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Recent Best Sellers
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Y 014LP
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Ted Lucas, the sole published album by singer-songwriter and master guitarist Ted Lucas has achieved an almost mystical reputation amongst aficionados and collectors. Ted Lucas is a seamless marriage of moody odes and raga-style instrumentals regarded by many to be, simply put, the greatest private press folk/psych album ever recorded. Lucas was a fixture in the Detroit rock scene of the sixties and seventies. His first band, The Spike Drivers, relocated to San Francisco to become one of the very first true psych bands, the Motor City's answer to Jefferson Airplane and The Byrds. Following that band's collapse, Lucas returned to Detroit and paid bills doing session work with Motown. And there he recorded, in 1972, the demo for Warner Brothers which would become Ted Lucas, released in two private editions in 1975 and known informally to friends and family as "The OM Album", after Lucas' own label. The album was released with artwork by the legendary Stanley Mouse originally created for Jimi Hendrix. A troubled figure whose lack of commercial capitalization and general disgust with the music business fueled a tragic narrative of self-destruction and an untimely death at 53, Lucas nevertheless reflects a regal confidence on this album, both in terms of his Sandy Bull-level guitar workouts and his masterful songwriting, as reflected in covers by the Blind Boys of Alabama, Richard Buckner, Phil Cook, and Father John Misty. As singular as Skip Spence's Oar (1969), as liminal and uncanny as David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971), Ted Lucas is a collection of elevated and elegiac cosmic folk music, presented here in a newly re-mastered edition from the original tapes with high-quality tip-on sleeves and the original back cover art.
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WRWTFWW 025LP
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LP version. 140 gram vinyl; 350 gram sleeve, with sticker. WRWTFWW Records announces the highly anticipated official reissue of holy grail album MKWAJU by acclaimed Japanese percussionist Midori Takada's MKWAJU Ensemble, sourced from the original masters and available in two versions: a vinyl LP cut at Emil Berliner Studios (formerly the in-house recording department of Deutsche Grammophon) and a digipack CD. Originally recorded in February and March 1981 and released by fabled Japanese avant-garde label Better Days (home of Ryuichi Sakamato's debut album, Yasuaki Shimizu's Kakashi (1982), Colored Music's self-titled LP (WRWTFWW 024CD/LP, 2018) and many more) MKWAJU is the fruit of the collaboration between Takada's crew and world-famous composer/musical director Joe Hisaishi, the man behind most of Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli anime soundtracks and over 100 other films scores, including Takeshi Kitano's Sonatine (1993), Hana-Bi (1997), and Kikujiro (1999). The ensemble's transcendental wonder is, in fact, the first-ever Midori Takada album and the first-ever Joe Hisaishi-produced album: historic. Led by Midori Takada on marimba, gong, vibraphone, and tom tom, MKWAJU is an inventive and riveting take on Eastern and Western minimalist traditions, African rhythms, and early electronica. Drawing from its jazz-rooted polyrhythmic improvisations in the most inventive ways, the album covers a wide spectrum of sounds, from colorful dance floor-ready percussion pieces that stand somewhere between proto-techno and experimental synth-pop, to cinematic ambient landscapes and ethereal drone delicacies. The feverishly sought-after full-length is a stepping-stone in Midori Takada's career and an all-around pioneering album. Alongside Takada and Hisaishi (who not only produced the album but also played synthesizers), personnel on MKWAJU includes famed Japanese musicians Yoji Sadanari and Hideki Matsutake of KI-Motion (WRWTFWW 026CD/LP, 2018) fame, Junko Arase (heard on Satoshi Ashikawa's legendary Still Way - Wave Notation 2(1982)), and Pecker (whose stacked resume boasts collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Jun Fukamachi).
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2LP
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LOVE 111LP
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Since the release of their album Wonderland (LOVE 105JC-CD/105LP, 2016), Demdike Stare have been recording material for this new double album Passion; an asymmetric re-imagining of UK club styles taking in frenzied drum trax, shortwave jungle, pinging dancehall and clipped, post-punk riddims. During this time they've been busy curating their DDS label (releases from Shinichi Atobe, Mica Levi, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, and Equiknoxx, among others) and have been commissioned by both the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) and the surviving members of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza to mine and rework their archives. Enlisting visual artist Michael England (Autechre, Gescom, Leila), they've created a cinematic accompaniment for their collaborative live shows, resulting in the image which adorns this cover - a hybrid/composite portrait exploring/questioning the current use of software in creating hyper reality and the manipulation of the self. The accompanying film includes documentary footage filmed at a Voguing event in NYC, a Blackpool promenade and a Newark, New Jersey roller rink, the end result smudging the lines between live performance, documentary and sonic cinema. It's an idea that's echoed on Passion, continuing a process Demdike began on their Testpressing series of dismantling lines between analog and digital realms, between urban realism and fantasy, between experimental, pop and soundsystem cultures. An outlandish configuration of avant-garde and ultimately functional club weapons designed and honed for the weightiest bassbins, it's also their most direct and fucked up record to date -- a raucous, joyful 9-track smash that comes off like a night on a glamorous, neon-lit bender. Mastered by Matt Colton. RIYL: Errorsmith, Príncipe, Dem 2, Jon E Cash, Wiley, Joy Division, DJ Scud, Equiknoxx, Anthony 'Shake' Shakir, Bernard Parmegiani. High-gloss varnish sleeve.
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2LP
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IMPREC 174-2LP
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2018 repress. Double LP. 2018 re-cut from original Peter Christopherson approved masters. The Ape Of Naples is Coil's highly celebrated final album completed by Peter Christopherson following the tragic death of Jhonn Balance in 2004. Often noted for being a fan favorite, The Ape Of Naples uses Balance's final recordings and material recorded at Trent Reznor's studio in New Orleans to create a deep, heavy masterpiece. Packaged in a heavy tip-on gatefold sleeve with Ian Johnstone's original artwork coated in a custom spot gloss. Each LP is house in a printed inner sleeve and side D is printed with all three original etchings. Lyrics are printed across the gatefold.
