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Recent Best Sellers
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PAL 059LP
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LP reissue of Land And Sea's limited 2016 tape documenting a performance by guitarists Michael Morley and Bill Orcutt at the L&S gallery in Oakland.
"... Once regrettable antics were permanently affixed to the rearview mirror, the pair chauffeured across the bay to Land And Sea, the cozy gallery on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland and sobered up on vegan cocktail wieners and gummie vitamins. You may doubt, you may scoff -- have fun with it, champion, seriously -- but on July 6, 2016, they rendered a landscape where miniature squalls grind in between seamlessly intersecting improv, and they did it sharp as the slap of a palmful of plum-colored hazelmyer elixir following a good, close shave. The distinctive sound of the Fender Telecaster as played without effects by Orcutt ('one of music's premier abstractionists,' according to Osmo Montesanto) remains unblunted throughout the album, an aggressively serrated presence within Mr. Morley's contrapuntal flanking. This freely improvised performance is imbued with discipline and deliberate restraint, the better to connect the players more to the sound than to the instruments . . . The duo's number-one fan worldwide Cye Husain, pictured on the back cover, would surely attest that the singular structure-building of Orcutt and Morley defies and transcends most any 'well, actually' bloviature that the usual bore-splainers will need to hurl into the troposhere. For instance, that a third guitar is clearly audible at certain parts in the mix -- beautifully recorded by Gabie Strong, by the way -- can be accounted for most sensibly by Aotearoan metaphysics. Mr. Morley's ax of choice was 'Patu Tutae Opoko Nui, a 2006 Squire Telecaster made in Indonesia that I had modified over the years. It died and was ushered up to Valhöll in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2018.' Readers opting to take a moment to refer to Morley's Instagram post dated 6 June 2018 and view the last rites of this extraordinary combination of wood and metal should do so now. He cried. You should expect to do the same . . . Electric Guitar Duets is that otherworldly modulation we all crave and rarely find, hovering halfway between a deeply satisfying lattice of blurred sky roars and the soundtrack from a Stefan Jarworzyn biopic scored by Sergio Leone left on the floor out of its sleeve. Morley and Orcutt hold everything sideways at least as well as the centrifugal force required for slow-motion footage of mannequins riding tiny motorcyles around the inside of a chrome replica of Lee Van Cleef's skull. For other examples of fluid-splattered shards glistening inside crimson murk pulsations, only murder rolling through cold, cold blood comes to mind as superior to this 44-minute live recording." --S. Glass
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2LP
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JMAN 120LP
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Double LP version. Gatefold sleeve; features two vinyl-only tracks from Jackie McLean & The Cosmic Brotherhood and Michael Carvin; includes download card. Subtitled: Esoteric, modal and progressive jazz from the SteepleChase label, 1974-84. Founded in 1972, SteepleChase Records is one of the most significant and prolific European jazz record labels. With a catalog running to well over 200 titles, the Copenhagen-based imprint has recorded and released music from some of the greatest names in jazz, including Dexter Gordon, Andrew Hill, Jackie McLean, Horace Parlan, Chet Baker, and Stan Getz. Starting out by recording visiting Americans when they performed at the legendary Café Montmartre, founder Nils Winther was encouraged to start the label by none other than the great Jackie McLean, who was the first artist to release a record on the new imprint. From there, Steeplechase rapidly grew into one of the foremost labels to document European jazz with all its distinctive originality and style. With a particular emphasis on recording front rank American artists who had chosen the expatriate life in Europe, Steeplechase was first in line to document the sounds of the greats as they developed in exile. Features extensive liner notes including a history of the label as well as notes on each of the individual tracks. Photos from the recording sessions and cover art from each of the LPs from which Jazzman Records' selection has been taken is also included. With in-demand tracks from the likes of Billy Gault, Johnny Dyani, and Khan Jamal, and the unearthing of deep cuts from greats like Jackie McLean and Mary Lou Williams, Jazzman Records' Spiritual Jazz Vol. 11: Steeplechase pays tribute to one of Europe's most important jazz labels and furthers our exploration into the infinite realms of spiritual jazz. Also features Sam Jones, Rene McLean, Jim McNeely, Michael Carvin, and Ken McIntyre.
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REGRM 023LP
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"Violostries" (1963/64): Premiered and recorded in April 1965 at the Royan Festival -- France, by Devy Erlih (violin) and Bernard Parmegiani (sound projection). "Violostries" represents the intersection of several musical research directions, presented as two simultaneous dialogues: composer/performer and instrument/orchestra. After a short introduction tutti very spatialized: "1. Pulsion/Miroirs": multiplied by itself, the violin is projected into the four corners of the sound space. "2. Jeu de cellules": concertante piece for violin and audio medium, the latter being made up of very tightly woven microsounds. "3. Végétal": slow and invisible development following a continuous time, resulting from an internal and permanent processing of the matter.
"Capture éphémère" (1967, 1988 version): "This work was composed in four tracks in 1967 for quadraphonic diffusion. Remixed in stereo in 1988. Premiered at the Studio 105 of the Maison de la Radio, Paris, May 1967. Sounds -- noises that circulate as time unfolds -- continue to exist despite our recording them. Breaths, fluttering wings: ephemeral microsonic sounds streaking space, sound scratches, landslides, bounces, vertigo of solid objects falling into an abyssal void, multiple snapshots forever frozen in their fall. As many symbols leave inside us the permanent trace of their ephemeral brushing against our ear. Someday, a desert, a sound, then never again... Somewhere, in my head and body something still resonates... resonance, what could be more ephemeral."
"La Roue Ferris" (1971): Premiered at the Festival des chantiers navals, Menton, on August 26, 1971. Sound projection: Bernard Parmegiani. "La Roue Ferris" (Ferris wheel) spins, merging with its own resonance, stubbornly perpetuating its variations. It only sketches a regularly evolving movement around a constant axis. Each of its towers generates thick sonic layers that penetrate each other, producing a very fluid interweaving. The crackling of the origin eventually metamorphoses into sonic threads whose lightness recalls high-altitude clouds, cirrus clouds, haunted by the cries of swifts twirling in the warm air. The wondrous arises and dies off, leaving the listener with an illusion of duration.
Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, November 2019. Translations: Valérie Vivancos; Layout: Stephen O'Malley; Photos: Lasklo Ruszka © INA; Coordination GRM: François Bonnet, Jules Négrier; Executive Production: Peter Rehberg.
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WRJ 001LP
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2020 repress; 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.
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REGRM 024LP
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"Fractals" (1981): Composed at the GMVL from December 1979 to September 1981, this work was commissioned by Fnac. Fractals are mathematical oddities that, when crossing our path, turn the smallest island into an immensity to be explored. "Fractals" is a series of short studies, all based on the same sound source. Seeking in the sound and its very logic a proposal upon which a construction is elaborated, each Fractal remains open and is a mere fragment of itself. "Fractals", music pieces sculpted in four dimensions, are vast microcosms that can only be inhabited by the mind. Each "Fractal" can be approached from several angles, far, near, etc. Some can be listened to at different speeds, forwards or backwards. "Fractals": amorphous and endless music pieces whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
"Brain Fever" (2017): Wherever you may be in the forest of South India, the Brain Fever bird, together with the Seven Sisters, literally gets into your head. Whether it be early morning, daytime, or nighttime, amidst the stridulations of insects, its song utterly reflects Indian life: sonorous, noisy, insistent, dense, overcrowded, mobile, swarming, frantic, overheated, deprived of rest and sleep. "Brain Fever" echoes sonic images caught in the Aurovillian forest, near Pondicherry, and rich fragments of improvisations made in Lyon on analog sound synthesis or feedback devices, the kind Fort used to do in the first GMVL studios. "Brain Fever" is dedicated to Sofia Jannok, a musician and sàmi singer.
Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, November 2019. Translations: Valérie Vivancos. Layout: Stephen O'Malley. Photos: Daniel Lepoutre, Francesco Giorni, Christian Ganet. Mécanisme d'un paysage urbain, by Paul Klee. Coordination GRM: François Bonnet, Jules Négrier. Executive Production: Peter Rehberg.
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KOM 370-4LP
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Oktember is the second EP release under Wolfgang Voigt's mythical GAS project (it follows Modern on Profan, 1995). The two compositions were originally released in 1999 on Mille Plateaux, and then reissued partially in 2016 on GAS BOX. Oktember is finally released on Voigt's own label Kompakt, pressed on 180 gram vinyl in its original artwork. This reissue features "Tal 90" (instead of the original A side) -- a predecessor to the GAS project originally recorded in 1990 under the alias TAL, it was released as a part of the Pop Ambient 2002 collection (KOM 050LP/KOMP 014CD). With its sampled strings, horns and guitars, "Tal 90" soundtracks a more uplifting side to what is typically accustomed to being the sound of GAS. The title track "Oktember" is a dense, hypnotic affair that conjures a unique vision of dub techno that few have been able to replicate. A monumental soundtrack to uncertain times.
