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MTE 078-79LP
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The next chapter of the Natural Information Society is here. Since Time Is Gravity, credited to Natural Information Society Community Ensemble with Ari Brown, presents a newly expanded manifestation of acclaimed composer & multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams nearly 15 year, 7 albums- &-counting flagship ensemble. Joining the core NIS of Abrams (guimbri & bass), Lisa Alvarado (harmonium) Mikel Patrick Avery (drums) & Jason Stein (bass clarinet) are Hamid Drake (percussion), Josh Berman & Ben Lamar Gay (cornets), Nick Mazzarella & Mai Sugimoto (alto saxophones & flute), Kara Bershad (harp) & Chicago living legend of the tenor saxophone Ari Brown. Recorded live to tape at Electrical Audio & The Graham Foundation, cover painting Vibratory Cartography: Nepantla, by Lisa Alvarado.
"Since first developing Natural Information Society in 2010, Joshua Abrams has been gradually expanding the group's conceptual underpinnings, its musical references & the sheer number of the group's members. Its music is, in a sense, an expansive form of minimalism, based in repeated & overlaid rhythmic patterns, ostinatos & modality. Its roots, its scale & its meaning become clearer in time. If time is gravity, it also allows us to carry more. Having begun as fundamentally a rhythm section with Abrams' guimbri at its core, the version here can stretch to a tentet, including six horns. Abrams has been expanding his minimalism gradually, but he has long understood a key to minimalism's potential: the breadth of its roots in the late 1950s & early 1960s, ranging from the dissatisfaction of young European-stream composers with the limitations of serialism to the simultaneous dissatisfaction of jazz musicians with the dense harmonic vocabulary of bop & hard bop. The former began exploring rhythmic complexity & narrow tonal palates in place of harmonic abstraction (Steve Reich's Drumming, Philip Glass' Music with Changing Parts; perhaps above all Terry Riley's In C & his late '60s all-night organ & loop concerts); the later reduced dense chord changes to scales (signally with Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, but rapidly expanding with John Coltrane's vast project). In the 1950s the LP record opened the world with documentation of Asian & African musics, key influences on both minimalists & jazz musicians. If John Coltrane's soprano saxophone suggested the keening shehnai of Bismillah Khan, the instrument was rapidly taken up by two key minimalists, LaMonte Young & Riley, similarly appreciative of its flexible intonation, the same thing that kept it out of big bands. If the guimbri, the North African hide-covered lute that Abrams plays with NIS, involves a rich tradition of hypnotic healing music associated with the Gnawa people, Abrams' music also touches on other musics as well --other depths, memories & healings, different drones, rhythms & modes. As the group expands on Since Time Is Gravity, he has made certain jazz traditions in the same stream more explicit as well. If there is a mystical & elastic quality involved in the experience of time, both in direction & duration, you will catch it here. The parts for the choir of winds expand on the roles of Abrams' guimbri, Mikel Patrick Avery & Hamid Drake's percussion & Lisa Alvarado's harmonium: at times, the winds are almost looping in the tentet version, each hitting a repeating note in turn, at once drone & distinct inflection on temporal sequence. The brilliance of the work resides in Abrams' compositions, the NIS' intuitive execution & in Ari Brown's singular embodiment of the great tenor saxophone tradition, including the oracular genius of Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis, & Yusef Lateef..." --Stuart Broomer, April 2022
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BEA 002LP
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"Black Editions Archive is ecstatic to announce the newest release in the Milford Graves Archival series, the double LP, Children of the Forest, featuring previously unreleased 1976 sessions with Hugh Glover and Arthur Doyle that re-write the book on Milford Graves's ensemble music of the 1970s. Graves recorded these sessions himself in his legendary Queens basement laboratory and workshop in the weeks immediately leading up to the March 1976 session that, with the same unit, produced what many consider his most iconic album, Bäbi, recorded at WBAI-FM Free Music Store. Following the death of Albert Ayler in 1970 and up until his storied trip to FESTAC 1977 in Lagos, Nigeria, Graves gigged fairly often as a band leader in the New York Loft scene and traveled twice to Europe (1973, 1974) with duos, trios and quartets comprised of fellow New York City based musicians -- almost always with Hugh Glover, and variously including Arthur Williams, Joe Rigby, Frank Lowe, and Arthur Doyle. The three sessions that comprise Children of the Forest date from near the end of this intensive period of grassroots activity by Graves during a peak era of musical & cultural ferment in jazz & Black American Music. The earliest recordings feature the duo of Graves (drums & percussion) and Glover (tenor saxophone) from January 24th, and Graves solo (drums & percussion) from February 2. In an interview commissioned for this release and conducted by Jake Meginsky, Glover discusses the mastery of form and execution in Graves's playing and approach: 'It has always been a mystery to me how Cuban drummers in Bata were able to modulate the rhythm and the meter. Well, it takes more than one player to do it Cuban style. Prof (Graves) shows you can do it as one player. The reason he's able to do it is because he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the rhythms of the Caribbean, rhythms of Africa, plus rhythms of jazz. He can move around without losing the feel.' The centerpiece of this set is the March 11 session featuring Graves, Doyle on tenor saxophone and fife, and Glover on a rather unusual pair of instruments that would not appear on the Bäbi recording just one week later -- klaxon and the vaccine, a Haitian one-note trumpet. Glover: 'The klaxon -- it's important to keep that tribal possession-state feel... because it's not a Hollywood gallop. It's very much about the energy, this gallop. Prof (Graves) talks about that, talking about the low, the galloping as in the Divine Horsemen of Haiti.' Doyle's visceral and unrestrained tenor playing on the March 11 session is further evidence as to why his work, especially during this period, has attained mythic status among aficionados of free jazz and even noise music. Graves would later discuss Doyle in Conversations (William Parker, 2011 Rogue Art Books): 'There was another horn player I know that really got into it from the gut and he had a certain kind of intellectualism when we performed? that was Arthur Doyle. (laughs) Arthur Doyle would just go into it. I mean really just go into it... something happened there that was beyond the immediate intellectual control of the people who was doing it. It was about just doing it and don't worry about all these people putting you down. The most important thing was what was coming out of your instrument and how it was effecting people.' Listening to these recordings, that spirit is unmistakable. The original 1/4 inch reel, labeled 'Pygmy' by Graves, including 15 minutes of audio from an unknown documentary on the Mbuti People of the Congo Basin, are among the few tapes we've so far encountered from Graves' private archive that seem clearly intended in his conception & sequencing to be an album. For this reason, these recordings are now presented exactly as assembled by Graves, for soonest possible release." --Peter Kolovos & Michael Ehlers
Deluxe double-LP tip-on gatefold with pigment ink foil stamping featuring photographs by acclaimed photographer and free jazz historian Val Wilmer. Includes insert with new interview of Hugh Glover by Jake Meginsky.
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GGR 2022LP
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"This long out-of-print holy grail private press album, originally released by the late Abdul Wadud himself in 1977, is finally being reissued on vinyl. The release date is what would have been his 76th birthday. There really is no easily comparable album in existence. Abdul Wadud used the cello to make music in a way that was never fore-sought for the instrument, and this album was the first physical representation of his genius. Sourced from the only copy of the original master tapes in existence. However, due to severe deterioration of the tape, the vinyl master lacquers were cut from a DSD transfer of the audio tape. Tape restoration and DSD transfer conducted by grammy-award winning mastering engineer Paul Blakemore. Lacquers cut by Clint Holley and Dave Polster at well-made music. Stampers plated with Gotta Groove Records proprietary groove-coated plating technology. Vinyl manufactured by Gotta Groove Records, and packaged in Gotta Groove anti-static dust sleeves. Contains restoration of original jacket artwork with spot gloss treatment, as well as never before-seen photo of Abdul with his children (Raheem and Aisha), along with a digital download code to redeem a high-resolution digital copy of the tape transfer. This reissue was originally sanctioned by Abdul himself. Unfortunately, he passed away on August 10, 2022. We thank his family, and particularly his son, Raheem DeVaughn, in assisting us see this masterpiece through to become available again on vinyl to a new generation."