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2LP
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NA 5167LP
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"2018 Black Friday RSD release. Earth Rot is visionary composer/arranger/producer David Axelrod's third album, and the last of his Capitol trilogy. Recorded as a concept album about the decrepit state of the environment in 1970 Los Angeles, and scheduled for release on the first Earth Day, it features choral vocals and marks a departure for Axelrod's signature sound, which would take on a jazzier feel in the 1970s. This definitive version of Earth Rot, overseen by Now-Again's Eothen Alapatt in conjunction with Axelrod's estate, fulfills a request Axelrod made while alive ? to see the instrumentals of this album, never before released, issued. They see release here as the second LP in a two-LP set. This is an audiophile reissue, with the vocal version lacquered directly from Axelrod's original master tapes at Capitol Records by Ron Mcmaster. The master was approved by Axelrod's son Michael, who adapted ancient lyrics for the album in one of three collaborative projects he did with his father. Contains a 28 page booklet that delves into Axelrod's incredible life and music, replete with never before published photos and an interview. 'There are very few people who see the Grand Picture of the Universe and understand the Nothingness that it all comes from. There are even fewer who can express these ideas through music - David could do it all.' --T-Ray. Includes never before issued instrumentals. Comes packaged in a gatefold jacket with a 28-page booklet."
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LP
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TROST 180LP
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LP version; Comes in a heavy, '60s style tip-on cover. Sparrow Nights is the first studio album from the furious duo of pedal steel player Heather Leigh and saxophone legend Peter Brötzmann. Their collaboration has quickly gained a well-earned reputation for their cutting-edge music and frenetic but sensuous playing. Recorded and mastered in Vienna by Martin Siewert. Features artwork by Brötzmann.
"There is complexity in simplicity, and Sparrow Nights is Brötzmann and Leigh's most enduring record to date. A series of emotionally rich and boldly elucidated tonal and timbral exchanges played like compositions on pedal steel and reeds, the tracks (released as a six-track LP and ten- track CD) are cold-forged minimalist blues motifs dragged from instrumental laments. After three years playing together Brötzmann and Leigh's connection and understanding is by now both cerebral and deeply invested in the physical and sensory possibilities of their combined sound, while retaining a melancholic distance. Within this duo there is fluidity - neither is the anchor - and these recordings sound with as much variety as the sea. At times Sparrow Nights carries the clarity and poeticism of still water and open horizon ("This Word Love"), and at others it contains the elemental and ferocious roar of white water breakers on black rocks ("This Time Around"). On their previous three live albums (Ears Are Filled With Wonder (TROST 147LP, 2016), Sex Tape (TROST 163CD, 2017), and Crowmoon (2018)), the duo have developed an intimate and intense language that manifests here as a focus on power and control, where figures blasted of unnecessary decoration are drawn from the shadows and smoke of collapse. The studio setting also allows Brötzmann to bring a broader range of reeds than in live scenarios: where previously he has played primarily tenor, clarinet and tarogato with Leigh, here he delivers the heat of alto and the low pressure of bass saxophone and clarinet. Brötzmann's duo with Leigh continues to trace a fresh new arc in his trajectory, and this release also falls at a time when Leigh releases Throne (EMEGO 257CD/LP), her most song-based record to date. Here as a studio duo they play a new-old blues for times of complexity, noise and chaos, continuing to redefine and re-sound possibilities for improvised music."--JLA.
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SPHERES 022X-LP
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Color vinyl version; not for Amazon, etc. Indie stores only. The Light Is Leaving Us All is more music from Current 93, everyone's favorite hallucinatory cuneiform super-group. Three years in the making, The Light Is Leaving Us Allcontain spells within its eleven tracks. C93 are possibly, probably, certainly perhaps: Alasdair Roberts, Aloma Ruiz Boada, Andrew Liles, Ben Chasny, David Tibet, Michael J. York, Ossian Brown, Reinier van Houdt, Rita Knuistingh Neven, and Thomas Ligotti. Remember, remember, your future cartoon is as soft as the tarot! Gatefold sleeve, with insert containing all lyrics and credits.
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WWSLP 016LP
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LP version. Obi strip; Includes two-page insert. Wewantsounds present a reissue of Akiko Yano's Tadaima., originally released in 1981. The first release Wewantsounds' ambitious program to release Akiko Yano's albums outside of Japan Tadaima. ("I'm home" in Japanese) is Yano's fifth studio album and a synth-pop masterpiece, co-produced by her then husband Ryuichi Sakamoto and featuring all the musicians from Yellow Magic Orchestra (Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Sakamoto), the group she was touring with at the time. Japan's best kept secret, Akiko Yano is one of the most ground-breaking artists to come out of the '70s Japanese music scene along with Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto. A piano child prodigy, Yano started her solo recording career in 1976 at just 21, recording her debut album Japanese Girl with no less than Little Feat as the backing band. This album created a stir on the Japanese scene and Yano was on the map. She went on to record a series of superb albums mixing funk, electro, and city pop featuring the cream of Japanese (and sometimes American and English) musicians; The fact she was producing, writing and composing herself made her a true maverick in a very male-dominated industry. These albums, incredibly, have never been released outside of Japan to this day. Tadaima. is Yano's first attempt to leave the acoustic piano aside and delve into the synth sounds of the early '80s. The result is a fascinating electro pop masterpiece showcasing her talent as a writer, musician, and singer, creating her own unique universe. Mixing Japanese and English lyrics, Yano crafts perfect pop songs such as "Tadaima.", "I Sing", "Harusaki Kobeni" (which became one of her most famous songs after its use in a Japanese cosmetics ad), while "Taiyo No Onara" is a suite composed of nine short stories written by children. Contributors on Tadaima. also include Shigesato Itoi, one of Japan's most famous copywriters (for Studio Ghibli among others) who wrote two tracks on the album and his friend legendary illustrator Teruhiko Yumura -- aka King Terry -- who revolutionized underground manga in the '70s with his "heta-uma" (bad-good) style, as showcased on the album's striking artwork. Tadaima. is the perfect entry point to Akiko Yano's unique body or work. This reissue includes original artwork by cult illustrator King Terry and a new introduction by renowned DJ Joakim.