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WRWTFWW 019LP
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2020 repress; LP version. Comes in a Stoughton "Tip-On" jacket; Includes printed inner sleeves. Palto Flats and We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records present the highly-anticipated reissue of Japanese percussionist Midori Takada's sought after and timeless ambient/minimal album Through The Looking Glass, originally released in 1983 by RCA Japan. Considered a holy grail of Japanese music by many, Through The Looking Glass is Midori Takada's first solo endeavor, a captivating four-song suite capturing her deep quests into traditional African and Asian percussive language and exploring contemplative ambient sounds with an admirably precise use of marimba. The result is alternatively ethereal and vibrant, always precise and mesmerizing, and makes for an atmospheric masterpiece and an unparalleled sonic and spiritual experience. Midori Takada is a composer, multi-percussionist, and theater artist renowned in Japanese vanguard circles. Midori has released two solo albums: Through The Looking Glass and Tree Of Life (1999) and wrote music for Tadashi Suzuki's theater plays. Her hypnotic, minimalist music is based in the concept of coherence between sound and the human body. She performs solo on marimba and other percussion instruments. She debuted on the scene of Berlin Philharmonic, performing with the RIAS Symphonie-Orchester Berlin just after graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1974. She continued her career with solo concerts in Japan and abroad. In the 1980s, Midori began to explore the traditional music of Asia and Africa. Her fascination resulted in joint projects with Kakraba Lobi from Ghana, Lamine Konte from Senegal, Farafina Band from Burkina Faso, and Korean musicians: zither player Chi Seong-Ja, flute player Won-Il, and saxophone player Kang Tae-Hwan. She also led Mkwaju Ensemble's innovative percussion project and still performs with free-jazz band Ton-Klami with Kang Tae-Hwan and jazz pianist Masahiko Satoh. Takada's compositions have a remarkable way of affecting the imagination. Her minimalist, contemplative music is filled with the concept of infinity and reminds us of a moon voyage, falling stars, a journey into the ocean, or a walk in the garden. The trans melodies, initially simple, begin to loop and splinter, their rhythm breaking and thickening, slowly drawing the listener into another reality. This fully licensed reissue comes with extensive liner notes.
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LP
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BT 059LP
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Black Truffle announce the release of She's More Wild..., a collaborative project by David Behrman, Paul DeMarinis, Fern Friedman, Terri Hanlon, and Anne Klingensmith recorded at Mills College in 1981. Previously known only to cognoscenti through an obscure self-released three-track 7", this is the first publication of the complete album, an outrageous confection that mixes art-song and theatrical monolog with live electronics. Starting life as a performance art piece described by the artists as "Western Performance Noir", the record centers on a series of texts written by Friedman and Hanlon in which female narrators comically embody a series of iconic roles (The Recording Artist, The Former Movie Star, and The Rancher). Other lyrical themes include recurring references to the notorious cannibal pioneers, the Donner Party, an ironic take on Japanophilia, and the luscious "Archetypal Unitized Seminar", a satirical poke at self-help culture, whose lyrics are rendered in Indian raga style to the accompaniment of electronic glissandi and toy noisemakers. Delivered by Friedman, Hanlon, Klingensmith, and special guest Maggi Payne in forms ranging from spoken monolog to country and western waltz, the texts are accompanied by instrumental and electronic contributions by Behrman and DeMarinis. Musically, She's More Wild... is truly unique, demonstrating these two pioneers of live-electronic performance adapting their signature processes to something approaching a "pop" format: you hear the gliding, frequency-sensitive electronics familiar from Behrman's classic On the Other Ocean and the mutant hacked Speak n' Spell heard on DeMarinis' Songs Without Throats (BT 041LP, 2019) propelled by drum machines and twisted into song forms. Perhaps comparable only to the David Rosenboom and Jacqueline Humbert's contemporaneous Daytime Viewing in its interweaving of performance art tactics, high-tech electronics and pop sensibilities, She's More Wild... is an essential document, both immediately gratifying and ultimately thought provoking. Gatefold sleeve with various texts and archival images; sleeve design by Lasse Marhaug. Mastered and cut by Kassian Troyer at Dubplate & Mastering, Berlin.
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LP
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FOX 026LP
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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.
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OTTT 025LP
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2020 repress. Angry Love Productions is proud to present Psychic TV's 1983 classic Dreams Less Sweet, back on vinyl for the first time in over 20 years. Holophonic audio from the original UK vinyl masters with meticulously restored artwork. Features early PTV classics "The Orchids" and "White Nights." Officially licensed through Sony UK.
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LP
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COSMO 011LP
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On his adventurous first new album in five years, Vladislay Delay renders an extreme ecology of electronic sound inspired by time spent above the arctic circle, surrounded by tundra and the raw force of nature and visually given life by Ripatti's wife, Antye Greie-Ripatti, aka AGF. Although it features no location recordings, Rakka clearly imparts its theme thru a riveting palette of weathered textures, unyielding rhythms and the kind of reverberating, widescreen sound design that's defined his catalog of cult, contemporary music since the late '90s. While Vladislav been notably absent from release schedules in recent years -- aside from working on the soundtrack to The Revenant (2015) recording with Sly & Robbie in 2018 -- this new album is surely a bracing reminder of his knack for creating utterly immersive environments at the poles of ambient, dub, and noise. Inspired by the struggle to survive in unforgiving conditions, the music patently resembles a number of styles associated with music from northerly latitudes. Elemental traces of Scandinavian black metal, Pan Sonic or Deathprod-like power electronics and Thomas Köner-esque ambient isolationism are all detectable in the album's brutal panoramas, and evidently speak to a shared conception of the extreme Arctic's uncontrolled and uncorrupted wilds, and their frighteningly magnetic sort of push/pull on the senses. Titled in Vladislav's typically alliterative style, the tracks cascade in aggressive iterations of gravel-swilled rhythm and tonal attrition. The barely-harnessed might of opener, "Rakka" triggers a chain reaction on events that follows into a sort of blast-beaten ambience in "Raajat", and what sounds like throttled blvck metvl vocals meshed with flashcore in "Rakkine", whilst "Rampa" hammers home a martial noise techno tattoo, and the final couplet take this sound to its logical end-of-earth degrees with breathtaking form. Rakka is certain to both reaffirm and upend what listeners know and love about Vladislav Delay, while firmly galvanizing his sound for an unsure future. Mastered at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Artwork by LCR.
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3LP
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RIPATTI 011LP
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A masterclass in millennial house, Sasu Ripatti aka Vladislav Delay's debut as Luomo returns for a 20th anniversary edition packing the deepest bounce per ounce. Upon its original release in 2000, Vocalcity was a totally unexpected turn from the artist best known as Vladislav Delay, who'd by then established his reputation as a producer of abstract dub techno for Chain Reaction that was ostensibly far removed from deep, vocal-led house music. But prejudices were swiftly assuaged as the Finnish artist's keen knack for shifty rhythm programming was brought in line with Johanna Livanainen's perfectly poised vocals, revealing the core influence of sensuous, soulful deep house and garage on his sound in a similar way to the links between Maurizio's M-Series and the vocal-led Main Street volumes. Twenty years later it's fair to say the six tracks of Vocalcity have withstood the test of time and are bound to weave their slinky magick on 'floors everywhere. With mint copies now near-impossible to find on the second hand market, this new pressing of Vocalcity is perfectly timed for a zeitgeist looking to the late '90s and early '00s for inspiration. Cut a side-per-track, just like the original edition, each of the songs -- ranging between ten and sixteen minutes each -- have plentiful headroom and leg space for dancers, DJs and audiophiles, keeping the album's crucial balance of luxuriant minimalism, and the space between its coiled grooves and burning vocals, perfectly taut and intact. Getting under the skin with the sculpted swing and hair-kissing vox of "Market", and shuffling up close to Moodymann's Detroit house depth in "Class", the album is perhaps best loved for its timeless highlight "Tessio", a rich, warm and writhing beauty that would set the template for myriad House records to come in the following two decades. Along with the mid-tempo lather of R&B vocal inflections on "She-Centre", and the lip-smacking sensuality of "Synkro", this whole lot is an absolute must-have for fans of late night/all day dancing sessions as much as those who like do it quieter. 100% classic material. Listed in Resident Advisor's albums of the decade. 9.7 on Pitchfork. Newly remastered and cut at Dubplates & Mastering.
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LP
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ZORN 067LP
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Aguirre Records present a reissue of Maggi Payne's Ahh-Ahh, originally released in 2012 on Root Strata. Originally composed by Maggi Payne between 1984-1987 for the performance group Technological Feets. Formed by video artist Ed Tennenbaum in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1981, the group combines dance, live video processing, and music. Composed on an Apple II computer and various early sampling devices, Payne's compositions are a vibrant response to the call from the moving body. Populated with buoyant pulses, graceful analog swells, dense fog-like drones, and cascading rhythms that shift in space, Ahh-Ahh is a vital document of not only these early collaborations, but of computer-based music as well. She studied with many greats in the field, including Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley, and David Berhman.
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2LP
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ZORN 066LP
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Aguirre Records present a reissue of Maggi Payne's Arctic Winds, originally released on CD in 2010. Fully immersive electronic music by US composer Maggi Payne, inspired by the arctic winds. Payne's sound worlds invite the listeners to enter the sound and be carried with it, experiencing it from the inside out in intimate detail. The sounds are almost tactile and visible. The music is based on location recordings, with each sound carefully selected for its potential -- its slow unfolding revealing delicate intricacies -- and its inherent spatialization architecting and sculpting the aural space where multiple perspectives and trajectories coexist. With good speakers, some space in your schedule, and a mind-body continuum willing to resonate with Payne's electroacoustic journey, but then it will take you to places that other music can't reach. From the sounds of dry ice, space transmissions, BART trains, and poor plumbing she immerses the listener in a world strangely unfamiliar. Maggi Payne is a composer, video artist, recording engineer, photographer, and flutist and is co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music and a faculty member at Mills College, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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AR 135LP
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LP version. To Know Without Knowing, Mulatu Astatke & Black Jesus Experience's album, is their second together. A grooving transcontinental gem, recorded in Melbourne, Australia, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Filled with the warmth of the mentorship and friendship of their creative partnership honed over a decade of performing together in Africa, Australia, and UK/Europe. Mulatu Astatke is the father of Ethio-jazz and one of Africa's most influential and enduring musical figures. Black Jesus Experience is a community of artists, centered around a twelve-piece global-funk-machine born of Australia's vibrant multiculturalism. Mulatu and Black Jesus Experience met in Addis Ababa in 2009, embarking on both a musical relationship and a friendship that has led Mulatu Astake to describe Black Jesus Experience as, "My favorite backing band" and, "...they're family." Mulatu's great contribution to music has been to combine Jazz and funk grooves with Ethiopia's distinctive pentatonic scales. His musical genius is the sensuality and sophistication with which Mulatu contrasts these minimalist scales with richly chromatic harmony. But Mulatu's equally great contribution has been to share both his enduringly unique modernity and Ethiopia's timelessly spiritual music with the world. Black Jesus Experience treasure the special relationship of generosity, mentorship and collaboration they have been privileged to share with this master musician. To Know Without Knowing is the product of this gift.
