2001, at Tokyo's Yellow club, where Computer Soup performed as the support act. Delighted by their free improvisation on pocket-sized electronic toys, trumpet, and oscillators, he arranged to meet Hori, Okubo, and Ikeda a few days later for a session at their apartment. The resulting three-hour recording formed the basis for Improvisations And Edits. A few days later, Jelinek returned to Berlin. Over the following months, they separately chose passages from the recording that were then edited and assembled into an album. Formed in Tokyo in 1996 as a quintet (including Shusaku Hariya and Daisuke Oishi), Computer Soup began by performing with acoustic instruments on the streets of Shibuya. Ikeda und Okubo soon switched instruments, and from then on, the group's minimalistic but densely woven sound was defined by electronic toys, oscillators and Satoru Hori's trumpet. Includes download code; Edition of 500.
Original reviews of Improvisations And Edits, Tokyo 26.09.2001 in 2003:
"The mind-blowing first track 'Straight Life' is perhaps the best example of what the album has to offer. Jelinek's trademark smears and washes occupy the midrange, like ghosted images of Joe Zawinul's electric piano floating quietly in the wind. DSP jazz modes are set against a walking bassline (possibly computer generated) and a gently tooted trumpet complete with Harmon mute, a dead ringer for Miles Davis' Prestige-era ballads. The effect is something like a three-dimensional film, with different realities on each layer; images of what jazz was manage to interact with a real-time demonstration of all it could be." --Pitchfork, 2003
"Often deliciously dreamy and hazy, Improvisations And Edits is like listening to an exceptional instrumental jazz performance while half-conscious or under some sort of chemical influence. Computerised blips and bleeps, loops and treatments and murky sonic skips curl up around desolate horn notes and scattered instrumental noises that culminate in elegant music." --Exclaim!, 2003
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LP
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PHS 058LP
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LP version. Includes download card. Pharaway Sounds present the first ever reissue of Cuasares' Afro-Progresivo, originally released in 1973. A wild, esoteric mix of psychedelic funk, Afro-Latin grooves, jazz, and Italian/French-styled library sounds courtesy of Cuasares, an enigmatic studio project created by pianist/arranger/visionary Waldo Belloso. Acid fuzz guitar, cosmic synth splashes, distorted organ, flute, vibraphone, and trippy studio effects. Originally released in Argentine in 1973 as a micro-edition. Includes insert with photos and detailed liner notes by Eduardo A. Elizalde Pietruczyk (aka Bubbling Minds) and Mike Wallace.
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2LP
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TRANSVERS 004LP
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Transversales Disques present a reissue of Bernard Baschet and Michel Deneuve's 4 Espaces Sonores, originally released in 1982. Rare 1979 recording of Bernard Baschet performing on his Sound Sculptures. The Baschet brothers are known worldwide as creators of Sound Sculptures, fantastic shapes of molded metal and glass, which combine the visual arts with music. François Baschet had always been fascinated by acoustics, by the relationships between the shape and material of an instrument and the beauty of its sound. Bernard Baschet was passionately interested in contemporary music and firmly believed that such instruments were the proper tools for modern music, for they offered, to the artist and performer, a personal means of expression denied by electronic devices. Together the brothers began to design and produce Sound Sculptures, which could also be regarded as musical instruments. Circa 1965, Bernard worked alongside Pierre Schaeffer as a member of the GRM (Musical Research Group) on the elaboration of what was to become Schaeffer's Traité des objets musicaux ("Treatise on Musical Objects"). The Baschet brothers also created structures and instruments of all sizes, including bell towers, windmills, and fountains, using the natural elements of wind and water to make music. Bernard Baschet was especially proud of his pedagogical work amongst deprived and handicapped children, with the instrumentaium made up of fourteen pieces. Double-LP comes in gatefold sleeve.