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PT 3002LP
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Voices of Mississippi encapsulates the life's work of William Ferris, an audio recordist, filmmaker, folklorist, and teacher with an unwavering commitment to establish and to expand the study of the American South. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Ferris toured his home state of Mississippi, documenting the voices of African Americans as they spoke about and performed the diverse musical traditions that form the roots of the blues. This LP features blues and gospel field recordings made by Ferris between 1966 and 1974; all tracks are available on vinyl for the very first time. In addition to being a groundbreaking documentarian of the American South, Ferris is Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ferris co-edited the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (1989) and is the author of multiple books. Printed inner sleeve.
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LP
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EMEGO 249LP
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Hence is the third collaborative release from Oren Ambarchi and Jim O'Rourke, following on from Behold (EMEGO 176LP, 2015). Building on the refined combination of electronics and acoustic instrumentation found on their previous releases, Hence presents two side-long pieces combining synthesizers, heavily effected guitar tones, and tabla rhythms played by special guest Uzhaan. On the first side, an explosive opening chord sends out ripples of sparse, irregularly pulsing guitar and synthesizer tones, aleatorically changing in pitch and jumping around the stereo image. Combined with the tabla, which gradually builds in busyness throughout the side, the piece is like a dream collaboration between David Behrman and the Henry Kaiser of It's A Wonderful Life (1984), gradually overtaken in its second half by a swarm of lush live electronic sizzle. The second side begins in a similar area, combining tabla, shimmering Leslie cabinet guitar tones, and a wandering melodic line. Undergoing a series of subtle variations, this initial area eventually builds to a climax of twittering synthesized birdsong reminiscent of Alvin Curran's '70s work. As on the first side, Ambarchi and O'Rourke craft a piece that is both comforting and subtly strange, as the constantly shifting dynamics and changes of focus (which recall the flow of improvised music) refuse to allow the music to settle into any one moment for too long or to build in too linear a fashion. Combining influences from post-minimalism, the pioneers of live electronics, and eastern music into a unique sound world, Hence is a seductive work from two of the most singular sensibilities in contemporary music. Cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin. Photos by Traianos Pakioufakis. Sleeve/type design by Stephen O'Malley.
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PAL 053LP
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Brace Up! is the first ever studio release from the duo of Chris Corsano (drums) and Bill Orcutt (guitar). Recorded in Brussels at Les Ateliers Claus by Christophe Albertijn on March 19th and 20th, 2018. Stage dive photograph by Jason Penner. "Over the past six years or so, drummer Chris Corsano has proven to be one of Bill Orcutt's most reliably flexible collusionists. Regardless of whether Bill is cluster-busting electric guitar strings, weaseling around with cracked electronics, or playing relatively spacious free-rock, Corsano is able to provide the proper base for his aural sculpting. A lot of Orcutt's instrumental work has traditionally felt hermetic even though he's exploring caverns of explosive ecstasy. One often got the impression Bill was operating in the way John Travolta did in the classic 1976 ABC television drama, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. Orcutt's actual interaction with collaborators emerged not from communication so much as pure observation. While he was fully cognizant of his musical surroundings, his reactions to it were walled off. This approach did not encourage sonic dialogue so much as parallel streams of discourse. These streams could interact with each other, but not in particularly standard ways. On Brace Up! , their first ever studio release, this precept has changed considerably. Whether it's a function of emotional familiarity or an intellectual choice I dunno, but there's a whole new kind of duo exchange going down on this record. Bill and Chris are clearly playing off each other's moves throughout the album. And it really raises the level of the music to an all-time high. From the cop car see-saw of 'Poundland Frenzy' to the mutual pummeling of 'Paranoid Time' (possibly a Minutemen tribute?) to the lazychicken- gets-stung-prog of 'She Punched a Hole in the Moon for Me,' the sounds on Brace Up! display a constant flow of ideas and instantaneous conjugation of newly forged verbs. As great as Bill and Chris's previous duo records have been, this one's greater." -- Byron Coley
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2LP
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SPHERES 023LP
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The Spheres announce the double-LP reissue of Current 93's classic Soft Black Stars. Originally released in 1998 in a vinyl edition of just 2000 copies, and on CD, this is the first official vinyl reissue. Remastered by The Bricoleur, this album contains all the released versions of the album's final track, "Chewing On Shadows" -- the original album track, as well as the two different versions used on the expanded CD release of 2004. Comes in a full-color sleeve, reproducing the original paintings by David Tibet, and a two-sided full-color insert.
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LP
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ST 7302LP
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"This is the one that started it all, the 1970 debut disk by George Clinton's groundbreaking funk racketeers Parliament. All of the extravagant, idiosyncratic elements are in place here -- lysergic-dosed soul, wild guitars, deep grooves, over-arching experimentation -- combining to create an altogether unprecedented collection of typically free thinking, almost unhinged workouts. A funk milestone of epic proportions."
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LP
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NK 201801LP
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Performing on four different dates in 1967, the year they released their first album, Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967), this is Pink Floyd at their early, psychedelic, and raw best. Their showing in May of that year, for the program "The Look Of The Week", was probably the earliest live video recording of the group and includes amazing versions of "Pow R. Toc H." and "Astronomy Domine". Two more recordings for the program Top Gear, which showcased the underground hipster scene of London, and one for "Tomorrow's World" round out this amazing collection of early Floyd, including great versions of "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun", "Flaming", and "Vegetable Man". Essential live recordings of Pink Floyd during their greatest era! Limited edition splatter vinyl LP.