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LP
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BEWITH 020LP
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2020 repress. Be With Records present a reissue of The Ahmad Jamal Trio's The Awakening, originally released in 1970. Ahmad Jamal is a jazz giant and The Awakening is his iconic masterpiece. The landmark deep trio session -- recorded in NYC and released on Impulse! in 1970 -- is an essential album and perennially sought-after on vinyl. Ahmad Jamal is a jazz giant and The Awakening is his iconic masterpiece. As a "Zen master of jazz piano" and one of its greatest innovators, Jamal evolved his elegant sound with this adventurous record. The Awakening showcased his fast, richly melodic chops in remarkable variation. A consummate orchestrator of his own complex arrangements, Jamal was emboldened here by his potent sidemen. Backed by the exquisite timing of bassist Jamil Nasser and the precision of Frank Gant's drumming, he was liberated by the reliability of the trio setup. Free to juggle rhythmic dexterity with harmonic intricacy, Jamal brilliantly performed groove-oriented compositions written by himself, alongside wonderful renditions of tracks by Herbie Hancock, Oliver Nelson, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. It is impossible to discuss The Awakening without acknowledging its indelible mark on golden age rap. A defining album of hip-hop culture, producers of the highest caliber have famously sampled elements of this timeless record to lace all-timers with a foundation for their most legendary tracks. Indeed, both the experimental "DJ Premier In Deep Concentration" and Shadez Of Brooklyn's seminal "Change" utilized Jamal's sparse title-track to stunning effect. A melancholy motif from "I Love Music" was employed by Pete Rock for Nas's crucial "The World Is Yours" whilst, over a more abstract refrain from the same track, Jeru memorably delivered his "Me Or The Papes" ultimatum. Over in Chicago, No I.D. elevated Common's peerless "Resurrection" by lifting a precise riff from Jamal's plaintive rendition of "Dolphin Dance" whilst the head-nod quality of All Natural's hypnotic "Renaissance" owes it all to the looped keys of Jamal's take on "You're My Everything". With bold beauty and unhurried grace, Ahmad Jamal plays piano differently from everyone else. He was a huge inspiration to Miles Davis and influential to how Wynton Kelly performed across Kind of Blue (1959). Presented in a gatefold sleeve adorned with the original eye-catching artwork throughout, along with the original sleeve notes. Mastered by Simon Francis and pressed for the first time on 180 gram vinyl.
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NA 5179LP
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"Magical, mystical, Afrocentric, progressive -- words that could be used to describe any number of musical compositions by Sun Ra or his cosmic brothers and sisters, from John to Alice Coltrane, early '70s projects on record labels like Detroit's Tribe or Houston's Lightin' or the interests of one Washington, DC native named Jimmy Gray that centered under one, perfect moniker: Black Fire. Gray spent nearly three decades pushing boundaries as a Black American promoter, distributor, and, finally, record label owner. Together with Oneness of Juju's leader James 'Plunky Nkabinde' Branch, Gray oversaw sixteen releases on Black Fire Records between 1975 and 1996. These are the definitive reissues of five of the label's key titles: all were lacquered -- most directly from master tape -- by legendary Los Angeles mastering engineer Bernie Grundman, With this set, Oneness Of Juju and Black Fire's story burns forth into its fifth decade, its message not tempered, its sound pure. Its cycle, once again, complete. Each release is packaged in a thick, tip-on sleeve and includes a deluxe booklet with extensive notes on the album, the Black Fire collective, and the musical and cultural revolution they created. Limited edition, one time pressing."
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2LP
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IMPREC 457LP
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Tod Dockstader's Aerial series, an electronic/drone masterpiece, is cherished among fans of the artist's work. 15 years in the making, the Aerial series is sourced from his life-long passion for shortwave radio. Dockstader collected over 90 hours of recordings, made at night, and comprised of cross signals and fragments plucked from the atmosphere. Opening with airwave drones, Dockstader gradually allows elements to slowly come and go, summoning an ominous atmosphere of ethereal clouds. Malignant placidity continues, giving the feeling of eavesdropping upon late-night audio activity not unlike discovering number stations while sweeping the dials. Backward voices, deep echoing choruses of conversations flowing under the surface, ocean sounds, pulsing electro-rhythms, all seem to be created via the collaging of many hours of source recordings. A masterwork of collage and juxtaposition by an overlooked pioneer of American electronic music. Artwork by John Brien. Audiophile quality double-LP; edition of 500.
Dockstader on the Aerial project (September 14, 2003): "I've written before of my interest in shortwave radio, in the notes to the Quatermass CD (SR 233CD). Also, in the notes to the Omniphony CD (which has my first 'Aerial' mix, 'Past Prelude,' in it), I mentioned 'The Aerial Etudes,' which was my working title for what became the three CDs you have. And, at the end of an interview with Chris Cutler (which can be found in the 'Unofficial TD Website'), the piece I mentioned I was starting to work on at the time became Aerial). When I was very young, people got most of their entertainment from radio. They called it 'playing the radio,' as if it were a musical instrument. That's what I've tried to do in this piece. About this time, a few people encouraged me to look into using a computer for this work. I'd never used one, but I saw it would allow me to keep my mixes digital -- no more transfer losses. So, at the end of 2001, I got a computer and an editing program for it, and spent what seemed a long time learning it. I began selecting mixes and loading them into the computer in late March, 2002. Out of the 580, I selected 90 'best' mixes -- eventually reduced to 59, the ones on the CDs. Finally, in assembling the CDs, I followed David Myers' suggestion to allow each piece to flow into the next -- making a continuous journey to the end."
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LP
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WWSLP 031LP
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Repressed; LP version. Obi; includes four-page insert. Wewantsounds present the first official release outside of Japan for The Mystery Kindaichi Band's The Adventures of Kindaichi Kosuke, originally released in 1977. The "imaginary" soundtrack to the cult detective book series by writer Seishi Yokomizo is on many DJ want-lists. Arranged by soundtrack master Kentaro Haneda and featuring a mysterious group of the best '70s Japanese Funk musicians, the album is pure undiluted disco funk. Writer Seishi Yokomizo is an institution in Japan. He could be compared to Agatha Christie with his series of novels based on the adventures of detective Kosuke Kindaichi. The fictional character was born in 1946 with Yokomizo's first novel in the series and solved mysteries until the late '70s under Yokomizo's pen before the death of the writer in 1981. Yokomizo's novels have been a prime source for film and TV scenarios, so when, in 1977, Japanese label King Records decided to record a concept album based on the Kindaichi novels, it made complete sense. The writer was slightly surprised though. The concept album was arranged by pianist Kentaro Haneda, a key TV and film composer who has worked on many anime films and is also famous outside of Japan for composing the music for the video game Wizardry. For the album, he assembled a supergroup of some of the best Tokyo funk and city pop musicians. The long list includes jazz pianist Hideo Ichikawa who played on the 1971 Joe Henderson In Japan album, drummer Jun Moriya, who is on Joe Hisaichi's cult Wonder City Orchestra album (1982), percussionist Tadaomi Anai who played with disco singer Eri Ohno, trumpeter Koji Hadori who's featured on Haruomi Hosono's Pacific album (1978). Also present on the album are saxophonist Takeru Muraoka who plays on many Tatsuro Yamashita cult albums including For You (1982) and Spacy (1977), Kimiko Yamauchi (koto) who's on Akiko Yano's landmark 1976 album Japanese Girl (WWSCD 017CD/WWSLP 017LP), and last but not least, French hornist Koji Yamaguchi who plays on Yazuaki Shimizu's Kakashi (1982). Together they lay the funk on ten instrumentals filled with pure disco and funk breakbeats, making the album one of the highly-coveted Japanese LPs on international cratedigger scene. Remastered from the original tapes. Faithfully reproduced original artwork; Artwork by renowned illustrator Ichibun Sugimoto. New introduction by Anton Spice.