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FR 006LP
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Double-LP version, black vinyl in gatefold sleeve -- on vinyl for the first time, in a revelatory new remaster by Jim O'Rourke. In 2016, Finnish label frozen reeds published the première release of Julius Eastman's Femenine, for chamber ensemble. Laying unheard for decades prior, the release documented a 1974 performance by the S.E.M. Ensemble with the composer himself on piano. Lauded in Pitchfork (awarded "Best New Music"), The New Yorker, and The New York Times, the first release of Femenine served as the catalyst that propelled Eastman's music into the mainstream. Articles on Eastman's music and its immediate disruptive impact on the classical canon began to appear in every major news organ in the English-speaking world and beyond. His music began to be programmed in major concerts and festivals, several of these entirely themed around his life and work. New recordings sprang up from a fresh generation of musicians engaging with his ideas and interpreting them for a modern audience hungry to hear more. But the raw, emotionally cascading spirit of the original performance continues to inspire listeners. Joyous, insistent, and immersive, Femenine bathes the listener in surges of tonal color from intertwining winds, piano, violin, pitched percussion, synthesizer, and -- uniquely -- the composer's own invention of mechanized sleigh bells, which provide the 72-minute piece with its characteristic pulse. Femenine was recorded live by Steve Cellum -- co-producer of Arthur Russell's World of Echo -- and the new vinyl reissue has been remastered from the original high-definition tape transfer by Jim O'Rourke at his Steamroom studio in the Japanese mountains. Illuminating sleeve notes are provided by composer and author Mary Jane Leach, key figure of the Eastman revival and co-editor of the Gay Guerrilla collection of essays on his life and music. Gatefold. "Eastman's stated aim with Femenine was to please listeners, saying of the piece that 'the end sounds like the angels opening up heaven . . . should we say euphoria?" --Mary Jane Leach
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PL 135LP
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On May 28, 1969, four American musicians -- reed/wind players Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, bassist Malachi Favors, and (accompanied by his wife, singer Fontella Bass) trumpeter Lester Bowie -- boarded the ocean liner S.S. United States, bound for Le Havre, France. After landing five days later, they moved on to Paris, where they got to work. On August 22, 1970, in the waning days of their stay overseas, the group, with Bass on vocals, would record their second release for EMI's Pathé Marconi: the movie soundtrack Les Stances à Sophie. The record, an exciting, eminently listenable combination of soul, classical, and jazz strains that survives as the Art Ensemble of Chicago's most stylistically diverse album, has long been admired by a devoted cult. Its durability is largely due to the popularity of its "hit": Over the years, "Theme de Yoyo" has been covered repeatedly, essayed by acts as varied as German funk band the Boogoos (and the offshoot Deep Jazz, both featuring singer Julia Fehenbeger), British nu-jazz combo the Cinematic Orchestra, Polish jazz man Wojtek Mazolewski, Norwegian rockers Motorpsycho, French dance music artist Étienne Jaumet, and London-based remixer, Shall I Bruk It. More than half a century later, "Theme de Yoyo" and Les Stances à Sophie still bring it. Limited-edition LP reissue from play loud! Productions, supplemented with new notes by U.S. music journalist Chris Morris.
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SLT 008CD
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Saltern presents a thrilling new live recording of Naldjorlak for solo cello, composer Éliane Radigue's first piece for an acoustic instrument, paired with a remastered version of the long out-of-print, original 2006 recording. Composed in 2005 in close collaboration with cellist Charles Curtis, Naldjorlak marked a striking shift in the music of Radigue, who has since composed exclusively for instrumentalists with her celebrated Occam series. This double-CD album brings together two complete performances by Curtis, recorded nearly 15 years apart (Paris in 2006 and Los Angeles in 2020), drawing attention to the evolution of the piece and to its inherent mutability. The sound and spirit of Naldjorlak are centered around the re-tuning of the entire cello to the wolf tone, a uniquely unstable frequency, creating a haunting, almost feedback-like resonance within the instrument itself. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu with custom packaging and screen printing by Alan Sherry. Includes extensive liner notes by Gascia Ouzounian, Radigue, and Curtis, and a reproduction of Radigue's never-before published original drawing of Naldjorlak.
From Gascia Ouzounian's liner notes: "Even as it expands conceptions of what sound is, and thus what music can be, to understand Naldjorlak only as music would be to limit its scope. It is music, but it is also physics and philosophy. Naldjorlak is a detailed investigation of the physical properties of resonating bodies and dynamic systems; it is a meditation on the condition of instability; it is a metaphysics of chaos and uncertainty."
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SLT 005LP
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New double-LP edition of a selection from Saltern's acclaimed collection of recordings surveying the career of renowned, American cellist, Charles Curtis. Selected by Curtis and Tashi Wada from recordings spanning two decades, Performances & Recordings 1999-2018 offers a broad, inclusive view of Curtis's activities across the diverse worlds of music he inhabits, featuring the music of Guillaume de Machaut, Tobias Hume, Silvestro di Ganassi, Terry Jennings, Morton Feldman, Anton Webern, Olivier Messiaen, Richard Maxfield, and Curtis himself. The wide-ranging scope of this release speaks not to a musical restlessness, but to a genuine spirit of inquiry, as these areas of activity for Curtis have existed concurrently in dialogue, not simply in succession, for decades. Includes liner notes by La Monte Young and Wada, as well as a new text by Curtis, and a download of the full original album. Listed as The Wire's #2 Archival Release of 2020. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu, and cut to vinyl via direct metal mastering by Hans-Jörg Maucksch at Pauler Acoustics. Pressed at RTI and printed at Stoughton.
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LSD 69018LP
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More unearthed demo recordings by the Japanese psychedelic noise legends Les Rallizes Dénudés. Recorded in Azabu, Tokyo 1985.
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LSD 69019LP
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More unearthed demo recordings by the Japanese psychedelic noise legends Les Rallizes Dénudés. Recorded in Azabu, Tokyo 1985.
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BORNBAD 160LP
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Double LP version. Includes six-page booklet; includes download code. Delving into the deepest recesses of raï, this compilation serves as a tribute to its roaring years, but also as a rejuvenation of the genre in its sulphureous, subterranean version. It seemed like a good idea to dig into nearly untraceable cassettes, thus confirming it's in the oldest of Oranese pots that the very best of raï is to be found. Just 50 years ago, no one would have believed even a bit in a genre seemingly bound to forever turn round and round in its native Oran, laying low in one of its many coastal road clubs. In these underground venues, singers -- backed up by a minimalist orchestration for lack of space -- would move their audience to laughs and tears, sobbing in a beer or chuckling down (dry) whisky. Through the pre- and post-independence years, from 1950 to 1970, raï urbanized itself, with a generation growing up between asphalt and concrete to the sound of traditional flute, but also and mostly listening to twist, French variété and rock music. Their names were Boutaïba S'ghir, Messaoud Bellemou, Groupe El Azhar, Younès Benfissa, or Zergui, and they passed on their collection of songs to the incoming "Chebs" -- breathing a second youth into them. Oran, the capital of West-Algeria, will be at the heart of this rejuvenation. Overshadowed to the West by the bare mountain of Aïdour, a foot set onto a beautiful bay and the other on a long dried out wadi, covered up with buildings since, Oran must be the most European of Algerian towns -- regardless of its kasbah, its sanctuary built in 1793 under the reign of the Bey Mohammed ben Othman and devoted to Sidi El Houari, the city's patron saint, and praised in many a raï song, and its Pacha 18th century mosque built in memory of the displaced Spaniards of 1492. Oran is blessed with the sea and pine forests all around and above it, towards Sana Cruz. It is rich with Hispanic, Andalusian, Turkish, Arab-Berber and French influences. A cosmopolitanism is very much part of the city's largely jovial nature. Some head for the open-air theater, renamed Cheb Hasni in honor of the creator of love raï, killed on September the 29th, 1994. Others take over restaurants before taking it all out on the dancefloor of one of the many clubs dotted along the coastal road. Features Cheb Hindi, Houari Benchenet, Chab Mohamed Sghir, Chaba Fadila, Cheb Tahar, Cheb Djalal, Benchenet, Cheb Kader, Chab Hamouda, Cheb Khaled "Schir", Nordine Staïfi, Chaba Amel, Chaba Malika Meddah, and Tchier Abdelgani.
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WRJ 010LTD-LP
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2022 repress; LP version. 180 gram vinyl, half speed mastered; heavy sleeve with obi and gold ink. We Release Jazz announce the official reissue of Hiroshi Suzuki's Cat, a glorious jazz-fusion-funk holy grail originally released in 1976. Cat was recorded in October 1975 at Nippon Columbia Studio, while Hiroshi Suzuki was visiting his home country of Japan after moving to Las Vegas in 1971 to play with Buddy Rich and perfect his craft. Back on his old stomping grounds, the man known as Neko (Cat) immediately reunited with his dear friends for an epic two-day session of groove magic. The chemistry was still intact. The skills and style had grown. The result, Cat, is a smooth masterpiece, a deep and soulful affair where stunning trombone solos by Hiroshi Suzuki flirt with Takeru Muraoka's heavenly saxophone and the sensual rhythm section of Hiromasa Suzuki (keyboards), Kunimitsu Inaba (bass), and Akira Ishikawa (drums). Celebrated in jazz collectors circles, in the lo-fi beat scene, and among music diggers around the world, Cat has become one of the most sought-after Japanese jazz albums of all time and, much like Ryo Fukui's Scenery, has fascinated old and young generations alike. Sourced from the original masters. Liner notes by Teruo Isono.