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2LP
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BNSD 029LP
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"This work, a masterpiece of restraint, reflects the musical imagination of someone who has spent long periods in the quiet recesses of the mind." --Terry Riley
Beacon Sound present a reissue of Hans Otte's The Book Of Sounds (Das Buch Der Klänge) originally released in 1984. Hans Otte (1926-2007) was a multifaceted artist, poet, pianist, composer, and promoter who synthesized the strands of minimalism, Eastern spirituality, and radical art into his own unique and protean vision. In his younger years he studied under the composer Paul Hindemith and the pianist Walter Gieseking. From 1959 to 1984 he was the director of Radio Bremen and was instrumental in introducing artists such as John Cage, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich to European audiences. Although the compositions and recordings that Otte made over the course of his long career are wideranging, The Book Of Sounds is considered to be his masterwork. A solo piano piece, it was written between 1979 and 1982 after a major survey of his previous artistic output and should be viewed through the prism of his own self-development: both as a return to his roots and as a new beginning. It is a cyclical collection of 12 "chapters" that are inspired partly by John Cage's desire to get to the root of sound itself, to liberate it from the weight of expectation and tradition and to view all sound as a manifestation of nature. In a 1979 interview, Otte answered a question about whether his work had a "common core" by saying, "I would say that behind my artistic work, as an aim or hope, is the need to find myself. In other words: despite all the separating structures, the division of all the work, the ideologies, fixed ideas, systems, despite the state and everything that ceaselessly tries to separate and divide us, I fundamentally want to be complete." It might be tempting to assign The Book Of Sounds to the aesthetic of minimalism; however, it is a deceptively sophisticated collection of pieces that unfolds slowly over repeated listens with shifting harmonics and unusual structural touches that keep it firmly on the side of "avant-garde". Includes booklet with contemporary liner note contributions by Terry Riley, Inga Ahmels, and Dustin O'Halloran as well as a reprint of a 1982 Village Voice live review by Tom Johnson and photos taken by his daughter Silvia. First edition of 500.
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2LP+CD
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BEC 5543701
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Arguably one of the most acclaimed and loved bands of the past 20 years, by both fans and their musical peers alike, The Beta Band formed in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1996. Innovative and singular, their unique musical and aesthetic approach to everything they did set them far apart from their musical contemporaries. Together for a relatively short period of time, the three albums and three EPs they released between 1996 and 2004 would nonetheless help define them as one of the most exciting and cherished bands of their generation. After a short hiatus the band gradually gravitated back into the studio and recruited noted UK producer Colin Emmanuel, aka C-Swing, to oversee the process of Hot Shots II which was released in mid-2001. Notoriously the band had intended to release "Squares", which featured a sample from the Günter Kallmann Choir's 1970 version of Wallace Collection's "Daydream", as the lead single. However, after filming the music video and taking the single to radio it suddenly transpired that another single "Daydream In Blue" by I Monster featuring the sample from Günter Kallmann Choir recording was also to be released at the same time causing the band to release "Broke" instead. Touring extensively and supporting Radiohead in August 2002, they made No. 3 on Q magazine's list of "50 Bands to See Before You Die". Standard double-LP version includes CD; gatefold sleeve with printed inner-sleeves.
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2CD
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CVSD 052CD
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Corbett Vs. Dempsey presents a reissue of Milford Graves's Bäbi, originally issued in 1977 on Graves's own IPS label. This is the first reissue of one of the most legendary albums in the history of free music. Recorded live in concert in 1976, when Graves' trio with saxophonists Arthur Doyle and Hugh Glover was at the height of its powers, Bäbi is a testament to the absolutely unique approach the drummer had established for himself. He had reconfigured the drum kit, removing the second heads on all the drums and replacing the snare with two toms, which allowed him a much more nuanced sense of indirectness in his multi-directional adventures in time. The track "Ba" remains one of the most astonishing feats of percussion alchemy ever waxed, as funky as ten slap bassists and as free as an exploding grenade. Doyle and Glover are incendiary, too, inspired by Graves to new and shocking heights of achievement, their hoarse cries and whistling split-tones carried to thrilling plateaus on the energy of Graves' hands and feet. The original tapes for the session have been lost, so the reissue was lovingly remastered from virgin vinyl, itself now worth a mint. In 2017, Graves discovered a previously unknown tape in his archives featuring the same trio at its inception, in home recordings made seven years earlier, in 1969. Graves pummels a huge gong while Glover plays an instrument that, after sounding like none ever known, turns out to be bass clarinet. Extreme music recorded up close and very hot, it is among the most searing sessions never heard, until now. Rounding out the two-CD package are three previously unpublished photos by Gérard Rouy, and the original LP cover design by Graves himself.
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LP
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SPHERES 021LP
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The Spheres present a reissue of Current 93's The Stars On Their Horsies. Originally released in 2018 in a limited white-label edition, in two different silk-screened sleeves of 108 copies each, The Stars On Their Horsies contains just one track, and is now reissued as a standard black vinyl LP. Textually based around two nightmares David Tibet had, of which he recorded accounts of as soon as he woke from them, The Stars On Their Horsies may be seen as a sideshow peek, or perhaps a gas station carnival, and a slide into the contemporary The Light Is Leaving Us All. In a full-color sleeve with artwork by David Tibet.
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2LP
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TRESOR 025LP
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Jeff Mills's Waveform Transmission Vol. 3 initially came out in 1994 on Tresor Records. The eight titles on this album marked a turning point for Mills. It indicates a transition from the straightforward sound he had created through the early 1990s, into the different facets and sound palette he would develop through the remainder of the decade. It is a significant piece within Mills's oeuvre. This repress is a stamped and hand-numbered edition, limited to 1500.
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LP
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ROKURE 003LP
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Otoroku presents a reissue of Evan Parker's The Snake Decides, originally released in 1986. One of the final Incus releases and one that was written up in The Penguin Guide to Jazz as an essential document of modern music, Otoroku releases it as a first ever vinyl re-issue. Featuring four solos recorded in 1986 in St. Paul's Church, Oxford by the late Michael Gerzon, The Snake Decides is a groundbreaking example how far the language of a particular instrument can be taken. From Brian Morton's new liner notes: "The Snake Decides attracts a certain array of adjectives: intense, radical, fearsome, hypnotic, virtuosic, and occasionally allows a more ambitious reviewer to avoid platitude by talking more specifically about 32nd harmonics, circular breathing, multiphonics and Gerson's exact choice and placement of microphones. But this misses a point, too. Listening to this record, either for the first or the fortieth time, is an arousing experience." Remastered by Giuseppe Ielasi and housed in a reverse board sleeve, this is the ultimate document of one of the most important recordings in all Parker's extensive and exploratory catalog. Edition of 500.