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LP
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AS 026LP
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[sold out, repress expected Fall 2020] "Time is absolute garbage . . . But here's the thing: given enough time, your friends are going to keep making records, you're going to keep listening to them, and if you're lucky, some of them are going to seep into the cracks of your day-to-day . . . Since its initial appearance as a private press double cassette in 2016, Annual Flowers in Color has been exactly this sort of talisman for me. More to the point, it's also the closest thing to a definitive statement in the twelve-year history of John Elliott's Imaginary Softwoods and a no-brainer on the thinking head's shortlist of Elliott's most essential releases, alongside Outer Space's Akashic Record (Events: 1986-1990) (SP 019LP, 2012), Emeralds' Solar Bridge (2008) and What Happened (EMEGO 109LP, 2010), Mist's House (SP 004CD/LP, 2011), Lilypad's Capacitor (2008), Colored Mushroom and the Medicine Rocks' self-titled LP (2010), and Quiet Light Water Gap's Live at the Delaware County VFW Hall (2010). While each of these projects draws from the same reservoir of glittering pinpoint riffcraft and homespun surrealism and each reflects in its own fashion the awareness that a certain undercurrent of lurid horror is essential to all authentically psychedelic music, Imaginary Softwoods has always been distinguished in its relationship to a particular decades-long chain of private press loner music, or chamber music for shut-ins. You wouldn't necessarily be wrong to call Annual Flowers in Color 'deeply personal,' but that almost misses the point . . . it's handmade, human-scale domestic ritual music the making of which is inseparable from the sense in which it's been 'lived in.' . . . Above all, Annual Flowers in Color is an absolutely gorgeous, perfectly weathered, subtly strange record. It's exactly the thing you're thinking of when you think 'I want to hear really killer polysynths and tape delay,' but it's also much more, glistening with distended reflections of Steve Roach and Stapleton, ringing with simultaneous sublimated echoes of the dorkiest and most expensive French mellotron prog and the most incandescent cheap heat from the $2 exotica bin, and dripping with the 'as above, so below' that characterizes synthesizer records at their best. It's both a welcoming point of entry for the uninitiated and a sticky, seductive cut deep enough to envelop any heads seeking a way station on the search for the apocryphal second volume of Cosmos Farm Sessions." --Chris Madak (Philadelphia, February 2020)
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LP
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NA 5177LP
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"Magical, mystical, Afrocentric, progressive -- words that could be used to describe any number of musical compositions by Sun Ra or his cosmic brothers and sisters, from John to Alice Coltrane, early '70s projects on record labels like Detroit's Tribe or Houston's Lightin' or the interests of one Washington, DC native named Jimmy Gray that centered under one, perfect moniker: Black Fire. Gray spent nearly three decades pushing boundaries as a Black American promoter, distributor and, finally, record label owner. Together with Oneness of Juju's leader James 'Plunky Nkabinde' Branch, Gray oversaw sixteen releases on Black Fire Records between 1975 and 1996. These are the definitive reissues of five of the label's key titles; all were lacquered -- most directly from master tape -- by legendary Los Angeles mastering engineer Bernie Grundman, With this set, Oneness Of Juju and Black Fire's story burns forth into its fifth decade, its message not tempered, its sound pure. It's cycle, once again, complete. Each release is packaged in a thick, tip-on sleeve and includes a deluxe booklet with extensive notes on the album, the Black Fire collective, and the musical and cultural revolution they created. Limited edition, one time pressing."
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MGART 904LP
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2020 repress. 180-gram LP version with embossed chessboard artwork print and printed inner sleeve. In celebration of the 2016 35th anniversary of the December 12, 1981, recording of Manuel Göttsching's legendary E2-E4, one of electronic music's most influential recordings, Göttsching's MG.ART label presents an official reissue, carefully overseen by the master himself. Includes liner notes by Manuel Göttsching, archival photos, and an excerpt of David Elliott's review in Sounds from June 16, 1984.
"As the story is sometimes told, Göttsching stopped in the studio for a couple of hours in 1981 and invented techno. E2-E4 is the most compelling argument that techno came from Germany-- more so than any single Kraftwerk album, anyway. The sleeve credits the former Ash Ra Tempel leader with 'guitar and electronics', but few could stretch that meager toolkit like Göttsching. Over a heavenly two-chord synth vamp and simple sequenced drum and bass, Göttsching's played his guitar like a percussion instrument, creating music that defines the word 'hypnotic' over the sixty minutes . . . A key piece in the electronic music puzzle that's been name-checked, reworked and expanded upon countless times." --Mark Richardson, Pitchfork
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LP
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BE 005LP
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Limited restock. White Heaven's debut album Out is one of the greatest psychedelic rock albums ever recorded. First released in 1991 by Tokyo's P.S.F. Records and pressed in an edition of 500 copies the original LP has become a holy grail in underground circles, with only a scant few copies ever making it outside of Japan. Built on the chemistry between You Ishihara's lysergic lyricism and the blistering leads of one of Japan's undisputed guitar gods Michio Kurihara, Out is an absolute classic. It is one of the few albums to successfully join a deep love of classic rock n' roll with the rapturous energy of punk and openness of the avant-garde. Each song creates its own world, raising dynamic structures that defy categorization. Meticulously re-mastered by the artists this new edition is the album in its clearest, most powerful form. Cut at the legendary Bernie Grundman studios and pressed at RTI it is now available on vinyl for the first time in almost 30 years. Black Editions presents Out in its definitive edition. Deluxe LP edition, Heavy tip-on jacket and tri-panel insert printed on black paper with metallic gold ink. Vinyl mastering by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman, high quality pressing at RTI.
"What happens if you want to make a sound like Eric Clapton on 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps,' or Ritchie Blackmore on Made in Japan -- two early influences Kurihara mentions in particular -- but you've never been in a recording studio before? What happens if you want to sing like Marc Bolan or Robert Plant -- or even Lou Reed and Tom Verlaine -- but you've never been on a stage before? Listen to what happened on Out: a wide knowledge and love of classic rock sounds fused to a freedom of expression based not only on punk, but on avant-garde experimentalism. It isn't that these young players had chops like that at the time. But neither did they need them to hit heightened moments of what I can only describe as rock rapture." --Damon Krukowski
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2LP
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FTR 515LP
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The Eighteenth Day of May were a six-piece, London based group. Originally formed as an acoustic trio consisting of American Alison Brice (vocals, flute), Swede Richard Olson (acoustic guitar, harmonica, sitar), and Ben Phillipson (guitar, mandolin), they combined elements of traditional and contemporary folk with a psychedelic jangle. They spent the summer and autumn of 2003 bonding over Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band, Steeleye Span, Sandy Denny, and Trees all blending in with the psychedelic music they already loved which was feeding into their home demo recordings. In early 2004 they went electric adding the rhythm section of Mark Nicholas (bass), and Karl Sabino (drums, autoharp) and then lastly ex-Saloon player Alison Cotton (viola). It was after appearing on a cover mount disc for the much missed It Comes With A Smile Magazine that Andy Childs (Head of Hannibal Records/RYKO) fell in love with the band and continued the path of fellow legendary Hannibal head Joe Boyd's policy of signing eclectic artists. Back in 2004 it felt like no one was making music like this -- old weird folk songs, Americana, original psych folk, minimalist drones via great melodies, and eclectic instrumentation. The result was a joyous, unfettered, fluid sound that in one moment could conjure up flashes of The Byrds or Fotheringay and then minutes later the spirit of The Velvet Underground would drift though the music. Live they would even cover artist from Spacemen 3 and The Brian Jonestown Massacre to Buffy Saint Marie to traditional folk songs and would not be afraid to stamp their own identity on them. When it comes to recording their first (and only) LP, they were teaming with ideas and enthusiasm, buoyant from the attention of artists like Robyn Hitchcock and Peter Buck with whom they toured. The LP some 15 years later has not dated one bit, as with all good music its qualities and resonance have matured and endured, its subtleties have become more apparent and beguiling. maybe 2005 just wasn't ready for a band playing contemporary English folk music. Added onto to this retrospective release are several excellent extra tracks, some of which were recorded for a second album that they were never able to complete. Hard to imagine it would have been even better than the first but listen to the tracks recorded and you can only feel sadness that it never happened.
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2x12"
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LOVE 114LP
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2020 black vinyl repress. Andy Stott's first release since 2016 and first EP since 2011, It Should Be Us is a double EP of slow and raw productions for the club, recorded in 2019 and following a series of EPs that started with Passed Me By (LOVE 069LP) and We Stay Together (LOVE 072LP) early this decade. Recorded fast and loose over the summer, these eight tracks harness a pure and bare-boned energy, melodies subsumed by drum machines and synths; slow, rugged hedonism. It's all about rhythmic heat and disorientation, pure dance and DJ specials rendered at an unsteady pace, from percolated house and percussive rituals to moody tripped-out burners. There'll be a new Andy Stott album in 2020, but in the meantime... this one's for dancing. Mastered and cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.
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LP
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CF 023LP
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Inspired by a poetry booklet by Kenneth Patchen (from which it takes its title), 14 Love Poems focuses on expression and emotion. Recorded and first released by FMP in 1984. Peter Brötzmann: alto, tenor & baritone saxophone; a-,e-flat and bass clarinet, tarogato. Cover by Peter Brötzmann. Producer: Jost Gebers, Peter Brötzmann. Mix: Jost Gebers, Peter Brötzmann. All compositions by Peter Brötzmann except "Nr. 1 baritone-sax / Lonely Woman" by Ornette Coleman. 180 gram vinyl.
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LP
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BB 335LP
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LP version. The first part of Hans-Joachim Roedelius's Selbstportrait (Self-Portrait) series was originally released under the title Sanfte Musik on Sky Records in 1979. Now, some forty years later, a new instalment has arrived in the form of an album entitled Wahre Liebe. One of the initiators of the Berlin Zodiak Free Arts Lab in 1967, Roedelius went on to co-found Kluster/Cluster and Harmonia, unleashing a new and free form of music which, with the benefit of hindsight, can be considered a milestone in the historical context of kosmische musik and krautrock. In the late 1970s, Roedelius began to increase his activities as a solo artist, building up an extensive and multifaceted body of work over the ensuing decades. Across this timeline, the Self-Portrait albums represent an intensely personal and noteworthy corpus in their own right. Over the past ten years, the Hamburg-based label Bureau B has reissued numerous Hans-Joachim Roedelius albums, both solo and collaborative efforts, introducing him to a new generation of potential devotees. In 2014, label founder Gunther Buskies approached Roedelius to suggest that he record a new instalment for the Self-Portrait series, using the same instruments which dominated his productions in the late 1970s: a Farfisa organ, drum machine, tape-delay and a Rhodes. Together with Onnen and Wolf Bock, the album Wahre Liebe (True Love) was created. Roedelius explains the process: "The Wahre Liebe album was commissioned by Gunther Buskies, who wanted to know if the elderly Roedelius, armed with vintage tools, was capable of 'beaming back' to his youthful years, reaching into the sonic past of the Self-Portrait series to deliver similarly persuasive results. What better proof could there be that true love, age-old love never dies..." Sure enough, this album successfully and seamlessly connects with its antecedents. Miniatures, improvisations, atmospheric images, and dreamlike introspections of an individualist are articulated in that innate Roedelius language which is at once brittle and as light as a whisper, a pastel ribbon weaving its way softly through the full range of sonic topographies. Hans-Joachim Roedelius is pleased with the outcome: "Roedelius has been granted the opportunity to become intimately acquainted with his own self in order to achieve that of which he is ultimately capable, namely his calling: to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors, to create authentic art, be it music or words, or anything and everything else which fascinates him."