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2CD
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DPROM 140CD
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Sinister Whimsy For The Wretched contains the long out-of-print albums, Sugar Fish Drink (1992) and Large Ladies With Cake In The Oven (1993). Both discs are remastered by Andrew Liles. You will never hear these better. Sugar Fish Drink, "Cod Surrealism", is a distinctly wet aberration on paranoid aesthetics occasionally coordinated by John Balance and Steven Stapleton. For Large Ladies With Cake In The Oven, all tracks were previously released in some form or another. Songs titles have been altered from their original forms on their original releases. "Head Cold" is very close to being the exact song as the Miss Ticker remix of "Cold" from the Thunder Perfect Mind CD reissue and "Steel Dream March Of The Metal Man".
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LP
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ACV 2095LP
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When the great bassist and composer Charles Mingus recorded these sessions for the Candid label in 1960 he was arguably at the peak of his career. Featuring an all-star formation composed of Eric Dolphy, Charles McPherson, Booker Ervin, and Jimmy Knepper among others. The legendary Charles Mingus Candid Sessions are now available for the first time on Doxy across two volumes. Part One was recorded on October 20, 1960. Personnel: Ted Curson - trumpet; Eric Dolphy - alto sax, bass clarinet, flute; Charles Mingus - bass; Dannie Richmond - drums. Edition of 500 (numbered).
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CD
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SOMA 029CD
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"Around ten years ago, deep into a cozy and hazy night following a concert with my sound brothers Daniel O'Sullivan and Kristoffer Rygg in London (as Æthenor), they graciously introduced me to a recording of rudra veena (a kind of noble deeper bass relative to the sitar, in a way) as performed by dhrupad master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar. Dhrupad is a branch of Hindustani classical music said to 'show the raga in its clearest and purest form'. It's pacing concentrates heavily on the slow, contemplative alap section and works with specific microtonal gestures and deep characteristics of resonance . . . In early 2015 I was able to make contact with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's son Bahauddin and some of his American students/disciples, primarily Jeff Lewis. Over time we developed a friendly and educational exchange, access to a massive archive of recordings and developed these two paired titles for my label . . . I'm proud to be able to reveal these to date unreleased archival recordings of one of the masters of dhrupad, Z. M. Dagar, to the public for the first time. Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was the nineteenth generation in a family tradition known as Dagar gharana, a rich lineage which continued and performed the musical form of dhrupad. Initially, dhrupad was a rigorous, austere, devotional genre that was sung in Hindu temples. But between the 16th and the 18th centuries, it became the preeminent genre in royal courts in North and Central India, and the Dagar gharana developed and continued publicly following the eventual loss of court patronage for dhrupad in the 19th century. The French ethnomusicologist Renaud Brizard covers the story of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's life and teaching, the Dagar family and gharana, the rudra veena and more topics in an extensive set of liner notes in this release. Raga Yaman was recorded at a public concert in Seattle at the HUB Ballroom at the University of Washington in March 1986 (the week after the accompanying release Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani (SOMA 028CD/LP) was recorded) at the end of his last tour of the United States. Yaman was a special raga for Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, one of his signature raags. For centuries, Yaman has been considered as one of the most fundamental ragas in Hindustani music and is one of the first ragas which is taught to students." --Stephen O'Malley, March 2018, Paris, France Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering.
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CD
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WRJ 002CD
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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/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. CD comes in digipack.
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LP
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ACV 2096LP
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When the great bassist and composer Charles Mingus recorded these sessions for the Candid label in 1960 he was arguably at the peak of his career. Featuring an all-star formation composed of Eric Dolphy, Charles McPherson, Booker Ervin, and Jimmy Knepper among others. The legendary Charles Mingus Candid Sessions are now available for the first time on Doxy across two volumes. Part One was recorded on October 20, 1960. Personnel: Ted Curson - trumpet; Lonnie Hillyer - trumpet; Eric Dolphy - alto sax, bass clarinet, flute; Charles McPherson - alto sax; Booker Ervin - tenor sax; Jimmy Knepper - trombone; Britt Woodman - trombone; Nico Bunick - piano. Edition of 500 (numbered).