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10"
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AUK 044-10
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Brian Jonestown Massacre return with a new single, Forgotten Graves.The first track is exclusive "Forgotten Graves"; the second track is "Tombes Oubliées" with Rike (Friedrike) Bienert on vocals which is from the forthcoming self-titled BJM album. Features Sara Neidorf on drums, Hakon Adalsteinsson on guitar, and Heike Marie Rädeker on bass supporting leader Anton Newcombe. Forgotten Graves is released in the same month as the world commemorates the hundredth anniversary of World War I ("the war to end all wars"); this war never ended any other war; more forgotten graves are being added every day.
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7"/Book
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SIL 009EP
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"2018 Black Friday RSD release. 7" single packaged in a comic book! Early in 2018 Czarface, the joint effort of Boston's 7L & Esoteric and Wu-Tang Clan's Inspectah Deck, set the Hip Hop world on their collective ears with the release of their collaboration with MF DOOM. Soon, they'll issue the follow up release, which will pair Czarface with yet another major Hip Hop icon with the all new Czarface Meets Ghostface. This 7" + comic book serves as the first teaser for the upcoming project. Czarface's Esoteric elaborates: 'With this release, you'll witness a legendary team-up as Czarface and Ghostface join forces to thwart the forces of evil! Wu-Tang Clan general Ghostface Killah leaps off the pages with hip hop hero Czarface through an astonishing storyline, which of course comes with a 7" full of exclusives to spin while enjoying the latest Czarface adventure.' The 20 page full-color comic is illustrated by Marvel Comics' young gun Mike Del Mundo (Thor, Avengers, X-Men). The Dog Days of Tomorrow 7' and comic is one to get your hands on."
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LP
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GET 52733LP
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"2018 Black Friday RSD release. Dig deep in to the released output of famed producer David Axelrod and you'll discover this gem, Pride. The single self-titled release is the pairing of Axelrod with his son Michael. The father-son duo deliver psychedelic pop with what many may call a Baroque folk-rock twist. Issued in 1970, the project is somewhat in the realm of the output from groups such as Love or The Byrds ? but indelibly David Axelrod through and through."
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GET 59003LP
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"2018 Black Friday RSD release. Recorded and released in 1967 at the height of the Psychedelic movement on the Cotique imprint, The Lebron Brothers deliver an incredible release more than worthy of revisiting. Producer and Cotique label chief George Goldner recalls 'All the tricks of way out sounds are put into these numbers. You will hear the weirdest sounds ever cut in Latin dance music. No one has ever dared to produce this sound in Latin music in the past, but I felt the time had come to do it as all past records had the same sounds. Of course, arrangements had a lot to do with my decision to go on this electronic trip.' And that trip is back in effect with Get On Down's special Black Friday reissue from an oft overlooked portion of the Lebron Brothers' storied history."
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LP
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DOC 144LP
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Akira Ifukube's mighty score to the legendary monster movie that started it all, Godzilla! Ifukube's visionary music is super dark reflecting the horror of Ishiro Honda's film. This incredible score music alternates between brass and strings as we witness the death and destruction that comes in Godzilla's wake. Edition of 500.
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LP
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ASH 3007LP
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2018 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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IMPREC 466LP
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Lawrence English and Alessandro Cortini issue Immediate Horizon, a live recording, made at the premiere of the piece, held at Kraftwerk in Berlin. Having become mutual admirers of each other's work; English of Cortini's Sonno (HOS 412CD, 2014) and Cortini of English's Wilderness Of Mirrors (RM 460CD, 2014), the pair were very pleased to receive an invitation to collaborate together. Following a number of months exchanging compositional ideas and materials, Cortini and English met in Berlin several days ahead of the festival and commenced an intense period of rehearsal and arrangement. The resulting piece, Immediate Horizon, traces their shared interests in harmony and texture. It is a work that meditates on saturation and the ruptures that occur when harmonic elements are stacked. Immediate Horizon's six pieces swell and burst in a perpetual sense of pulse.
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SPHERES 022LP
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The Light Is Leaving Us All is more music from Current 93, everyone's favorite hallucinatory cuneiform super-group. Three years in the making, The Light Is Leaving Us Allcontain spells within its eleven tracks. C93 are possibly, probably, certainly perhaps: Alasdair Roberts, Aloma Ruiz Boada, Andrew Liles, Ben Chasny, David Tibet, Michael J. York, Ossian Brown, Reinier van Houdt, Rita Knuistingh Neven, and Thomas Ligotti. Remember, remember, your future cartoon is as soft as the tarot! Gatefold sleeve, with insert containing all lyrics and credits.