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BEWITH 125LP
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Nucleus's Elastic Rock is undisputedly a milestone in jazz-rock. A beautiful and vital debut album, it was first released on Vertigo in 1970. Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. He was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Regarding music as a continuous process, Nucleus refused to "recognize rigid boundaries" and worked on delivering what they saw as a "total musical experience". Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. The very title Elastic Rock could be regarded as the group's MO, describing a melting point between their rock and jazz impulses. Recorded over four days in January 1970, Elastic Rock didn't sound like any other British jazz album. Exploding out the gate, "1916" opens with John Marshall's frantic pounding before melancholic horns enter. The smooth title track, "Elastic Rock" is just a gorgeous electric blues track. The serene "Striation", a Jeff Clyne and Chris Spedding collaboration, is led by bowed bass and is the epitome of calm before the late-night laidback vibe of "Taranaki" breezes along sweetly and smoothly with great trumpet and tenor. The truly emotional "Twisted Track" is elegant with horns, while guitar is gently played with drums and bass. "Crude Blues (Part 1)" features an excellent oboe part by Karl Jenkins with laconic guitar helping out. "Part 2" is livelier, with a heavy backbeat and great wind parts. "1916 (Battle Of Boogaloo)" features a steady bassline and great call and response parts from the horn section. The mesmeric epic "Torrid Zone" brilliantly encapsulates the jazz fusion aesthetic so desired by the group, the rhythm section is rock-influenced but magically retains a laid-back jazz vibe. Spacey jazz in the style of In a Silent Way, the semi-ambient "Stonescape" features smooth, muted brass, warm, smokey keys and a barely-there rhythm section. The bubbling, fragile restraint of "Earth Mother" partially utilizes the "Torrid Zone" bassline but takes the energy in a different direction. Next comes the very idiosyncratic drum solo track by Marshall in the appropriately-titled "Speaking for Myself, Personally, in My Own Opinion, I Think?" The album closes with the raucous "Persephones Jive", a track that ends the album frantically, riotously, just as it began. Remastered from the original Vertigo master tapes by Simon Francis. Cut by Cicely Balston at AIR Studios.
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BEWITH 126LP
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With breaks for days and an almost ambient, heavy jazz atmosphere throughout, this is the apex of British jazz-rock fusion. We'll Talk About It Later was first released on Vertigo in 1971 and original copies are now very tricky to score. Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. He was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. We'll Talk About It Later is arguably Nucleus's best album. Not only that, it's in the top five of all fusion albums. By the time Nucleus entered Trident Studios in September 1970 to record Elastic Rock's successor, they had already won a best group award at the Montreux Jazz Festival. The group work and insane musicianship Nucleus were famed for is in evidence from the off. The intensely funky "Song for the Bearded Lady" features counterpoint riffing segues into a spacious groove and a Carr trumpet solo demonstrating the influence of electric Miles from the period. The stop-start funk of "Sun Child" would appeal to Soft Machine devotees whilst the genuinely touching "Lullaby For A Lonely Child" is a lovely downtempo ballad. Featuring an understated, reflective horn line from Carr and Brian Smith and atmospheric, shimmering bouzouki from Chris Spedding, there's an exotic flavor which contributes to the bliss. The ominous, sleazy title track retains a swaggering menace and is not the only track to lend a sort of heavy stoner rock atmosphere. The guitars and bass are deep and low throughout, conjuring heavy psych moments to go with the actual jazz and even funk. To say this album was in conversation with Bitches Brew would not be overstating the sheer brain-frying brilliance. The Weather Report-adjacent "Oasis" opens Side B, a colossal track featuring nearly ten minutes of steadily building melodic horns, keys and choppy guitar riffs. Spedding adds unique vocals to the undeniable groove of "Ballad of Joe Pimp" whilst saxophonist Smith's duet with drummer John Marshall at the conclusion of "Easter 1916" -- inspired by the Yeats poem about the Irish nationalist uprising in Dublin -- adopts the wildness of the most incendiary free jazz. Remastered from the original Vertigo master tapes by Simon Francis. Cut by Cicely Balston at AIR Studios.
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WRWTFWW 017LP
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2023 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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BEWITH 127LP
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The outstanding Solar Plexus, the much-loved third album from Ian Carr and Nucleus, was first released on Vertigo in 1971. Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era.
Ian Carr describes Solar Plexus: "I wrote Solar Plexus last year with the help of an Arts Council grant. It is based on two short themes which are stated at the beginning ('Elements I' and 'II'). The first theme is angular and has a slow, crab-like movement: the second theme is direct, simple and diatonic. 'Changing Time' and 'Spirit Level' explore the first theme and 'Bedrock Deadlock' and 'Torso' explore the second one. 'Snakehips Dream' tries to fuse both themes. (The title is a reference to the famous dancer 'Snakehips' Johnson)."
Solar Plexus features the same lineup as Elastic Rock and We'll Talk About It Later, but they're augmented by six guests, three of which play brass. Carr himself had almost full control of the writing and it does feel very different to the previous albums. It's more of a jazz record loosely based on a rock foundation rather than jazz fusion jamming. The haunting synth-and-bass soundscape "Elements I and II" opens the album in dramatic, experimental fashion. It gives way to the bright, funky feel-good jazz of "Changing Times". An elegant onslaught of horns, courtesy of guests Kenny Wheeler and Harry Beckett, ride a solid groove for the duration. The melancholic "Bedrock Deadlock" features the brooding majesty of Jenkins's oboe and Clyne's mournful, skittering double bass. Wah wah guitar, drums and funky percussion then take over before the horns ride you out over frenetic beats. The dark, angular "Spirit Level" is a real highlight, by turns harmonic and beautiful then dissonant and wayward. The breezy soul of "Torso" feels like a breath of fresh air, skipping along in the up-tempo style with guitar, horns, drums and bass. A track which truly sounds scintillating, featuring sax solos, fantastic propulsive interplay from all the group around the halfway stage before Marshall gets his chance to really shine in closing out with a polyrhythmic drum solo. Final track "Snakehips' Dream" stretches cooly out over 15 minutes to round out a spellbinding album. An epic, suave groove, it's a relaxing piece with warm electric keys, laconic guitar and languorous horns. Truly sophisticated soulful jazz. Remastered from the original Vertigo master tapes by Simon Francis. Cut by Cicely Balston at AIR Studios. Gatefold sleeve.
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V 25AH506LP
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2023 repress. Victory present a reissue of Haruomi Hosono, Takahiko Ishikawa, and Masataka Matsutoya's The Aegean Sea originally released in 1979. The album is somewhat of a companion piece to the previous year's Pacific (V 25AH426). A beautiful piece of Japanese smooth fusion-jazz with elements of traditional Greek music and Balearic grooves, it's one of Hosono's cleanest and most focused works to date. Long sought-after by collectors, this record is nearly impossible to find in original pressings outside of Japan and this is a welcome reissue of one of the greatest titles in Hosono's seemingly infinite catalog. Essential Japanese jazz fusion.
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BEWITH 128LP
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First released on Vertigo in 1975, the distinctive rolling grooves, growling basslines, and blasting horns of Snakehips Etcetera combined to present Nucleus's most energetic record. Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. With all restraint out the window, 1975's pimped-up Snakehips Etcetera is the outrageous -- in both cover art and sound -- follow-up to the brooding Under The Sun from 1974 (BEWITH 104LP). It's perhaps not one for the jazz purists. It finds Nucleus pared down to a core group of six, with Carr, Bob Bertles (sax), Ken Shaw (guitar), Geoff Castle (keys), Roger Sutton (bass), and Roger Sellers (drums) comprising the collective. Snakehips Etcetera reflects a period where the compositions start to become a little more direct and less-cerebral in comparison to some of Nucleus's previous releases. This one rocks, swings, and funks with no little soul. And more than a little jazzy sleaze. The album has a real live, jamming feel to it, no surprise given the extent to which they were touring at the time. The band is tight and grooving throughout, none more so than on Bob Bertles's effervescent opener, "Rat's Bag". So darn funky it stings, it's an infectious gem full of punchy clean lines over a killer bassline from Sutton. The thick, driving jazz-rock of "Alive And Kicking" is exactly that. It has a very improvisational feel, but an inspired one at that and features a wailing guitar solo from Ken Shaw that simply slays. The funky "Rachel's Tune" is amazing, bringing you back to Canterbury days with its fuzzed-out organ solos to close out Side A. Opening up Side B, the cool psychedelic title track unfolds slowly and sensually over its ten-plus minutes. A stoned soul stew of sorts, each member of the crew gets their chance to shine over Sellers's steady drums. The melodic funk fusion of "Pussyfoot" pairs Carr with Bertles on ace solo flute for a bright, springy melody. This one really gleams over shuffling drums. Changing the pace to close out this memorable set, the particularly cool "Heyday" is a reflective, sober tune which reinforces the sumptuous Nucleus palette, the acoustic guitar and bass high in the mix to make the neck snap, the horns elegantly blasting to help you swoon. Remastered from the original Vertigo master tapes by Simon Francis. Cut by Cicely Balston at AIR Studios.