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LP+CD
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LR 336LP
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2018 repress. Lilith present a reissue of Os Mutantes' self-titled debut, originally released in 1968. With the release of their debut LP in 1968, Os Mutantes cracked the already red hot Tropicalia scene wide open. Fusing traditional Brazilian music, psychedelia, rock, and a good dose of pure experimentation, they quickly became giants both in Brazil and in the outer fringes of pop music, where they have managed to reign supreme for the past four decades. Not an easy task in such a crowded arena. Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Jorge Ben, Tom Zé, and Os Mutantes? What do these people put in their drinking water? The band went on to release several more albums, but this one was their magnum opus. Obi "bookmark" Japanese style; 180 gram vinyl; Includes CD.
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CD
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SOMA 028CD
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"Around ten years ago, deep into a cozy and hazy night following a concert with my sound brothers Daniel O'Sullivan and Kristoffer Rygg in London (as Æthenor), they graciously introduced me to a recording of rudra veena (a kind of noble deeper bass relative to the sitar, in a way) as performed by dhrupad master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar. Dhrupad, for those who do not know, is a branch of Hindustani classical music said to 'show the raga in its clearest and purest form'. It's pacing concentrates heavily on the slow, contemplative alap section and works with specific microtonal gestures and deep characteristics of resonance . . . In early 2015 I was able to make contact with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's son Bahauddin and some of his American students/disciples, primarily Jeff Lewis. Over time we developed a friendly and educational exchange, access to a massive archive of recordings and developed these two paired titles for my label . . . I'm proud to be able to reveal these to date unreleased archival recordings of one of the masters of dhrupad, Z. M. Dagar, to the public for the first time. Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was the nineteenth generation in a family tradition known as Dagar gharana, a rich lineage which continued and performed the musical form of dhrupad. Initially, dhrupad was a rigorous, austere, devotional genre that was sung in Hindu temples. But between the 16th and the 18th centuries, it became the preeminent genre in royal courts in North and Central India, and the Dagar gharana developed and continued publicly following the eventual loss of court patronage for dhrupad in the 19th century. The French ethnomusicologist Renaud Brizard covers the story of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's life and teaching (a long story also in Seattle, my hometown!), the Dagar family and gharana, the rudra veena and more topics in an extensive set of liner notes in this release. Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani were recorded in a private house concert in Seattle at the home of the Benegals in March 1986 (the week before the accompanying release, Raga Yaman (SOMA 029CD/LP), was recorded). The Benegals were friends (and Shantha Benegal was also a student) of Dagarsahib who sometimes hosted Hindustani music concerts in their home. It's a rare glimpse of a more intimate, personal and perhaps different kind of performance considering the form of dhrupad." --Stephen O'Malley, March 2018, Paris, France Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering.
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CD+DVD
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TTNC 190615CD
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Thanks to their sweary rants about modern England, Nottingham duo Sleaford Mods have been called "The world's greatest rock 'n' roll band" by Iggy Pop and "the soundtrack to post-Brexit Britain" by the Guardian. Jason Williamson, a former chicken factory worker and father of two, his band mate, beatmaker Andrew Fearn, and their manager Steve Underwood, avant-garde bedroom label owner and former bus driver, have won over fans with their brutally honest lyrics and DIY ethos. Following them on their two-year journey from Sherwood to chart success, award-winning music documentary Bunch Of Kunst tells the story of three guys taking on the music business on their own terms. "This documentary film is the perfect antidote to those sexy, racy, rock'n'roll yawns most bands hide behind. We are indeed, a Bunch Of Kunst." --Jason Williamson, Sleaford Mods. The CD was recorded at SO36 Berlin on June 19th, and features the complete unedited performance, originally released in an edited form as a vinyl LP on Harbinger Sound (HARBUSA 001LP, 2016). Subtitles options on the DVD -- English, Deutsch, Espanol, Francais. NTSC format, region free.
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