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2LP
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TER 052LP
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"Chandra Oppenheim was a child star like no other. As the daughter of famed conceptual artist Dennis Oppenheim. By age nine, Chandra was staying up late at her parents' art-world parties, collaborating in her father's projects, and performing her own plays at downtown hotspots such as The Kitchen and Franklin Furnace. This set the stage for Chandra's course-altering collaboration with members of The Dance, who were looking to form yet another project and found their muse/fuse in ten-year-old Chandra. Transportation EP, originally released in 1980 by The Dance's own label, ON/GoGo. Balancing on razor-wire guitars, liquid bass lines, and dub-style melodica, the Chandra band unveiled their first four songs: 'Opposite', 'Concentration', 'Subways', and 'Kate.' While Chandra's music can be compared to her no wave contemporaries Y Pants, France's Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Su Tissue of Suburban Lawns, or 'Delta 5 meets the Jackson 5', to quote critic David Ma, her lyrical fixations are truly singular. With hypnotic, chanted vocals focusing on chilling themes of mind control, multiple personalities and missing the train. At age 12, the post-punk pre-teen took the stage with her band for the first time at New York's legendary Mudd Club. A whirlwind of press coverage ensued from glossy magazines like Vogue and Paris Match to the influential underground zine Non LP B Side and a Soho News cover story. The infectious, propulsive 'Get It Out Of Your System' opens Chandra's second EP with one of her most commanding performances. 'Stranger' slows the pace with stop-start rhythms, woozy synths, and the harmonized return of the melodica, while its lyrics find her being followed by a mysterious character revealed to be a woman. 'Tish Le Dire' sounds like The B-52s in an eerie alternate universe with instructions on speaking up to your parents or authorities to the point of threatening suicide. Chandra stepped away from the band at age 14 to focus on her education. Sadly, the second EP was shelved and would not see the light of day for decades. Chandra's trip continues with this new deluxe reissue from Telephone Explosion Records. Returning her debut EP to its original four song, single-record release at a dancefloor-ready remastered 45 RPM, the expanded edition also adds to the second EP with a pair of never-released songs from her 1983 four-track cassette demos. 'Day Without Success' and 'They're All Alike' find Chandra's dream-like vocals driven by minimal wave synth zaps and pulsating drum machines."
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HOS 613LP
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LP version. Includes poster. Silent Servant returns with Shadows of Death and Desire. Now-legendary producer, DJ, and art director Juan Mendez arguably reset techno at least twice. Once with his surreal and Europe-by-way-of-LA '80s apocalypse culture aesthetics for Sandwell District, and again as Silent Servant capturing the youth-driven mutation of crossover electronics and dark parties churning in the American underground, which followed directly in the wake of his game-changing modern classic, Negative Fascination (2012). Mendez has evolved to more aggressive and stripped-down acid punk electro dance attacks Shadows of Death and Desire. Mendez took his time to deliver a more raw --yet refined-- brutalism on this, his second album. The otherworldly guitar feedback of opener "Illusion" is cut short with a relentless bass sequence erasing any preconceptions of softening with time. Stereo-panned dusty snares drag along concrete and break apart with without a past or future. The introductory hypnotic sprawl is hastily dissected and left behind for the systematic tension of single "Harm In Hand." Cold drum machine rolls that could have been removed with a laser from early Ministry are offset with a vocal delivery not felt in techno since Suicide. The narrative is constantly disrupted by caustic guitar stabs, its naked urgency like slamming on the brakes while inertia thrusts you forward in space but decidedly not in time. In his own words, "The record is a product of a significant life change that wasn't a benefit," which is eerily felt from the start but is surprisingly washed away with album closer, "Optimistic Decay" (which has become a mission statement from Mendez's visual ideology). "Optimistic Decay" sees Mendez reuniting with vocalist Camella Lobo (Tropic Of Cancer). Lobo's voice rises from spectral vocal delays beyond dub. A subtle nod to Silent Servant's initial Maurizio-leaning EPs but with the grandiosity and opioid slow-motion haze of My Bloody Valentine. Also a student of cinematic deconstruction, the album looks inward from the exterior of LA's untold stories in the netherworlds on the edge of the city, a rapid crash course in confidence games and subsequent letdowns. Shadows of Death and Desire sets the standard in electronic post-punk. Mixed and mastered by Josh Eustis. Designed by Silent Editions.
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2LP
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KOM 395LP
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Double LP version; gatefold sleeve, includes download. Wolfgang Voigt (aka GAS)-curated series, Pop Ambient returns with a change of pace. Be prepared for a more acoustically prominent/avant-garde collection that follows the aesthetic of previous editions... and goes where you have never heard before in the series.
"When a record label thrives after 25 years thanks to a focus of what was expected to be a short-lived music phenomenon called techno, then it stands to prove two things; that techno has taken its place amongst "serious" genres. KOMPAKT has never been only for techno, but stands as a broad-minded entity that has set out to cross-pollinatewithin the realm of electronic music. Through its course, KOMPAKT has sent all kinds of sub-genres, and crossover adventures based on the non-negotiable 4/4 beat around the world. The 100% kick drum-free Pop Ambient series is the most endearing and enduring concept that I have had the pleasure to curate. I felt there was a strong need to add a certain elegance -- ensouled by discourse as much as hedonism -- to a sound that was recognized as "chill out" music that could be heard in back rooms and forgotten festival areas. Over the years, I like to imagine that Pop Ambient has crystallized into musical universe of its own. I put together this year's edition by plowing through an ocean of sonic jewelry from all over the world. For this special edition, I create a homogenous experience that would both appeal to our followers and continue our tradition while integrating new micro-facets from neighboring musical universes as much as possible. The headline "Ambient" might sound a little too humble but it still helps as a necessary means of orientation in the best possible sense. Same goes for another dear tradition: Veronika Unland's abstract-floral cover design that keeps on pleasing our sore eyes year after year. Although every Pop Ambient edition doesn't shy away from diving into the relevant question of "What is contemporary discourse music", in the end it boils down to that elevated moment where all theory dissolves into ambient air, into a higher state of cosmic bliss. Pop Ambient is sacral music for non-believers." --Wolfgang Voigt Cologne, October 2018.
Features: Thore Pfeiffer, Coupler, The Black Frame, Kenneth James Gibson, Morgen Wurde, Gregor Schwellenbach, Last Train To Brooklyn, Max Würden, Thomas Fehlmann, Leandro Fresco, Yui Onodera, and Triola.
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4LP
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FABRIC 200LP
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4LP version. Burial and Kode9 are each credited with fostering esoteric, hyperlocal sounds and steering them to global recognition. As such, these tracks reach into obscure corners and across a disorienting range of tempos. This set of four vinyl LPs -- produced to accompany the final FabricLive 100 compilation release, features 28 of the 37 tracks on the compilation in their unmixed format. Featuring artists from Africa, China, South America, and Japan as well as the Europe and US. Drawing from gqom, juke, and footwork to trance, jungle, and grime, as well as a wealth of material that defies categorization.