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2LP
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OMANARCHO 001LP
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Anarcho punk was the one sub-genre of punk that emerged in isolation from the rock n' roll establishment. During its pioneering days of the early 1980s it thrived in opposition to the music industry, existing as a fiercely underground alternative to the bands, labels and venues of the commercialized mainstream punk scene. It continues to do so. Anarcho punk represented one of the last truly underground and autonomous music movements ever witnessed and remains a movement that has never sold out and has never gone away. The major differentiation between the anarcho punk acts and the more traditional punk outfits was that for the former, albeit often more due to musical limitation than intent, the message was more important than the music. Standard song structures were often dispersed with in favor of a relentless lyrical polemic accompanied by a similarly uncompromising aural assault. As the scene grew, so did the diversity of records that emerged under the anarcho punk umbrella: from D&V (drums & vocals) to the proto-EBM synth-pop of Belfast's one-man Hit Parade and the Dadaist Beefheart hybrid of The Cravats. In later days the two biggest acts of the scene, Flux of Pink Indians and Crass themselves, both released LPs which had more in common with improv Jazz than hardcore punk. The resounding victory of anarcho punk is that it is now the unifying soundtrack to a culture of resistance that spans Scotland to Indonesia and remains without compromise. It is still as removed from mainstream music and oppositional to conventional culture as it was over forty years ago and shows no sign of changing. Quite the opposite: the more popular anarcho punk becomes the less it has to engage with the music establishment and the more control it can enjoy. In 2023, that message remains as uncompromising as ever. This is a double vinyl retrospective compilation of some of the most radical music ever made, a musical force that changed lives. Covering the years 1979-86 and including classic tracks from Crass, Poison Girls, Flux Of Pink Indians, The Mob, Zounds, Annie Anxiety, The Ex, Alternative TV, plus ten more, all newly remastered by iconic punk mastering engineer Daniel Husayn. It has been lovingly compiled by JD Twitch and anarcho legend Chris Low and was ten years in the making. There are also a couple of previously unreleased mixes included. It comes as a high-quality double vinyl pressing, and has a full color sleeve with back and front images designed by the legendary Gee Vaucher. Also features Honey Band, Andy T, Alternative, The Apostles, Lack of Knowledge, Hagar the Womb, and Chumbawamba. Includes six-page fold out poster on one side with detailed sleeve notes, recollections and essays on the other side.
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LP
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MGART 904LP
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2023 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 + 10"
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ERG 008LP
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Over the course of a nearly 50 year romantic and creative partnership sound artist Annea Lockwood and the late pioneering electronic composer Ruth Anderson have shared space on a number of significant releases of early electronic and tape music, including Charles Amirkhanian's trailblazing 1977 anthology of women electronic composers New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media, a 1981 split LP on Opus One, a 1997 CD for Phill Niblock's XI imprint, and 1998's Lesbian American Composers compilation on CRI. The couple additionally taught a course on the history of women's music-making at Hunter College. Although Ruth passed away in 2019, the composers' dialogue continues today with Tête-à-tête, a collection of unreleased archival and new material spread across an LP and a single-sided 10" record. It all began with a telephone call. In 1973, Ruth Anderson was seeking a substitute to cover a yearlong sabbatical from her position as the director of the Electronic Music Studio she had founded at Hunter College in New York City. Her friend Pauline Oliveros too was on sabbatical, but recommended Ruth call Annea Lockwood -- then living in London -- about the post. Over the next nine months, while Ruth was living in Hancock, New Hampshire, the couple would speak daily by phone in between visits. Ruth recorded these phone calls and, in 1974, surprised Annea with a cassette containing "Conversations," a private piece she composed by dexterously collaging fragments of their conversations alongside slowed and throwed snatches of old popular songs: "Yes Sir, That's My Baby"; "Oh, You Beautiful Doll"; and "Bill Bailey." The centerpiece of Tête-à-tête, this side of intimate musique concrète extends to its listeners a rare invitation to eavesdrop on the halcyon phenomenon of two people falling in love. Tender and playful throughout, "Conversations" comes to its zenith with a cut-up of relentless laughter of a contagious beauty that is, for once, properly convulsive. "For Ruth" is Annea's elegy to her life partner. In 2020, Annea returned to Hancock as well as to Ruth's resting place at Flathead Lake, Montana to make field recordings, which she wove together with further excerpts of the couple's 1974 conversations for a commission presented as part of the 2021 Counterflows Festival in Glasgow. A consummate field recordist, Annea imbues the simple sounds of church bells, birds, wind, and the bodies of water that permeated her time alongside Ruth with an otherworldly depth and sense of narrative akin to that of her celebrated sound maps of the Hudson, Danube, and Housatonic rivers. The collection opens with "Resolutions," Ruth's last completed electronic work, from 1984. A meditation for the individual listener composed as the result of her study of Zen, it's a rigorous, process-driven piece that charts the very slow, smooth descent of a fifth from the octave above middle C down to sub-bass frequencies. Minimalist in execution, yet powerful in effect, it glides by almost imperceptibly, with new tones arriving and hovering or levitating upwards, seemingly out of nowhere. Tape transfers by Maggi Payne and lacquers cut at Dubplates & Mastering, with domestic photos and liner notes provided by Annea Lockwood.
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CD
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PAL 073CD
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"It's been ten years since Bill Orcutt released A History of Every One (EMEGO 173CD, 2013), a compendium of hacksaw renditions of American standards on acoustic guitar -- and since ten years is a blink of an eye, you are forgiven for not immediately realizing that we've gone an entire decade waiting for Jump On It, the next Orcutt solo acoustic record. As those of us of 'a certain age' will tell you (ad nauseam), a decade is a blink of an eye containing an infinity of experiential moments, and if this record is any gauge, the weight of those experiences have squashed Orcutt's rough edges, feathered his stop-motion timing into a languid lyrical flow, and snapped the shackles tethering his instant compositional skills to the imperative to deconstruct guitar history. In short, Jump On It is a collection of canonical, mature acoustic guitar soli to contrast against the fractured downtown conceits of previous acoustic releases. For those paying attention to the arc of Orcutt's electric records, which chart a course from Quine's choppiness to Thompsonian/Verlaine-ian flow, it should be no surprise that the ten-year gap between acoustic records should expose a similar underlying journey. But what's maybe more surprising is that Jump On It, with its living-room aesthetics and big reverb, packs a disarming intimacy absent from the formal starkness of Orcutt's earlier acoustic outings. Although you might sense the looming human in the audible breath whispering intermittently between chords (a physical flourish reminiscent of the late Jack Rose), such documentarian signposts are the exception rather than the rule. Not quite refuting (yet not quite embracing) the polish of revered watershed records by Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, or Bola Sete, Jump On It treads a path between the raw and the refined, exemplified in tracks such as 'The Life of Jesus' and 'In a Column of Air' that alternate swaying chords with Orcutt's trademark angular quicksilver runs (cut brickwall short). While you won't mistake Jump On It for incidental music, at least not if taken at full strength, stray passages radiate a conversational beauty that would please the most dissonance-adverse listener. Strangely, some of the melted lockstep grooves found in Jump On It evoke nothing other than Music for Four Guitars (PAL 068CD/LP). While many of the linear runs are clearly improvised, and the phrasing distinctly slurred, intuitive and non-mechanical, the strummed chords hint at a cellular construction similar to Jump On It's electric predecessor. (Orcutt states that he prefers to keep his strategies obscure -- but that implies there is in fact a strategy). Whatever the case, I also hear Satie in Music for Four Guitars, and I hear him here too, hidden within Jump On It's lilting repetition, which I easily imagine stretching to an infinitely-distant horizon. Like each of Satie's three Gymnopedies, each facet of Jump On It is a tiny miniature bound in a slim volume, an earworm you might savor again and again upon awakening or before drifting off. Each track is a key to a memory, a building block in a shining anamnesis leading to the recollection that hey, we're all humans in a shared cosmos, and music is one way we might make that universe go down easy. And who wouldn't jump on that?" --Tom Carter Recorded Spring/Summer 2022 at the Living Room, San Francisco. Mixed and mastered by Chuck Johnson.
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LP
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SEAL 020LP
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LP version. Reissue, originally released in 1988. Cacophony is the second Rudimentary Peni album. Released after the band returned from their first hiatus following a series of personal events that changed the band forever. The thirty-track LP keeps turning heads 34 years after its release. Far from writing another Death Church, the band embarked on a truly bizarre quest -- to record an album based on the life and writings of horror's absolute king H.P. Lovecraft. A dense cacophony of total free songwriting. Dark, gothic, intricate, unexpected head-scratching punk. The short bursts of music twist and turn at every corner -- the vocals are part classic Blinko and part spoken word, the guitar is full of distorted awkward tones and the very inventive bass and drums are locked together creating a truly unique album. Cacophony is the benchmark of outsider punk and the influence and cult nature of this album grows with every passing year. This reissue stays close to the original version, with Nick Blinko's incredible cover art, including a 11" x 11" eight-page lyric booklet.