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LP
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GLOSSY 002LP
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Glossy Mistakes present a reissue of Tito's Quetzalcóatl, originally released in 1977. Proto-electronics psychedelic Mexican holy grail. Inspired by Vangelis, Tomita, or Kraftwerk, this unknown rarity gets a second life sounding fresh and pioneering today, Tito was born in 1946 in Ciudad de México, the son of two Spaniards. Since he was a youngster, he had felt the passion for music and instruments. In the meantime, he started a career as architect. Since his early years, he joined various teen rock bands, where he played bass and guitar. Slowly but surely, his interest in synthesizers started to grow. And the rest is history. Tito defines himself as an "electronic sounds fanatic". Quetzalcóatl is a truly authentic cornerstone in those terms: an inspired and eclectic artist gives shape to a unique sound through legendary synthesizers such as the MiniMoog or the Arp Odyssey. His passion was so embedded that he even built his own guitars and equalizers; some of which appear on this LP. Quetzalcóatl, his debut solo album, was originally recorded in 1977 (now remastered) in his bedroom using a four-channel Sony recorder in a truly DIY way. This album could be considered as a rarity. But if you listen hard enough, you find a pioneering treasure. Somehow, Quetzalcoátl anticipated the sounds of future decades with simple but inspired compositions. It is a mythological trip to the Pre-Hispanic México. This album is an allegory of the Aztec world. Quetzalcoátl is the most important God for Mesoamerican cultures: it represents the inherent human dualism between the body (represented by the snake) and soul (the feathers). In the song "Profecía", Quetzalcoátl emerges, announcing the end of the world at the hand Spanish colonialism. Remastered in Amsterdam by Wouter Brandenburg. Comes with insert; edition of 600.
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LP
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ASH 3007LP
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2020 repress; LP version. Former Beat Of The Earth leader Phil Pearlman assembled Relatively Clean Rivers in the early '70s and eventually released this excellent rural rock album in 1975. Although Pearlman's first recorded effort was a surf/hot rod 45 entitled Chrome Reversed Rails which appeared on the Fink label in the mid-'60s, it was with Beat Of The Earth that he began to forge a distinctive musical voice. The band was one of the earliest-known experimental bands with a sound reminiscent of their East Coast counterparts, The Velvet Underground, whose influence is often discernible on Relatively Clean Rivers. That said, RCR is recognized by those fortunate enough to have heard it as one of the very finest albums of the era, with a clearly-defined American sound akin to The Grateful Dead in all their American Beauty pomp or CSNY circa Déjà Vu. An album highly recommended to anyone even remotely interested in '70s West Coast music or simply great music in general. Finally available on 180 gram vinyl once again, and comprehensively remastered using the latest 48-bit technology.
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2LP
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SSH 004LP
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Limited restock. The classic minimal music album is now available again on vinyl for the first time since the '70s. During the 1970s, Californian composer Terry Riley concentrated on solo keyboard performances, continuing to make music yet writing down almost nothing. Riley selected a mode, chose a few motifs or basic patterns and then, seated on the floor in front of his audience, improvised on electronic keyboard. The electric organ, superseded at later concerts by a synthesizer, was portable and consistent. By the early '70s, Riley had come to feel that scores were a distraction. Faithful interpretation of an already written piece was a deviation from the true purpose of making music, which was spiritual quest. Fortunately, some of those live performances were captured on tape. Persian Surgery Dervishes, issued initially on the French label Shandar in 1972, features two such concerts for electric organ and reel-to-reel delay, one recorded in Los Angeles on April 18th, 1971, the other in Paris on May 24th, 1972. At the start of that decade, Riley became a dedicated student of the great Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath. Looking into North Indian classical tradition, he found correspondences to modal and cyclic ideas that he was already working on. In 1971, Riley started teaching Indian music at Mills College, in Oakland. That experience fed directly into his solo keyboard performances, but other influences were also shaping his music. Personal research into ancient Persian culture and the poetry of Rumi lit up his imagination, while the repetitive swirling of Sufi devotional music from North Africa and jazz, an enduring source of inspiration, reverberate through these performances. The Californian version of Persian Surgery Dervishes starts with low dark tones, dense and brooding like a huddled human figure, deep in introspection. But as the improvisation unfolds Riley's buoyant spirit asserts itself, spiraling out in ecstatic coils. The Parisian concert conveys a different mood, brighter and more open in texture, more relaxed from the outset and breathing with greater freedom as it takes flight. Persian Surgery Dervishes is a mesmerizing record of a vital stage in Riley's ongoing quest for connection with the universal mind and sublime music. "Music is my spiritual path. It's my way of finding out who I am." --Terry Riley, 1976 Includes insert with liner notes by Julian Cowley; Lacquer cut by Rashad Becker; Layout by Jeroen Wille; Remastered by Equusl; Licensed from FGL Productions.
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LP
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V 25AH426
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Restocked. Victory present a reissue of Pacific, originally released in 1978. Reuniting the best session musicians Japan had to offer to make an album that would evoke the atmospheres of the South Pacific islands, the kind of places Japanese people spend their vacations. Pacific is a treat to the ears; its theme of the southern Pacific ocean and its warm cerulean waters relax its listeners with a fusion of city pop, soft jazz, and that good old 1970s funk while remaining surprisingly fully instrumental throughout all contributions from artists Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, and Tatsuro Yamashita. A true cult LP and an inspiration for a lot of so called "vaporware" music. LP includes insert.
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LP
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SR 066LP
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For many, the first traces of the Raudive Tapes were in William Burroughs's fictions and articles. The fact is, these mysterious magnetic tapes, which capture the voices of the dead, and were recorded by the Baltic scientist Konstantin Raudive, are not a fiction but a reality (in this case, not judging their scientific objectivity). These tapes, as rare as H.P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon, are now in Sub Rosa's archives.
What you'll find in this record: 1. Two introductions by Konstantin Raudive and a large session of examples from his archives (July 1965); 2. Nine extracts from the Gerhard Stempnik experiments -- a musician of the Berlin Philharmonic and close friend of Raudive (tapes from 1980); 3. A Raudive celebration including unpublished material by Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky/That Subliminal Kid, David Toop, Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Calla, and Carl Michael von Hausswolff. They have all composed an exclusive piece of music based on the Raudive material. It goes from a close examination of the material itself to a more evocative mood.
Who was Doctor Raudive?: Dr. Konstantin Raudive, a student of Carl Jung, was a Latvian psychologist who taught at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, before devoting the last ten years of his life to electronic voice phenomenon (EVP). He published in his book Breakthrough in 1971. His early collaborator F. Jurgenson, whom he met by the very beginning of 1965, awakened Dr. K. Raudive's interest in EVP research. Raudive spent endless hours for the thorough study of Jurgenson's books (Voices from Space, 1964 and Radio-Link with the Dead, 1967). From an overwhelming database (ranging about 72000 samples!), Raudive's mother seems to be statistically the most frequently reported contact personality. She usually addressed her son in the Latgalian dialect. Includes color insert.
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2CD
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BT 061CD
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Continuing Black Truffle's series of releases documenting the recent work of legendary American experimental composer Alvin Lucier, String Noise presents three major works for violin solo and duo composed between 2004 and 2019. Lucier has developed his compositions in close collaboration with many instrumentalists over the years; the three works presented here are performed by the violinists for whom they were originally written, Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim Harris, who together make up the innovative violin duo String Noise, and have premiered works by a plethora of major figures in contemporary music. The long-form compositions presented here continue Lucier's life-long exploration of acoustic phenomena, drawing on aspects of some of his most well-known compositions and extending them into new instrumentation. "Tapper" (2004) extends the experiments with echolocation -- gathering information about an environment by listening to the echoes of sounds produced within it -- that Lucier began with his classic 1969 work Vespers, where performers explore a space equipped with hand-held pulse oscillators. Here, the same principle is put into practice for solo violin, the body of which the performer taps repeatedly with the butt end of the bow while moving around the performance space. The result is a subtly shifting web of echoes and resonances produced by the reflection of the sharp tap off the surfaces of the room (in this case, the Drawing Center in New York). In "Love Song" (2016), two violinists are connected by a long wire stretched between the bridges of their instruments, causing the sounds played on one violin to also be heard through the other. As the two violinists play long tones using only the open E string, they move in a circular motion around the performance space, thus changing the tension of the wire, which creates a remarkable array of variations in pitch and timbre ranging from ghostly wavering pitches reminiscent of a singing saw to near-electronic tones. In "Halo" (2019), one or more violinists walk slowly through the performance space in a zig-zag pattern while sustaining long tones. As in "Tapper", the consistent sound production reveals the sonic properties of the environment. As the title of the piece suggests, the outcome is a shimmering halo of sound produced by the reflection of the violin's extended tones off the walls and ceiling of the performance space (in this case, Alvin's home). Deluxe four-panel digipak with liner notes by Alvin Lucier, live images and artist bios. Sleeve design by Lasse Marhaug. Mastered by Tom Hamilton.