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DAD 118LP
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Down At Dawn presents a reissue of Indeed!, the debut album by genius trumpeter Lee Morgan, originally released in 1957. Recorded in 1956 at the very young age of 18, Indeed! is the result of a fine hard bop session featuring compositions by Benny Golson, Donald Byrd, Horace Silver and with Morgan leading his own band. The quintet features alto sax player Clarence Sharpe and a solid rhythm section with Horace Silver (piano) Wilbur Ware (bass), and Philly Joe Jones (drums).
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V 25AH426
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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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SF 114LP
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Senyawa are a contemporary duo originating from Jogjakarta, Indonesia. Rully Shabara (extreme vocals) coupled with Wukir Suryadi's deft instrumentals (and homemade instruments) produce one of the most profound examples of experimental via traditional music happening anywhere today. By weaving Indonesian folkloric moods with various shades of modern genre hybrids, Senyawa has been navigating unexplored musical terrain for more than a decade. Sujud, their premier release on the Sublime Frequencies label, is the latest chapter of this very special and singular sound of the past, present, and future. The basic theme of the record can be summed up with one extremely powerful Bahasa Indonesian word, "tanah", which translates to "soil-ground-land-earth". Shabara's vocals are an expressive force, conjuring spirits from the soil with a deep humility and respect for the land and their existence in the universe. Suryadi has built a new guitar for these tracks and pushes the Senyawa sound into new territory, utilizing delay, loops, and other effects creating grounded backdrops of folk metal, punk attitudinal, and droning earthscapes - providing Shabara the perfect context to explore his whispering poetry and jagged, sharp-as-a-kris animistic powers. There is simply no other sound like it and Sublime Frequencies is thrilled to present this new direction in their discography. Limited LP with two-sided insert featuring lyrics in Bahasa Indonesian.
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ASH 103LP
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"Few albums define a genre as succinctly as Simon Finn's Pass The Distance does for psychedelic folk. Not even landmark recordings by Pearls Before Swine or Skip Spence can stand up to the sheer madness of Finn's sole LP, originally released in 1970. After moving to London in 1967, Finn busked around town for a couple years before entering Camden's Chalk Farm Studios, best known for producing a string of reggae hits. Pass The Distance, however, would become more than a solo-acoustic project. Backed by free-improvisation innovators David Toop and Paul Burwell, Finn's dark, personal songs unravel lysergically over 40 minutes. Toop's sinewy electric guitar and Burwell's broad percussive palette lift up Finn's ardent strumming and snarling vocals, making this one wild ride in catharsis, introspection and raw merriment. As Finn tells journalist Dave Segal in an interview for this vinyl reissue, 'The songs were about alienation and loneliness. 'Jerusalem' came to me in one shot. I wrote it on mescaline and was playing it over and over and one of my flatmates wrote it down.' Pass The Distance remains a 'cult record' in the best sense of the term, possessing a hypnotic beauty all its own."
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CD
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TROST 180CD
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Sparrow Nights is the first studio album from the furious duo of pedal steel player Heather Leigh and saxophone legend Peter Brötzmann. Their collaboration has quickly gained a well-earned reputation for their cutting-edge music and frenetic but sensuous playing. Recorded and mastered in Vienna by Martin Siewert. Features artwork by Brötzmann; LP version comes in a heavy, '60s style tip-on cover.
"There is complexity in simplicity, and Sparrow Nights is Brötzmann and Leigh's most enduring record to date. A series of emotionally rich and boldly elucidated tonal and timbral exchanges played like compositions on pedal steel and reeds, the tracks (released as a six-track LP and ten- track CD) are cold-forged minimalist blues motifs dragged from instrumental laments. After three years playing together Brötzmann and Leigh's connection and understanding is by now both cerebral and deeply invested in the physical and sensory possibilities of their combined sound, while retaining a melancholic distance. Within this duo there is fluidity - neither is the anchor - and these recordings sound with as much variety as the sea. At times Sparrow Nights carries the clarity and poeticism of still water and open horizon ("This Word Love"), and at others it contains the elemental and ferocious roar of white water breakers on black rocks ("This Time Around"). On their previous three live albums (Ears Are Filled With Wonder (TROST 147LP, 2016), Sex Tape (TROST 163CD, 2017), and Crowmoon (2018)), the duo have developed an intimate and intense language that manifests here as a focus on power and control, where figures blasted of unnecessary decoration are drawn from the shadows and smoke of collapse. The studio setting also allows Brötzmann to bring a broader range of reeds than in live scenarios: where previously he has played primarily tenor, clarinet and tarogato with Leigh, here he delivers the heat of alto and the low pressure of bass saxophone and clarinet. Brötzmann's duo with Leigh continues to trace a fresh new arc in his trajectory, and this release also falls at a time when Leigh releases Throne (EMEGO 257CD/LP), her most song-based record to date. Here as a studio duo they play a new-old blues for times of complexity, noise and chaos, continuing to redefine and re-sound possibilities for improvised music."--JLA.
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2CD
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MFM 031CD
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Uneven Paths: Deviant Pop From Europe 1980-1991 is the second multiple artist compilation on Music From Memory. It's compiled by record connoisseur Raphael Top-Secret and label man Jamie Tiller. The compilation brings together twenty-one tracks from across the continent; exploring the more unusual and unexpected sides of pop music produced during that period. Drawing material from cult experimental artists such as Steve Beresford, Brenda Ray, and Bill Nelson alongside one-off independent musical projects rescued from the fringes, Uneven Paths focuses on a selection of tracks that go beyond the confines of mainstream pop music but which also transcend expectations of much of the "experimental" music of the time. This is music with one foot in the avant-garde and another foot firmly rooted within the sensibilities of pop; where jazz musicians detour into synth-pop, punk bands break into boogie jams, and student doctors jam out on odd melodies with synthesizers and drum machines during their night shifts. Features Nightfall In Camp, Stroer Duo Howard Fine, Tony Hymas, Violet Eves, Miko & Mubare, Piscine Et Charles, John Makin & Friends, Nonobstant, Wolfgang Klingler, Thomas Heimes, Hans-Christian Mittag, Sound On Sound, Harte 10, Pete Brandt's Method, Lost Gringos, Patrick Forgas, Brenda And The Beachballs, Xavier Jouvelet, Lou Blic, Steve Beresford, Bill Nelson's Orchestra Arcana, Harte 10, and Monica Rypma.