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2LP
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BORNBAD 039LP
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2022 repress; Double LP version. Cameroonian musician Francis Bebey is truly one of a kind. He entered the music scene with his African compositions for classical guitar. He gave recitals while pursuing a career in journalism and then as an international civil servant. The same creative impulse also led him to write pop songs, some of which (based on novels he had written) became big hits in Africa and in the French-speaking world. But few people know that in the '70s, Francis Bebey delved into electronic music. The first electronic keyboards, organs and drum machines offered him new possibilities of totally controlling his compositions. He embraced the technique of "sound on sound" recording (recording several tracks, sequentially juxtaposed on the same tape). This new stage in his musical career included the production of several records (Savannah Georgia, New Track, Haiti), rarities both for their creative explorations as well as their manifestations on vinyl. This was a particularly rich period for him, as he tested the limitless possibilities of the medium, and made use of surprising and novel instruments. Incredible sounds -- in the literal sense of the word -- would soon appear on the planet Bebey. Full-color printed innersleeves with notes in English and French.
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LP
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PT 3001LP
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2023 restock. A collection of spiritual and gospel songs performed in informal non-church settings between 1965 and 1973. Most are guitar-accompanied and performed by active or former blues artists. "Most records of black religious music contain some form of gospel singing or congregational singing recorded at a church service. This album, though, tries to present a broader range of performance styles and contexts with the hope of showing the important role that religious music plays in the Southern black communities and in the daily lives of individuals." --David Evans, from the liner notes. LP, 16-page 11"x11" booklet, tip-on sleeve, 16 photographs. David Evans is an ethnomusicologist and director of the Ethnomusicology/Regional Studies program at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music in the University of Memphis, where he's worked since 1978.
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2LP
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BEC 5772110
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2023 repress. Justice's highly-acclaimed debut album from 2007. French-only vinyl version, in deluxe gatefold sleeve. Retreating to their underground post-nuclear shelter/studio, French duo Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay worked on their first album as if their lives depended on it. The result is a mind-fuck of an album that proves that Justice's unique talent is to be found where least expected. Take for example "Let There Be Light" and its strident, angry electro, driven by a jabbing bassline; "D.A.N.C.E," a pure piece of vicious house sung innocently by a choir of children; "Newjack," a funky parody of the opulent times of the French Touch; "Phantom," taking over where "Waters Of Nazareth" left off to drift towards "Phantom Pt. II" and its head-swirling disco violins; "Valentine," an erotic, melancholic nursery rhyme, like a tribute to Vladimir Cosma and "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy," a pure electro-funk track where the sexy Uffie plays more than ever the cheeky Lolita. Justice have thrown established rules out the window (the notion of good and bad taste, the thin line between underground and pop music, the pigeon hole labeling between rock and electro, etc.) with a fantastic talent for synthesizing and mixing their influences with total candor, be it the cosmic disco of Larry Levan or Vladimir Cosma's panty-wetting romantics, Camel's prog rock or the anxious theme of Goblin for Dario Argento, to the flashy funk of the Brothers Johnson or "ABC" by the Jackson 5. Cross isn't a collection of random dancefloor singles. Cross is for listening at home or in clubs. Cross is a link between pop at its purest and experimental music. Cross brings together hardcore elements and cheese. Cross makes the Goths link arms with the rave kids. A generational manifest, ideally positioned on the side of the dancefloor, Cross, insolent with youth, is a testimony that the French electro scene is healthier than ever.
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2LP
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BE 015LP
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"On September 6th, 1993, I felt a stranger's presence flow through me. 'The end of material civilization is near. Man will soon transcend the physical realm. But when this day comes, many souls will be lost forever,' she announced and then swiftly disappeared. She has since visited me occasionally, and with her help I've witnessed stars align to form a cross, and a golden country filled with waves of tremendous rapture. She says I have a divine duty to impart through my music a sense of the waves of delight I have experienced, even if I can only reach one other person." --Shizuka, 7/23/94
Reissue, originally released in 1994. Few artists have left behind a legacy as enigmatic and captivating as Shizuka Miura. Amidst the Tokyo underground, she was a spectral figure, creating ghostly, childlike dolls and writing haunting, other-worldly songs. She formed Shizuka in 1992 with Maki Miura, known for his staggering guitar work in legendary groups Fushitsusha and Les Rallizes Dénudés. Their music bloomed with a fragile, yet explosive mystical power; an atmospheric alchemy of psychedelic rock, folk and noise with Shizuka's ethereal vocals invoking loneliness, yearning and dark providence. Since her passing in 2010, the group has steadily gathered a cult following. Black Editions presents their sole studio album, 1994's Heavenly Persona, a monumental, transcendent work originally issued by P.S.F. Japan on CD in 1994; Now newly remastered and in its first ever vinyl edition on double-LP with a laser etched fourth side. Presented in a deluxe tip-on tri-fold jacket with ink pigment foil stamping, gloss film laminate finish and printed inner sleeves and mounted booklet. It includes her extensive, heart wrenching final interview, translated for the first time to English alongside high-resolution archival images.
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LP
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CCS 055-2LP
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2023 repress; regular LP version. Second edition with amended tracklisting (the track "I Got A Woman" has been deleted). Four years after his debut EP on Wolf + Lamb, Nicolas Jaar, the New Yorker by way of Chile returns to Circus Company with Space Is Only Noise, an uncompromising manifesto on traces of the past, love lost, and spectres of the future. Jaar has made it quite apparent over the course of his nascent catalog and increasingly sought-after live sets that challenge is an intrinsic part of his creative discourse. Few are the producers of any age with the guts to ride a sub-100-bpm tempo at peak-time in the techno Mecca of Berlin, and fewer still are those who receive an ecstatic hands-in-the-air response for their precocious efforts. It is precisely this sense of risk which elevates Space Is Only Noise beyond the realm of valiant first effort or crossover dance music oddity. Those looking to wade through the sea of Jaar's potential influences will quickly find themselves in the deep waters of golden age Factory records, the home-spun digitalism of Mille Plateaux, Endtroducing-era DJ Shadow and Eric Satie. Jaar gently coaxes his listener into the experience from the opening sounds of rolling waves on "être," but quickly transitions into the sophisticated percussion and meandering melodies that characterize his sound. Jaar seeks, and often finds, beauty in melancholy on the first few tracks of the album. As the album begins to accelerate with "Too Many Kids Finding Rain In The Dust," Jaar confronts us with the often forgotten reality that our sadness is not mutually exclusive on the dancefloor. Suddenly, on "Keep Me There," Jaar's voice appears over the delicious, rumbling melody. Though your hips stir to the relentless bass line and the sexiness of the voices, your heart is jolted out of its luxurious malaise when horns erupt seconds later. "How can you talk about a landscape without showing the sky and the earth?" a voice asks, translating from the French on "être." So Jaar concludes, revisiting the same track to end the album. Complete landscapes such as these are only realized in contrast -- the indulgent against the reserved, the sky against the earth; lightness and darkness. Space Is Only Noise is a tour de force with few modern equals, and a great sign of things to come from one of electronic music's most exciting producers.
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10"
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PPMTEN 003EP
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"A limited-edition Sun Ra 10-inch EP cut at 45 RPM. Four tracks, two unreleased. Features artwork by Georgia Hubley (Yo La Tengo), lettering by Archer Prewitt. Mastered by Dave Cooley. 'Just Friends': This live recording was only issued on a rare 1982 Saturn album entitled Just Friends. So few copies of 'Just Friends' were pressed, that this track is almost unknown to Ra fans. This is the first reissue of this track in any format. The location and actual date of the recording are unknown. Recorded 1982, location unknown. 'Just Friends': This is a recording made around 1960 of Sun Ra playing organ in his Chicago apartment while softly singing the song 'Just Friends.' It has not been previously issued in any format. Recorded 1960 at home, Chicago. 'Under the Spell of Love': This live recording was also issued on the rare 1982 Saturn album Just Friends. This is the first reissue of this track in any format. As with the title track on side A, the location and actual date of this performance are unknown. Recorded 1982, location unknown. 'Cherokee': This work was composed by Ray Noble. 'Cherokee' was a 1940s big band standard, and was a big hit for Charlie Barnett. It was also recorded by Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Bud Powell, and many others. This is the only known recording of the title by Sun Ra. There is no information about the date, location, or personnel. It sounds like a home rehearsal, and probably dates from the 1970s. It has not been previously issued in any format."
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2LP+CD
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BEC 5543357
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2023 restock. Reissue of Shaolin Soul Episode 2, originally released in 2001. One of three LP reissues celebrating the 20th anniversary of 1998's Shaolin Soul Episode 1 (BEC 5543356). Legendary deep soul French compilations featuring many soul classics, sometimes forgotten, which have been sampled countless times by some of the biggest hip-hop acts. Available for the first time on vinyl + CD. Original packaging strictly reproduced. Cut from original masters. Double-LP comes in a gatefold sleeve; Includes CD.
Episode 2 features Syl Johnson, Ann Peebles, Baby Huey & The Baby Sitters, The Emotions, Black Ivory, Jackson 5, Al Green, Eddie Holman, Montana, Detroit Emeralds, Labi Siffre, Southside Movement, The Sweet Inspirations, Mad Lads, George Jackson, and Teddy Pendergrass.