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GET 51279LP
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RSD Black Friday 2019 release. "Miles Davis was on the verge of forming one of his most acclaimed ensembles in 1964. It was this year that he travelled to perform in Japan for the first time, bringing with him 3/4ths of the musicians that would form his famed 'second great quartet'; Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on double bass, and Tony Williams on drums. In addition the jazz legend brought along saxophonist Sam Rivers to replace the recently exited George Coleman, who was primarily a free jazz musician, but had a long and extensive background in bebop. Davis and Rivers never developed any major chemistry between each other during the trip, and frequently found their distinct styles (Davis' cool and subdued traditional bop style contrasting with Rivers' wild but controlled avant-garde wandering) frequently clashing (or perhaps duelling) in their performances. But for all Davis and Rivers might not have meshed together, the crowd at Tokyo's Kohseinenkin Hall enjoyed it immensely. Davis himself reserved a special kind of respect and admiration for his Japanese audience as well, temporarily dropping his habit of exiting the stage during his fellow musicians' solos. Rivers would ultimately be dismissed from the group at the end of their trip, leading to the arrival of Wayne Shorter, and the inception of the 'second great quartet.' The partnership of Miles Davis and Sam Rivers may have been short-lived, but it did produce the live album Miles In Tokyo nearly five years later. The record is a rare jewel in Miles Davis' discography, featuring high-energy live versions of songs by Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter, and Richard Carpenter, as well as a restlessly fast-paced take on the Davis staple 'So What'. This collection has previously only been available in Japan, but is now presented on vinyl for the first time in America by Get On Down, just in time for Black Friday Record Store Day. Miles In Tokyo is a must-have for completionists of free jazz, bop, and avant-garde alike."
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BB 340LP
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LP version. During the legendary Forst years, Roedelius had a private workspace with a Farfisa organ, a Revox-A77 tape machine, an echo device and a synthesizer which he borrowed from the Cluster studio next door now and again. Here he experimented, practiced, allowed his imagination to flow, at any hour of the day or night, whenever he was not in the studio with Dieter Moebius and/or Michael Rother at work on new Cluster or Harmonia material. Roedelius always let the tape run, in order to analyze the ideas thus captured more effectively on repeated listening. For the first time ever, this Roedelius audio sketchbook had been digitalized and available to the public in 2014 on a limited three-LP box set called Roedelius Tape Archive 1973-1978. The recordings offer a deep insight into the creative process of his music. Fleeting notes, slivers of ideas, so to speak, moments of inspiration. Finger exercises, experiments in harmony, studies in rhythm are also preserved on these magnetic tapes. Since the box set has been sold out for a long time, Bureau B decided to release the essence of those three LPs on a one-disc compilation: Roedelius Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978.
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2LP
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BEWITH 080LP
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Coastlines is the self-titled long player from the new Japanese production unit of DJ and producer Masanori Ikeda and solo artist, session musician, and Cro-Magnon keyboard player, Takumi Kaneko. Masanori and Takumi have been part of the Japanese dance music scene for years and Coastlines was born out of their working together on soundtracks for video projects. The pair wanted to make laid-back listening music for now, laying Takumi's playful keys over Masanori's widescreen Balearic jazz-fusion to conjure beautiful and breathtaking "coastlines". A couple of two-track 7"s put out in late 2018 and early 2019 on Japanese house music label Flower Records soon sold out. Those four tracks were expanded to a full album of music, "a joyous, relaxing, summery soundtrack for everyone's after hours wind down" that was released just in time for summer. The album opens in the horizontal with the sophisticated, cocktails-by-the-pool groove of "Sunset Reflection". Their re-imagining of Ralph MacDonald's "East Dry River" removes all the original's bells and whistles (quite literally) and re-gears it with a subtle Balearic chug -- a percussive gem. "Coastline" is a beach-jazz noodle. "Drifting Ice" is as chilled and glacial as its title would suggest, yet Masanori's head-nod slo-mo house beats throb not far below the surface. "My Fire" is another soft killer, all swelling, swirling organ over muted kicks and snares. A pair of insistent tunes of the deeply Balearic variety raise the tempo, but not by too much of course. On "Woods And My Guitar" a half-heard vocal refrain breathes life into the synthetic xylophone and guitar. Deft piano-work turns "Half Moon Shadow" into lounge-house for the sophisticated beach bum. The self-assured re-work of Azymuth's "Last Summer In Rio" is arguably the album's centerpiece. Ten minutes of casually propulsive slapped bass, steel pans, and slick '80s soul beats. Cue the steel drum interlude of "Maracas Bay" before album closer "Down Town" transitions one with a shuffling, string-hinted hit of ethereal, euphoric piano bliss. Gentle disco for the new decade. Among the nods to revered Japanese artists like Hiroshi Sato, Sakamoto, and Casiopea, there are also hints of Marcos Valle and Mtume, of the aforementioned Azymuth. "The production though is very much now, not then. Not retro, just proper". Coastlines was originally a CD release only available in Japan, with HMV putting out a super-limited, Japanese Record Store Day vinyl version. Mastered by Simon Francis and cut by Pete Norman, Edition of 500, pressed at Record Industry.
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LP
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RM 4114LP
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Argentine born, French based composer Beatriz Ferreyra has played a hushed but utterly critical role in the development of musique concrète since its early days. Working alongside Pierre Schaeffer during the writing of Solfège de l'Objet Sonore, Ferreyra left GRM to pursue her compositional research outside the confines of the institution. Echos+, one of only a few collections of her work available on vinyl, collects three of her most affecting pieces; each of which explore questions of mortality and the afterlife.
Lawrence English: "I'm not really sure when I first heard Beatriz Ferreyra's music. My best guess would be in the early to mid-2000s when I was working alongside the curatorial team at Liquid Architecture. Given the focus of the festival at that time, GRM and musique concrète more generally was very much a point of focus. That said, it wasn't until this decade that her work was sharply in focus for me (and I am guessing a great many others). In 2017, I had the great pleasure to meet Beatriz in Braga, where we both were performing as part of the excellent Semibreve Festival. Subsequent to that I invited her to perform in Australia and we also had the pleasure to send time together this year in Rio during the Novas Frequencies Festival. Across these meetings, I have come to realise the incredible focus, generosity and vision that Beatriz has maintained across her life in sound. Beatriz Ferreyra is one of only a few female concrète composers who were active across the second half of the 20th century through to today. Her work, which is still very much an active investigation, is simultaneously complex and elegantly simple. Often drawing upon singular object of focus, Ferreyra's use of tape and other forms of manipulation radically reconfigure her chosen sound materials, opening them outward. 'Echos' for example is sourced entirely from recordings of her niece who was killed in a car accident and 'The Other Shore' (composed as a response to the Tibetan Book Of The Dead) uses only percussion. Echos+ brings together three of Ferreyra's most engaging compositions. Each of the works are deeply personal, but transcend that position, effortlessly welcoming us inside them. They collectively chart out a broad framework that not only defines her philosophical interests as a composer, but also marks out critical moments in her creative and technical approaches; shifting from her roots in tape music to more digital approaches."
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LP
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JBH 079LP
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Unreleased masterpiece by Roy Budd, the master of British 1970s scores. Composed and recorded in 1974, The Internecine Project is a truly classic Roy Budd score, released here and now on vinyl (and on any format) for the very first time. And it's worth buying just for the totally sublime track called "Mr Easy". Coming from the peak Roy Budd period -- post Get Carter (1971) and pre Diamonds (1976) -- this score neatly bridges the two with Carter-style hypnotic, jazz-driven cues and superb Diamonds-style drama. The film itself was a slick British thriller directed by Ken Hughes, set in a gray, gloomy London and based around espionage and murder. The plot is simple; former spy Robert Elliot (the ice cool James Coburn -- with interesting facial hair and equally as interesting wardrobe) is given a big government job. In order to cut all questionable ties and clean up his rather grubby past he devises a plan in which all of his dodgy associates unwittingly kill each other on the same night -- and in alphabetical order. The film's unusual and often misspelt name comes from the word internecine -- the definition of which is conflict within a group. Full color sleeve; includes sleeve notes.