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LP
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DMOO 010LP
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Reissue, originally released in 1962. Though she had been performing professionally since the late 1920s, as a teenager in Harlem, during its Renaissance, the immortal Billie Holiday didn't play a single night on the European continent until 1954. It was in that year that the great journalist and musician Leonard Feather, and a Swedish promoter organized the Jazz Club U.S.A. tour, named after Feather's wildly popular radio program. Featuring Red Norvo, Sonny Clark, and more, the centerpiece of Jazz Club U.S.A. was, undoubtedly, Lady Day. Recorded at various dates across the tour, Lady Love shows Holiday still had it, despite the turmoil, and drug and alcohol abuse, her voice remained strong, a stunning document of one of America's greatest treasures on her first ever tour of Europe. Clear vinyl.
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2LP+CD
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BEC 5543356
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2022 restock. Reissue of Shaolin Soul Episode 1, originally released in 1998. One of three LP reissues celebrating the 20th anniversary of Shaolin Soul Episode 1. Legendary deep soul French compilations featuring many soul classics, sometimes forgotten, which have been sampled countless times by some of the biggest hip-hop acts. Available for the first time on vinyl + CD. Original packaging strictly reproduced. Cut from original masters. Double-LP comes in a gatefold sleeve; Includes CD.
Episode 1 features Ann Peebles, O.V. Wright, The Charmels, David Porter, Willie Mitchell, Al Green, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, The Emotions, Bob James, Syl Johnson, Donny Hathaway, Wendy Rene, Lyn Collins, The Dramatics, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Booker T. And The MGs, and Barry White.
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LP
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SOAVE 031LP
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Reissue, originally released in 1976. Soave dusts off in limited edition the psych/synth album by Doctor Steven T. Birchall recorded in 1973 in Indiana, U.S.A. with the following equipment: VCS-3 (The Putney) by EMS, Ampex MM-1000 16 trk, dbx noise reduction, SpectrasSonics Console, Studer A80 Recorder, Eventide Clockworks, Instant Phaser, Cooper Time Cube, EMT Reverb. The absolutely penetrating high tones of the opening track "Music Of The Spheres" announces that you are on board. Perhaps its best to say in the mind of Birchall who aims to go beyond those "normal" boundaries that can be called reality. It is a new world of music that still amazes after half a century. A higher stage of truth projected into the cosmos. Cover art by Earl. E. Hokens. Edition of 400.
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2LP
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NOTON 058LP
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Double LP version. Kinder Der Sonne is the title of the new album by Alva Noto featuring music composed for the score of the theater piece Komplitzen by Simon Stone. The album title comes from Maxim Gorky's plays Children of the Sun, written in the context of the 1905 Russian Revolution. Simon Stone wrote the new play for the Burgtheater Ensemble, on the basis of this drama. Across fourteen compositions, Alva Noto's Kinder Der Sonne takes the listeners into a sonic journey of emotional tensions and release, reflecting the social upheavals of our days.
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LP
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SV 198LP
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Restocked; LP version. "La Monte Young was born in Bern, Idaho in 1935. He began his music studies in Los Angeles and later Berkeley, California before relocating to New York City in 1960, where he became a primary influence on Minimalism, the Fluxus movement and performance art through his legendary compositions of extended time durations and the development of just intonation and rational number based tuning systems. With wife and collaborator, artist Marian Zazeela, they would formulate the composite sound environments of the Dream House, which continues to this day. Seeing reissue for the first time since its initial 1969 release, Young and Zazeela's first full-length album is often referred to as The Black Record due to Zazeela's stunning cover design, complete with Young's original liner notes in magnificent calligraphy. Side one was recorded in 1969 (on the date and time indicated by the title) at the gallery of Heiner Friedrich in Munich, where Young and Zazeela premiered their Dream House sound and light installation. Featuring Young and Zazeela's voices against a sine wave drone, the recording is a section of the longer composition "Map of 49's Dream the Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery" (begun in 1966 as a sub-section of the even larger work The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys, which was begun in 1964 with Young's group The Theatre of Eternal Music). According to Young, the raga-like melodic phrases of his voice were heavily influenced by his future teacher, the Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath. Side two, recorded in Young and Zazeela's NYC studio in 1964, is a section of the longer composition Studies in the Bowed Disc. This composition is an extended, highly abstract noise piece for bowed gong (gifted by sculptor Robert Morris). The liner notes state that the live performance can be heard at 33 and 1/3 RPM, but may also be played at any constant slower speed down to 8 and 1/3 RPM for turntables with this capacity." "La Monte Young is the daddy of us all." --Brian Eno
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2LP
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KEYSYS 003LP
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Double LP version. 30th anniversary definitive issue of legendary hip-hop crew The Freestyle Fellowship's landmark 1991 debut, To Whom It May Concern..., mixed from the original 4-track tapes by Cut Chemist. Grammy Nominated for Best Historical Album 2022/23! Mastered for vinyl by Daddy Kev; includes an insert with full credits, rare photos from the archives of Brian "B+" Cross and producer J. Sumbi, as well as copious liner notes by David Ma and Nate LeBlanc of DadBodRapPod. Manufactured entirely in the USA. 30th anniversary definitive issue of legendary hip-hop crew The Freestyle Fellowship's landmark 1991 debut, To Whom It May Concern..., mixed from the original 4-track tapes by Cut Chemist.
"Freestyle Fellowship -- the legendary rap crew from Los Angeles made up of Aceyalone, Myka 9, P.E.A.C.E., and Self Jupiter. The 'Best Historical Album' nomination is the first ever for any rap album in Grammy history, and comes a little over 30 years after the group released their solo project as a grassroots, independent effort. In a time and region underscored by gangsta rap, G-funk, and record sales, the Freestyle Fellowship was largely built on collaborative community, long term friendships, and artistic willpower. What most defined the group is not only their lyrical dexterity, but their commitment to an authentic, do-it-yourself spirit that can often elude the most commercially successful rappers. Highlighted by their free-flowing, jazz-inspired cadences and multi-rhythmic flows delivered in obtuse ways -- whether rapping slightly off beat, meandering in and out of alternating patterns, or coming in at rapid fire bursts -- the Freestyle Fellowship helped to build the West Coast's underground movement, drawing inspiration from East Coast boom bap, spoken word poetry, and the socially explosive world around them." --OkayPlayer
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CD
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KM 8400602CD
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"Timothy Leary!" -- That was "Sternenmädchen" Gille Lettmann's almost breathed closing words on the 1974 album Gilles Zeitschiff, Vol. 1 (KM 180122CD/KM 180126LP). That same year, the Cosmic Crew Gille, Dieter Dierks, Jürgen Dollase, Harald Großkopf, and Mythos recorded Vol. 2, but it never came to a release at that time -- let's say: due to circumstances. Until now. Almost 50 years after its recording, Zeitschiff 2 can finally take off. Gilles conjures up Leary's spirit here as well, comets and stars whizz through space on fluorescent ray trails -- the Cosmic Couriers live up to their name. But unlike Vol. 1, everything here is of one piece. The careful remastering ensures compact sound, and where the "Queen of Sunshine" still outshone everything else on the first disc, a tidying hand ensures clarity in Zeitschiff 2. This hand belongs to the Italian pianist and conductor Roberto Cacciapaglia. The Quadro album Sonanze, produced by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, was his ticket into the magic circle of cosmic magicians. Even if it wasn't called that at the time, Sonanze was an early approach to a genre we now call "ambient." One can guess what potential Rolf heard in Roberto's music. Dieter and Rolf knew how to integrate Roberto's expertise. Zeitschiff 2 has become a fluently composed, effectively arranged work that radiates warmth and cosmic calm without lacking tension. A work that brings back to life the spirit of space rock of the early seventies and shows us today on which tracks the Cosmic Couriers already walked back then. Gilles Zeitschiff 2 is more than just a sequel. And also, more than a premiere: it is a discovery. Carefully transferred and remastered from the original analog master tapes by HaGü Schmitz at Dierks Studios in Pulheim-Stommeln in 2022.
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LP
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SPITTLEDD 006LP
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Hot on the heels of the first influential volume -- Milano Undiscovered 1982-1986 (SPITTLE 118LP) -- here's the uncommon sophomore release. The city of Borsa and fashion has been always struggling for an underground identity, collecting a series of rough contaminations between post-punk and dance music. The new compilation is undoubtedly a step forward, a second chance for many of the early artists involved. Altogether with some illustrious emerging names of the local electronic scene, here's a definitive collection of contemporary Italo disco and synth pop tracks from the future past. Features Livio Fogli, Ital Oscillazioni, Atelier Folie, Italoconnection, Vinavil, Love Nation, S-Tone Inc., Through Twelve, Fred Ventura, Mono Han, Straight Beat, and Soul Boy.
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LP
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LTJC 003LP
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2023 repress. Reissue, originally released in 1975. Fuzati (Klub des Loosers) producer and die-hard crate digger has teamed up with Modulor to launch Le Très Jazz Club, a label exclusively dedicated to vinyl reissue and jazz. With this reissue of Orang-Utan by legendary bassist and cello player Isao Suzuki, Le Tres Jazz Club offers a remarkable and highly sought-after free jazz album. The eponymous track is a sublime mix of free jazz and jazz fusion, led by sax player Kenji Mori and Kazumi Watanabe on guitar. Essential!
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2LP
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PAL 069LP
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2023 repress. Limited double-LP version of the 2008 CD originally issued on Load, compiling the best live and studio recordings by the final iteration of this group.
"60 second bursts of chaotic rock 'n' roll that barbarize whole histories of freakout style, from free jazz through classic hardcore, boogie, blues, Black Flag, Germs, most explicitly through Beefheart, but all hyper-condensed into ultra-kranky riffs that Orcutt plays at hallucinatory speed, compressing Zoot Horn Rollo style avant confusion into lighting runs and metallic two note knock-outs. Hoyos's style is so primitive that it's wildly avantgarde, with an instinctive feel for time that confounds the most advanced improvisatory strategies with the most hysterical. And her vocals are post-Yoko in the truest sense, not directly informed by her but sharing the same spontaneous energy and a-musical appeal, sometimes breaking from songs completely to expand on barely articulated vocal rants and fever pitched bouts of screaming. The whole group existed in a zone that was constantly beyond technique. The arc of their career was perfect, the mission truly accomplished, and all that's left is this amazing series of recordings, a body of work that has had a disproportionate effect on the minds, if rarely the actual sound of the underground." --David Keenan, The Wire, December 2008
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2LP
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NA 5123LP
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2023 restock, on double-LP, including the the "Reverb Mix" version. "Issued in 1975, this is the articulation of Zambia's Zamrock ethos. While other albums -- Rikki Ililonga's Zambia, Witch's Lazy Bones!! -- are competitors, it's hard to best this album as it covers each major quadrant of the Zamrock whole: it came from the mines; its musicians were anti-colonial freedom fighters, it envelops Zambian folk music traditions, and it rocks -- hard. Amanaz were serious, and they made a serious stab at an album. They titled their album Africa, according to original band member Keith Kabwe, 'because of how it was shared and how its inhabitants were butchered and enslaved, its resources stolen... all the atrocities slave drivers committed. ' Thus, their 'Kale,' a blues sung in Nyanja, that traced the continent's arc from slavery to Zambia's independence closes the album. Kabwe and rhythm guitarist John Kanyepa have a winsome softness to their vocals, which sit politely aside the feral growl of drummer Watson Baldwin Lungu, bassist Jerry Mausala and bandleader/lead guitarist Isaac Mpofu. Africa's vibe ranges from anxious ('Amanaz') to escapist ('Easy Street') to straight-up pissed-off. On the 'History of Man,' his voice whiskey-burned, his distorted guitar buzzing like swarming hornets, Mpofu indicts his species. There's a darkness to Africa not found on any other Zamrock records, and a melancholy drifts throughout, specifically on Mpofu's more restrained 'Khala My Friend,' which stands as an effective, bleak situation for the Zambian everyman, the average citizen of a struggling, new nation, who might have had relatives in conflict-torn countries on the horizon, who might have been struggling to find his next meal, who might have seen a bleaker future than his president promised. Then there's the clear Velvet Underground-influence on the nostalgic 'Sunday Morning,' which, as Kabwe recalls, was the first song written for the album, back in 1968, when Velvet Undergound and Nico was a new release -- and the underground funk of 'Making the Scene.' The album also tackles traditional Zambian music and early-'60s rock -- punctuated, of course by Kanyepa's wah-wah and Mpofu's fuzz guitars. But every time Amanaz get too deep, too violent, they come back with an accessible song and woo their listener back to the groove. 'Green Apple' is a civil song, featuring Kanyepa's sighing guitar. It is a perfectly arranged album, from the dichotomy of Mpofu's and Kanyepa's lead and rhythm guitars, to the vocal harmonies, to the rhythm section's sense of space and time, which allows Africa's funk to build. Inexplicably, Africa was given two separate mixes and two separate presses: one version is dry, with the vocals and drums mixed loud, the other slathered in reverb, with the vocals and drums disappearing into the mix, and with the guitar solos mixed much louder. We've presented them both here as they each have their appeal: it's up to the listener to pick the one he or she prefers. This is a highpoint of the Zamrock scene and we hope that this can be seen as its definitive reissue."
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LP
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MGDC 012LP
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Pink Floyd, live at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam on September 17, 1969. FM Broadcast.
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LP
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BT 101LP
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The endlessly prolific and unpredictable Richard Youngs returns to Black Truffle with Modern Sorrow. As any Youngs fan knows, one of the great pleasures of following his career comes from not being able to predict what the next entry in his inexhaustible string of releases will bring: Unaccompanied voice? Country songs? Shakuhachi? Guitar pieces played with his feet? Shredding fuzz bass over the top of hyper-speed distorted drum machine beats? Continuing in the grand Youngs tradition of exploring new techniques, instrumentation, and approaches while bringing to all of them his idiosyncratic touch, Modern Sorrow serves up two sides of twistedly elegiac, radically stark takes on contemporary pop production. The side-long title track is built from a piano sample, synthetic bass notes and organ swells, and an iterative blurt that seems to have wandered out of a '90s jungle track. Eventually joined by a shuffling drum machine, the track moves very slowly through a series of chords, each delayed long enough that its arrival comes as a major event. Over the top, Youngs' heavily pitch-corrected voice is heard. The processing paints his signature wandering melodic improvisations with shades of contemporary R&B; at the same time, it cuts the natural swoops and glides of Youngs' melodies into rapid microtonal trills, giving his voice a quavering, middle eastern feel. Unfolding languorously over more than 17 minutes, the piece's final minutes make room for an extended drum-less coda, returning to the stark palette of its opening moments. On the second side, the two parts of "Benevolence" push this minimalism ever further, its first half consisting of nothing more than a remarkably slow drum machine hit, bass-heavy chords and pitch-corrected voice, here so heavily processed that it starts to resemble a shawm solo. In its second part, the harmonic foundation drops out from under the piece while two more voices join; at some moments the voices pause, leaving nothing more than isolated, metronomic drum hits. Though Youngs has explored the sound worlds associated with dance music and contemporary pop in previous work, here these elements are radically reduced, foregrounding a meditative bed of silence with a boldness equal to any more academically inclined contemporary composer. Embracing the accessible digital tools of contemporary music production just as at another moment he would pick up a kazoo, like much of Youngs' work Modern Sorrow uses simple DIY tools to generous ends, producing formally radical music that remains both free from pretension and deeply moving.
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LP
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FAITICHE 031LP
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One of the most notorious hatemongers in movie history is Captain Ahab from John Huston's 1956 classic Moby Dick. His manic monologues cast a spell on generations of viewers. Berlin based musician and sound artist Jan Jelinek has now turned the voice of Ahab into a musical instrument. Faitiche presents Jan Jelinek's soundtrack for SEASCAPE - polyptych, an audio-visual software developed in collaboration with Canadian new media artist Clive Holden in 2022. SEASCAPE - polyptych is based on image and acoustic source material from Moby Dick. While Holden works on manipulating film sequences, the voice of Ahab plays a central role in Jan Jelinek's soundtrack. The dynamic volume and tone of the captain's speech control a synthesizer system that turns Ahab's voice into ten abstract soundscapes. In this production the voice gives the impulse and controls things but is not the sound of spoken word itself that you hear. Only occasionally can snippets of speech be heard so that syllables or sounds are recognizable. Instead, you hear compositions made of hissing, soundscapes, and eruptive sounds. The atmosphere is dark and sinister. Still every piece has a clear sonic structure and follows an understandable dramatic composition. This music is abstract but not overwhelming. Quite the opposite, SEASCAPE - polyptych is an invitation to listeners to let themselves be carried by the stream of sonic events. Although part of a media art work, the soundtrack can be enjoyed without any of this connecting superstructure. It works with no previous knowledge. But what happens when one does know that it's the sonic waves of a human voice that is controlling a network of synthesizers? If you want to hear Ahab, you will hear a choir of Ahabs in every piece of sound. The subliminal threatening as well as the conjuring Ahab. Finally, the Ahab who whips up his crew and tears them with him into their downfall. The majestic "on the quay now, waiting and watching", the oppressive "drawn towards the whirlpools center" -- they are all music as well as sonic discourse. Includes download code.
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2LP
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GUESS 209LP
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The legendary Andromeda album from 1969, a hard-psych classic, as it was originally conceived and intended to be heard by John Du Cann prior to editing: a double (not single) LP featuring his never released at the time original (punchier and clearer) mix and a different tracklist, including songs and extended takes that were not finally included on the original album due to time restrictions. Previously available as a CD-only release titled Originals, here's the first ever vinyl edition. Restored from John Du Cann's 1969 acetates. Gatefold sleeve with new, vintage styled artwork plus liner notes and photos.