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LP
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PAL 056LP
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2020 repress. LP version. "After two LPs and over half a decade spent toiling in the margins of the American Songbook, Bill Orcutt returns to original composition and the blues with his latest LP, Odds Against Tomorrow. Taking its title from Robert Wise's 1959 film noir, Odds Against Tomorrow retrofits familiar folk/blues forms to the unique sound of Orcutt's guitar and the result crackles with a freshness and authority that nostalgic retreads cannot deliver. Odds Against Tomorrow is more than an expansion of the territory charted by Bill Orcutt, his eponymous 2017 studio electric debut, although it's certainly that. With its nods to existing musics, half-step fluctuations, and near-songwriter-ly manipulations of tension/release, Odds Against Tomorrow is a rock record -- almost. Clearly and simply recorded through a clattering Fender Twin in Orcutt's living room and lovingly mixed by Bay Area neighbor and pedal-steel savant Chuck Johnson, no one would mistake it for any era's radio fodder, yet the precision of its technique and the swaying Child-ballad logic of its gentler improvisations comfortably seats it between John Mayall and Richard Thompson in your Ikea Kallax. Three songs ('Odds Against Tomorrow,' 'The Writhing Jar,' 'Already Old') are multi-tracked, an innovation that, for guitar buffs familiar with Orcutt's stripped-down vernacular, jumps out of the grooves like a Les Paul sound-on-sound excursion in 1948, or a Jandek blues rave-up in 1987. Specifically evoking John Lee Hooker's double-track experiments on 1952's 'Walking the Boogie,' the steady chord vamps of 'Odds Against Tomorrow' and 'Already Old' form a harmonic turf on which Orcutt solos with lyrical abandon . . . For the more 'contemporary-minded,' 'The Writhing Jar''s crashing overdubs recall the brassy six-string voicings of This Heat or Illitch. With the exception of the unreconstructed Elmore James-isms of 'Stray Dog' and the 'Layla'-finale-like haze of 'All Your Buried Corpses Begin To Speak,' the remaining non-overdubbed tracks dovetail snugly with Orcutt's previous solo output, reeling gently in a Mazzacane-oid mode or vibing up the standards ('Moon River'). On their own, these tracks would still be an important contribution to Orcutt's canon. As part of Odds Against Tomorrow's greater whole, they provide a through line, connecting the idiosyncrasies of Orcutt's past explorations with the scrambled tropes of his present work. Odds Against Tomorrow challenges contemporary solo guitar practice in a way that simultaneously nullifies hazy dreams of folk purity and establishes a new high-water mark for blues-rock reconstruction." --Tom Carter
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OS 006LP
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2020 repress of an in-demand Onderstroom title from 2010. "I hear noises, imaginary sounds." Reissue of Siglo XX's first tape. Recorded in April 1981 and distributed among friends and at gigs, this tape was the first product of their collaboration. And what a tape this is! Heavily influenced by the likes of Joy Division and the whole Factory scene, Belgian's finest produced a total of nine incredible dark but catchy cold wave tunes. Add to this two bonus tracks from their first demo cassette and you have an essential document of the first Siglo XX years. Remastered by Kris Delacourt. Second pressing of 500. Reverse cardboard sleeve.
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LP
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FTR 506LP
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"FTR is proud to present what is only the second solo album by Borbetomagus' sax giant, Don Dietrich. Crazily, Option documents the FIRST solo performance Don ever did. It was recorded in 2019 as part of the OPTION series in Chicago, where Dietrich appeared at the invitation of Ken Vandermark (who also wrote the liner notes). The cover photo shows one of Don's polycarbonate sculptures, after which the album is partially named. Twisted, compressed, and strangely inviting, it is emblematic of the eruptive ruckus Don creates using amplified tenor sax and effects pedals. This music possesses some of the same cerebral overload as the sounds Dietrich invents inside his long-lived trio. But without the specters of Jim Sauter's sax and Donald Miller's guitar, the sonic envelope here feels somehow less hermetic. There are no sneak attacks from his brothers about to happen. The shape of the solo improvisations here are under his control. The pedals allow Don to make all sorts of un-sax-like textural moves. A few spots bubble down into solo electronics that would not be out of place on a Basil Kirchin LP. But most of Option has a crazy flow, constantly bending and folding back on itself, in order to make the sound richer and darker. Like a black hole star, Don sometimes seems to be pulling raw sounds out of the air towards himself. It's a totally wild process, and something we hope you will enjoy, before you file this title as a JAZZ record. Which Don says is where it belongs. And who are we -- really -- to argue?" --Byron Coley, 2020 Edition of 300.
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FTR 531LP
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$24.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 6/12/2020
Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records bring forth Munehiro Narita's cranium busting Live P.S.F (Psychedelic San Francisco). Recorded live at the Hemlock Tavern (by PSF worshiper Ethan Miller). Munehiro Narita, the original "psychedelic speed freak", is for many people the undisputed king of the motorcycle fuzz guitar. Active since the late '70s, Narita is a Japanese psychedelic underground legend. After playing in cult bands like Kyoaku no Intention, he founded the brutal heavy-psych power trio High Rise in the '80s and more recently Green Flames with his furious guitar playing, which involves lethal doses of fuzz-wah at ear-splitting volume. Narita was lucky to be in the right place in Tokyo to see many performances by one of the most out of control guitar players ever to handle six strings in Takashi Mizutani (Les Rallizes Denudes) as well as taking in wild performances from Keiji Haino, Gaseneta, and their take no prisoner maelstrom is a style that Munehiro holds dear too. When Munehiro Narita needed a band for playing four west coast dates in 2017, Steve Krakow knew that LA acid punk David Jasso (OGOD) would be the perfect musician/foil for Narita (it should be noted that David released Green Flames on his Assommer label). David in turn knew drummer TJ. Six tracks were quickly nailed in rehearsals -- a selection of High Rise (four) and Green Flames (two) tunes were then played over the four dates. The shows left audience stunned (listen to the reaction from this show) and by the time of the San Francisco show they were on fire. Luckily, Ethan Miller was there to press record and document this feral in the red paint peeler of a gig as Munehiro Narita peels off wah soaked fireballs on top of the primal throb and groove that David Jasso and TJ lay down. Another of the hopefully famed Cardinal Fuzz bootleg style releases, Narita's guitar playing out front in the mix distorting and warping time and space The whirlwind take on closing number "Pop Sicle" perfectly captures the wild fury of all three musicians creating an energy that is impossible to sedate. Ethan Miller somehow managed to capture and record some of the most brutal playing in prime tape saturated / in the red glory for you know to relive. The positivity of these shows eventually led to all three members forming P.S.F. and their debut LP was released on Black Editions in 2019 (BE 1003LP). Full size/color insert; includes download code; edition of 500.
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12"
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BEWITH 012EP
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In answer to the question, "who put the dance into Factory Records?" Be With would like to refer to FAC 59. Working with founding member Tony Henry, the label is honored to present a reissue of 52nd Street's crucial debut single Look Into My Eyes/Express. Originally released on Factory Records in summer 1982, this 12" is a double-sider in the truest sense -- unrivalled Manchester jazz-funk-boogie-soul. Both "Look Into My Eyes" and "Express" came out of a five-day recording session in the spring of 1982 at Revolution Studios in Cheadle Hulme, just outside Manchester. Rob Gretton had just signed the band to Factory, snatching them from under the noses of RCA and WEA Records, who had been sniffing around and seemingly ignoring Tony Wilson's concerns that Factory might not be the right home for a black soul act. The band, were put in the studio with A Certain Ratio's drummer Donald Johnson producing the sessions. The band also found themselves with an interesting new member; the finished record credits synth and F/X to a mysterious "Be Music". Turns out that's Bernard Sumner. Henry explains that bringing Bernard in was another part of Gretton's plan, "Barney was a real soul boy at heart and had always wanted to produce and work with black artists -- with 52nd Street, he was an honorary member". "Look Into My Eyes" is a strutting, rich, soul-gliding piece of funk with bass and guitar high in the mix above twisted, bubbling synths, like Nile and Barney drenched outside the Haçienda that first summer. The hypnotic, naïve-cum-insouciant vocals from Beverley McDonald only add to the track's charm. On the flip, "Express" is sheer drama on wax -- all bold keys, synth brass blasts, insistent bells, and a galloping groove giving *that rush* atop a bassline to die for -- blistering heat. The 12" was Paul Morley's single of the week in the NME but his approval did little to get daytime radio play or to sell the record when it was released. "Look Into My Eyes" and "Express" come from a chapter of the history of Factory Records that no-one seems to have gotten around to writing. Working with Tony to reissue the original 12" is the start of putting that right; the story of 52nd Street is more than just a footnote.
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LP
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PING 065LP
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2020 repress. Anadol is a psychedelic synth folk project by Gözen Atila, a Turkish sound artist and photographer based in Berlin. Her third album, Uzun Havalar, is based on collective improvisations of middle eastern folk songs called "uzun hava". They turn out as rich, atmospheric synth ballads. A diverse roster of improvising musicians creates their fascinating complexity. Anadol recorded them during extensive sessions in Istanbul. You can hear drummers laughing and playing guitars, composers howling, announcements in French and screams in no language, record collectors playing oscillators, and trumpets through spacious echoes. Anadol represents Gözen Atila's liberation from a rather academic approach to electronic composition which she pursued during her music technology studies in Istanbul. She calls her education the "darkness of serious music" where she first tried to belong, then to break free with the help of lo-fi synth pop. As a producer of radio plays and an expert field recording artist she has developed a distinct sense of timing, editing and sound design. Her Anadol project walks in the footsteps of lone synth experimentalists like Bruce Haack and The Space Lady with their childlike curiosity for electronic sounds, pushing the boundaries of minimal equipment. On Uzun Havalar she translates her experimental background into these floating folk ballads. The album was originally released on tape via Kinship in 2018.
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LP
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WWSLP 012LP
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2020 repress; LP version. Wewantsounds present a reissue and the first international release of Hiroshi Sato's ultra-rare synth masterpiece, Orient, originally released in 1979 on Kitty Records in Japan only. This highly sought-after album is a superb breezy mix of Japanese synth-pop with a subtle touch of mid-70s Herbie Hancock-style funk and AOR. Originally released in 1979, at a fruitful time when Hiroshi Sato, Haruomi Hosono, and Shigeru Suzuki were fresh from playing in the group Tin Pan Alley and Haruomi Hosono had just formed Yellow Magic Orchestra, Orient is a unique balance of various styles. It has become one of the most sought-after Japanese LPs on the global Balearic scene and is now exchanging hands for astronomical prices. The album includes such cult tracks as "Son Go Kuw" and "Do-Jo" popular on the international DJ scene. It features the best Japanese musicians at the time, including Shigeru Suzuki on guitar, Haruomi Hosono on bass, Pecker on percussion, and Sato himself on keyboards and synthesizers. The album also features on Gilles Peterson's "Significant Album" List. Fully remastered from the original Kitty Records tapes by Universal Japan. Includes original four-page color insert, including English translations of the original liner notes by leading Japanese journalist Yasufumi Amatatsu, plus the full track-by-track musician line up. "Breezy Balearic synth pop with a Nippon twist" --The Vinyl Factory.
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CD
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CVSD 051CD
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Restocked; RIP Hal Willner. Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Amarcord Nino Rota, a tribute album assembled by producer Hal Willner, originally released by Hannibal Records in 1981. If you think you know how to put a mix-tape together, take a lesson from Hal Willner, the absolute master. In 1981, Willner produced a landmark record of interpretations of music written by Nino Rota for the films of Federico Fellini. With ten tracks and as many different lineups, this record set the template for a series of brilliant tributes that Willner has made over the ensuing 35 years, covering the songbooks of Monk, Mingus, Weill, and Disney, with a mind-expanding range of performers from Eugene Chadbourne to Chuck D to Diamanda Galas to Peter Frampton. On Amarcord Nino Rota, Willner drew together an equally dazzling spectrum of musicians, compiling them into a perfect program that explores Rota's wonderful, sly, sexy oeuvre from contrasting and complementary perspectives. Pianist Jaki Byard sets the stage with the title track and ends things with "La Strada", and in his first appearance on record, guitarist Bill Frisell contributes a haunting solo acoustic version of "Juliet Of The Spirits". Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, who lived in Rome early in his international years, offers a take on Rota's "Roma" and vibraphonist Dave Samuels provides interludes and transitions in a couple of spots. On the other end of the size bracket, Muhal Richard Abrams arranges and conducts his band as part of "La Dolce Vita Suite", which ends with a rock group featuring Debbie Harry singing a wordless waltz. The Carla Bley Band presents a daunting, suitably hilarious version of "8 ½", with Gary Windo's ballistic tenor saxophone, a David Amram Quintet with Sharon Freeman on French horn plays "Satyricon", and in a surprise appearance, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis plays alongside his brother Branford, tenor saxophonist George Adams, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Wilbert Fletcher, in William Fischer's arrangement of a medley of Rota chestnuts. Long out-of-print on LP and only released on CD for a hot minute in the early nineties, Amarcord Nino Rota is a certifiable classic.
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LP
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WRWTFWW 017LP
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2020 repress. We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records present the first ever official vinyl pressing of the soundtrack for Mamoru Oshii's critically acclaimed and all around legendary science fiction anime film Ghost In The Shell (1995), adapted from Masamune Shirow's groundbreaking manga series of the same name. The haunting score is composed by Kenji Kawai, one of Japan's most celebrated soundtrack composers alongside Joe Hisaishi and Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose work includes Hideo Nakata's Ring (1998) and Ring 2 (1999), Death Note (2006), Hong Kong films Seven Swords by Tsui Hark (2005) and Ip Man by Wilson Yip (2008), and countless others. Kawai's compositions see ancient harmonies and percussions uncannily mesh with synthesized sounds of the modern world to convey a sumptuous balance between folklore tradition and futuristic outlook. For its iconic main theme "Making Of Cyborg", Kawai had a choir chant a wedding song in ancient Japanese following Bulgarian folk harmonies, setting the standard for a timeless and unparalleled soundtrack that admirably echoes the film's musings on the nature of humanity in a technologically advanced world. Ghost In The Shell is widely considered one of the best anime films of all time and its influence has been felt in the work of numerous movie directors, including James Cameron's Avatar (2009), the Wachowskis's The Matrix (1999), and Steven Spielberg's AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001). For fans of anime, manga, movie soundtracks, science fiction, ambient, folklore, Japan, Akira (1988), artificial intelligence, Midori Takada. Cut from the original master reels at Emil Berliner Studios (formerly the in-house recording department of renowned classical record label Deutsche Grammophon).
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LP
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TW O-LP
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Patrick Shiroishi's Descension is a beautifully elegiac and unflinchingly primal album. With richly layered solo saxophone, electronics, and voice, the album is a meditation on the legacy of a dark history and its echoing relevance in the present era. Descension is a spiritual journey that reveals Shiroishi's deeply reflective and unique musical vision. Over the past decade Shiroishi has established himself as one of the key artists in Los Angeles's free improvisation and avant-garde undergrounds. An incredibly inventive and versatile player, Shiroishi has collaborated with everyone from epic post-rock maximalists Godspeed You! Black Emperor to Radu Malfatti, the Austrian composer who pioneered the ultra-quiet reductionist school of improvisation. Shiroishi has also led or been at the center of innumerable ensembles which currently include Danketsu 10, Borasisi, Nakata, Kogarashi, Komeshi Trio. His previous groups include in the Womb, Oort Smog, oxox, Hoboglyphs, and Upsilon Acrux. On his debut album for Thin Wrist Recordings and his first solo vinyl release, Shiroishi makes a deep examination of his own ancestral history. "In the fall of 2016 I started researching heavily into the concentration camps of Japanese-American citizens during World War II," says Shiroishi. "My grandparents on my father's side met and married in the camps at Tule Lake, a place my grandmother never spoke about to me when she was alive. As I began to dive deeper, it naturally began to sink into my improvisations and work." In the context of events that were unfurling in real time, Shiroishi's work began to bridge the past with the present, using improvisation as the most immediate means of expression: "Everything on Descension was recorded in one take in the order that it appears," recalls Shiroishi. "I didn't prepare any melodies or form prior to the session; I anticipated playing layers and layers of noise. The record is a representation of how I had been processing the horrors of the present -- the sadness of the loss of life not only in the states but through the genocides in Sudan, Myanmar, Iraq and Syria, anger that migrant children are being separated from their parents and being held in concentration camps again, the frustration that times really are frighteningly similar to when my grandparents were growing up." Rather than create any sort of literal or agitprop statement, Shiroishi's work tapped into a timeless spiritual tradition of music -- closer to those of artistic heroes such as Coltrane or Ayler.
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2LP
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PT 2007LP
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2019 repress. Double LP in gatefold sleeve with insert and download code. Expanded edition of the soundtrack to the celebrated 2014 documentary film Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll, originally released on CD by Dust-to-Digital in 2015. On April 17, 1975, Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge and Cambodian rock and roll was no more. Its star musicians were targeted and killed, record collections were destroyed, clubs were closed, and Western-style music-making, dancing, and clothes were outlawed. The deaths of approximately two million Cambodians and the horrors of the Killing Fields have been well documented; add to this John Pirozzi's fascinating tale of Cambodia's vibrant pop music scene, beginning in the 1950s and '60s and influenced by France's Johnny Hallyday and Britain's Cliff Richard and the Shadows. Cambodian culture has long been synonymous with a love for the arts. Don't Think I've Forgotten pays homage to the country's rock legends who paid for their creativity with their lives. Punctuating rare archival footage with telling interviews with the few surviving musicians, Don't Think I've Forgotten examines and unravels Cambodia's tragic past through the eyes, words, and songs of its popular music stars of the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Compiled by Pirozzi, the soundtrack album is very cinematic in nature -- the sequencing and remastered audio transport the listener through the rock and roll history of Cambodia in a way that parallels the film. It is both entertaining and essential to hear so many tracks that have never before been available outside of Cambodia. Performers include The Royal University of Fine Arts, Sinn Sisamouth, Chhoun Malay, Huoy Meas, Baksey Cham Krong, Ros Serey Sothea, Pen Ran, Sieng Vannthy, Va Sovy, Drakkar, Pou Vannary, Yol Aularong, and Cheam Chansovannary. Includes two tracks not included on the CD version ("Three Maidens" by Ros Serey Sothea and "Have You No Mercy" by Drakkar).
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LP
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BEWITH 085LP
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Be With Records work with Ian Willson to reissue his self-released, West Coast classic Straight From The Heart, privately pressed and originally released in 1985. This is the only album Ian ever put out. A magical blend of AOR/sophisticated funk/synth-boogie/spiritual jazz and modern soul, it's a spellbinding record of many colors. You might already know Straight From The Heart for the dubby-disco paranoid-Balearic anthem "Four In The Morning", and it's easy to assume this is probably just another one of those one-track LPs. But this is an impressively slick record from start to finish. Album opener "Think About It" is all sorts of right. It's emotional. It's tops-off. It's funk in its purest form. And take the proto-modern-funk of the title track (half Dâm-Funk/half Dâd-Funk). The shimmering, spiritual bossa-jazz of "If I Were You" serves as the album's soaring centerpiece. A gorgeous suite of cosmic vibes to get Gilles frothing, it sounds like nothing else on the record which makes sense given that it was recorded a couple of years earlier, and is the only track on the LP that wasn't recorded in Ian's own studio. Side B opens with the propulsive ode to love that is "Two Is Better Than One". Wonderfully sparse when it needs to be, it's also richly percussive and that special kind of California-warm. Frenetic, speaker smashing synth and horn workout "Funk Invasion" dares you not to dance and "A Game Called Love" is heavily indebted to Prince with its lush, deep funk stylings. The sweeping sax-drenched instrumental "Song For Katelyn" is head-nod, beat-heavy AOR for that melancholic magic hour. It all adds up to the ultimate BBQ record. Almost all of Straight From The Heart was recorded over a few months between 1983 and 1984 on Ian's brand new Otari 8 track in the Oakland, California studio he built just the year before. Only "If I Were You" was recorded elsewhere, at Bay Sound in 1982. Ian produced the album himself and played all of the instruments, except for the guitar of his longtime friend, Peter Fujii. Tower Of Power, Average White Band, Earth Wind & Fire, and Stevie Wonder was the list of influences Ian gave when asked. Why did he put the record out himself? Simple, he had no idea how to go about getting a record deal. The original tapes have long since been lost. This reissue was remastered from Ian's one-and-only pristine copy.
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