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LP
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BEWITH 090LP
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First reissue, originally released in 1973. Cleveland Eaton's Half And Half is a mutant bass-heavy monster that absolutely slays. Incredible jazz-funk -- super funky throughout, with lots of layers, jazz breaks for days, dripping with style and gritty class. Cleveland Eaton was a revered bassist who played an active role in the backing of Count Basie, the Donald Byrd Quintet, The Ramsey Lewis Trio, Terry Callier, and Minnie Riperton; amongst many, many others. Half And Half was the first album released under his own name, initially released as a private press record on his -- awkwardly named -- Cle An Thair Records. It was then picked up by Gamble & Huff for Gamble Records. Varied, string-adorned and with stupid funky grooves, it's just exceptionally good. Whilst Half And Half is treasured for its famously brilliant interpretations of gold funk-soul standards, Eaton proves an imaginative composer in his own right. Indeed, the album opens with a striking original; the earthy, laconic jazz-guitar-funk fusion of "Keep It Funky". Up next is a properly moving cover of Aretha Franklin's eternal "Day Dreaming". The flute and guitar combo truly achieve celestial greatness here. "Here Comes Funky Lou" rides a bassline a driving soul-jazz groove allows the track to go off in all sorts of directions. Serene guitar soul of the breezy variety one moment, crazy hectic violin-driven wig outs the next, courtesy of Ed Green who played with Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane. "Betcha By Golly Wow", which uses a bed of acidy synths and harmonica, is melancholic, wistful, and beautiful. "People Make the World Go Round" is dripping in wonderful horns and ace percussive breaks. Opening side B, War's gigantic "Slipping Into Darkness" is tightly tailored to Eaton's funky flute fusion arrangement whilst the insistent "Missing You" is a swaggering horn-heavy version of Luther Ingram's track from the Dilla/Ghostface-linked LP, I've Been Here All The Time. The creeping, screeching guitar-drenched original "John's Groove" features more fantastic horn lines and neck-snapping percussion whilst "The Love Gangster", written by Bill Wyman and Stephen Stills for his seminal Manassas LP, contains a heavy break with slick drums high in the mix and fuzzy guitars. The album closes with two more Eaton originals. Written with Johnny Guitar Watson, "Lie" is one hell of a funky string and guitar-driven gem whilst the wild, celebratory "Ah Movin' On" cleverly quotes "Wade In The Water" folding it into his new free-jazz composition. Mastered for vinyl by Simon Francis. Cut by Pete Norman at Final Tweak.
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LP
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JACK 009LP
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Live at the NEC Arena, Birmingham, England on September 20, 1985 from The Head Tour (European Leg). The Cure performed nine concerts on The Head Tour, between Queens Hall on September 21, 1985 and Cornwall Coliseum on September 8, 1985. This is the second night they performed live.
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2LP
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RRGEMS 013LP
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Kadef (Karma Agape Discernment Enactment And Freedom), a group of musicians invited by Devin Brahja Waldman for a recording session in Montreal, QC. This music speaks about freedom and evolution of consciousness. The album could be categorized as improvised Gnawa jazz krautrock: a combination of sounds discovered for the first time thanks to the artists involved. Personnel: Ziad Qoulaii - vocals; Mathieu Pelletier-Gagnon - keyboards; Anas Jellouf - guembri, qraqeb, drums; Devin Brahja Waldman - drums, saxes, electric bass; Vicky Mettler - guitar; Sam Shalabi - guitar; Anass Hejam - guitar; Hamza Lahmadi Kenny - oud; Rachid Salamate - guembri, vocals. Heavyweight black vinyl; classic thick tip-on gatefold record jacket; booklet with liner notes by Brahja. Artwork and calligraphy by Ala Dehghan; layout by Ilja Tulit. Mastered by Mark Gergis.
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LP/DVD
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PL 129LP
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The concert was filmed on June 4th, 1982 at Sartory Säle in Cologne (Germany) during the 82' "Collision Drive" tour. In 1981, Alan Vega had released his second solo LP under the title, Collison Drive. It forms part of the "play loud! (live) music series". The "play loud (live) music series" is based on three precepts: Alan Lomax's work as an archivist and chronicler, John Peel's BBC radio sessions, and the work of Direct Cinema pioneers, such as the Maysles Brothers, Leacock, Wildenhahn, Blank, and Pennebacker. play loud! aims to create an extensive archive of interesting popular music and culture that includes both material from the filmmakers' large amount of unreleased footage and material from other sources. Other artists in this series: Damo Suzuki, Lydia Lunch, Floating di Morel, Hans-Joachim Irmler, FM Einheit, Faust, Die Regierung, Limpe Fuchs, Guru Guru, Friedman + Liebezeit, Camera featuring Michael Rother and Dieter Moebius, and many more. Rockpalast (Rock Palace) is a German music television show that broadcasts live on German television station Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). Rockpalast started in 1974 and continues to this day. Hundreds of rock, heavy metal and jazz bands have performed on Rockpalast. For this vinyl and DVD release play loud! has licensed the Alan Vega show from 1982. Credits: Alan Vega - vocals, harp, guitar; Mark Kuch - guitar; Sesu Coleman - drums; Larry Chaplan - bass. Remastering by Moritz Illner (duophonic). The vinyl LP comes with an eight-page booklet and a DVD, containing the entire live show (film I), which was recorded by German Public TV during Vega's 1982 'Collision Drive' tour. Also, on the DVD, the art exhibition "Alan Suicide: Collision Drive 2002" at Deitch Projects in New York (film II). It was Alan Vega's first exhibition after 18 years. Interestingly, both the Rockpalast show and the art exhibition carried the title Collision Drive. A term that maybe best describes Vega's art and music. 1982/2002/2022 DVD is NTSC, region-free.
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LP
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BT 100LP
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Limited restock. Celebrating its one hundredth release, Black Truffle present a major archival discovery: a stunning document of the only performance by the trio of Tony Conrad, Arnold Dreyblatt, and Jim O'Rourke. Across a two-night program organized by David Weinstein at legendary New York experimental venue Tonic in January 2001, Conrad, Dreyblatt and O'Rourke presented individual projects before performing a collaborative set each night, the first with members of Dreyblatt's ensemble and the second the trio heard here. As Dreyblatt points out in the wonderfully informative and reflective liner notes written for this release, this was a collaboration across generations, reflecting the profound impact of Conrad's pioneering minimalism on Dreyblatt and O'Rourke. Both Dreyblatt and O'Rourke came to this collaboration armed with a deep appreciation of Conrad's music and the just intonation principles at its core, Dreyblatt having first encountered the incredible power of Conrad's precisely tuned violin chords during his tenure as an archivist for La Monte Young in 1975, while O'Rourke had performed with Conrad in various settings since the mid-1990s (as well as admiring, reissuing, and performing Dreyblatt's music). The flyer for the concert promised "massive, ecstatic, pulsating overtones", and the trio certainly delivered. From the moment this keening stream of bowed strings begins, it is clear, as Dreyblatt writes, that you are in "Tony's sonic universe", as massively amplified, slowly shifting combinations of precisely chosen pitches fill the room with complex beating patterns and ghostly difference tones. For more than twenty-five minutes, the music operates at a level of intensity comparable to classic recordings such as Conrad's Four Violins, until the texture thins out slightly in the performance's final quarter, allowing for the listener's first recognition of the individual voices that make up this enormous, overwhelming harmonic edifice. The constant stream of bowed tones is broken by a beautifully rich pizzicato from Conrad on monochord, the sliding low tones and metallic shimmer of the other strings taking the set's final moments on an unexpected detour into spacious pastoral psychedelia. Though produced by three individuals known for their own distinctive bodies of the work, this is egoless music, the perfect expression of Conrad's desire "to move away from composing to listening", to "working 'on' the sound from 'inside' the sound". Historically important and overwhelming in sonic impact, this release also serves as a moving tribute to Tony Conrad from two musicians profoundly marked by the example set by his art and life. Presented with an inner sleeve with illuminating liner notes from Arnold Dreyblatt, an archival live photo and flyers from the concert series.
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LP
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FKR 114LP
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Expanded reissue of mega rare 1979 unknown vanity pressing LP that blends ethnological field recordings, musique concrète principles, and introspective synthesizer music from this cult European studio maverick and historic collaborator of COS, Philippe Druilet, Marc Moulin, and John Surman. Alain Pierre's Mondo movie soundtrack to the controversial Des Morts shares very few stylistic rivals, but fans of Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain soundtrack and some of the more eldritch early sampling experiments of Jean-Pierre Massiera will certainly draw fragmented comparisons herein. Other listeners might file this album at the weirder end of your Smithsonian Folkways shelf, just before the Video Nasty soundtracks. Presented in remastered form comprising extra vintage studio outtakes (in accordance with the films morbid narrative), Des Morts serves as a would-be sequel to Finders Keepers' previous Ô Sidarta (FKR 107LP, 2021) release witnessing Pierre balance his allegiance to the Belgian bandes dessinée scene and Thierry Zéno's shock cinema oeuvre from the heart of his uber-legendary Brussels based experimental recording studio through the 1970s. Presented in remastered form comprising extra previously unreleased vintage studio outtakes. Edition of 750.
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