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2LP
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PSY 1999LP
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"2018 Black Friday RSD release. On vinyl for the first time ever!
Pressed on red vinyl with variant covers of each jeckel brother! Horrorcore hip-hop veterans Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope of Insane Clown Posse have never been one to avoid controversy for the sake of their craft. The release of their 1997 album The Great Milenko proved that, when the album's label, Disney-owned Hollywood Records, removed the album from shelves mere hours after its release to appease complaints by the Southern Baptist Church. This controversy only served to propel the Detroit duo's profile higher, as numerous labels lined up to court them. By 1998 Insane Clown Posse had settled into Island Records, and The Great Milenko had sold over one million copies, setting the stage for their next record. The Amazing Jeckel Brothers was released in 1999, was the fifth entry into their Joker's Cards anthology of albums, and featured 17 tracks touching on themes of anger, morality, and sin, heavily inspired by the negative press the group had received from the Hollywood Records debacle. Like Milenko, the album featured production from their frequent collaborator DJ Mike E. Clark, but Jeckel Brothers set itself apart with its sound, heavily indebted to classic 90s rap, as opposed to Milenko's hard rock-influence, featuring key contributions from legends of hip-hop like Ol' Dirty Bastard and Snoop Dogg, from fellow horrorcore icons Twiztid, ska-revival band Gangsta Fun, and even prank call comedians The Jerky Boys. Despite receiving a thrashing from critics, Insane Clown Posse defied the press it received when The Amazing Jeckel Brothers debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 charts, and ultimately reached platinum status in 2008. In celebration of this landmark album, Insane Clown Posse's own Psychopathic Records now presents this special reissue of The Amazing Jeckel Brothers. Not just on vinyl for the very first time, but pressed on transparent red wax, and housed in two variant covers featuring each of the two iconic Jeckel Brothers from the original artwork."
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CD
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BT 044CD
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So You ... (Hermes, Orpheus, Eurydice) is a major new work by legendary experimental composer Alvin Lucier. It is an hour-long epic that tracks the familiar Orpheus myth from a less familiar perspective: that of Eurydice as imagined by poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle); a Eurydice who rails at Orpheus for his hubris in attempting to rescue her. So You ... (Hermes, Orpheus, Eurydice) was originally commissioned by Documenta 14 and first performed as part of Documenta in Athens in 2017. Two key, and formerly distinct, aspects of Lucier's practice come together in this piece: the exploration of interference patterns in closely tuned intervals, and the exploration of resonant chambers. From speakers mounted inside amphorae a constantly turning braid of beating sine waves trace the descent into the depths of hell, and then the doomed attempt to climb back into life. Singer Jessika Kenney and long-time Lucier collaborators Anthony Burr and Charles Curtis embody the three title characters in deeply focused performances that assert themselves against the process of the sweep, or become enfolded in it. The electronics were mixed in real time by programmer and equipment designer Tom Erbe. This record has all of the mind-bending acoustic effects expected from a Lucier piece, but also features a strong sense of narrative drama and flashes of raw emotion that are unexpected and deeply affecting. Design by Lasse Marhaug. Mastered by Doug Henderson at micro-moose, Berlin. Presented in a deluxe digipak with a booklet featuring the original poem and extensive notes by Lucier, Burr and Cathy Gere.
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LP
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KH 9086LP
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Frank Zappa, live at the Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden on September 30th, 1967. In the last week of September 1967, Frank Zappa and the Mothers played a week of shows in Europe. This remarkable performance, broadcast from the Konserthuset in Stockholm, Sweden on national FM radio, features favorites such as "It Can't Happen Here" from Freak Out! (1966), "Big Leg Emma" (which had recently appeared as a 45 in Sweden), and an epic rendition of "King Kong" (in its first known live recording), as well as a couple of Elvis classics. The entire broadcast is presented here, digitally remastered, together with background notes and images.
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2LP
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JMAN 046LP
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Limited restock. Deluxe gatefold double LP version with color inserts and on 180 gram vinyl. As the '60s progressed, cultural and political revolutions occurred both in the U.S. and in Europe. Jazz was both a victim and a savior, with radical developments in the music occurring on both continents. In the U.S., artists took control of their own musical destiny as small labels broke away from the mainstream, expressing new and creative visions of freedom and peace against a backdrop of civil unrest, repression and war. In '60s Europe, the jazz community forged ahead with a different revolution; that of breaking away from mere emulation of their American counterparts. A distinctive, European jazz sound began to develop that combined traditional music from across Europe and around the world with the creative freedom so abundant in American jazz. Over time, the most forward-thinking creative talents of the post-Coltrane European jazz generation crafted and nurtured sophisticated and multi-faceted styles of jazz that were as radical as they were beautiful, giving modern jazz a characteristically European flavor. The music is a heady mix indeed; stirring jazz overtures with orchestra and choir, festival performances recorded live from the grassy heartlands of central Europe, modal montages inspired by pilgrimages to Asia and Africa, experiments in rhythm and sound where modern jazz meets traditional Balkan and flamenco folk music. This is spiritual jazz, European-style. All tracks fully licensed and digitally restored from the original master tapes.
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LP
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DAD 108LP
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Down At Dawn presents a reissue of Freddie Hubbard's The Artistry Of Freddie Hubbard, originally issued on Impulse! in 1963. This explosive session, recorded in 1962, was young lion Freddie Hubbard's debut album for the label. For the occasion Hubbard displays a solid post-bop horn section with Curtis Fuller on trombone and the great John Gilmore on tenor saxophone in one of his rare appearances outside the Sun Ra Arkestra. The sextet is completed by an extremely dynamic rhythm section featuring Tommy Flanagan (piano), Art Davis (bass), and the super-swinging Louis Hayes on drums.
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10"
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TEG 1083EP
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Last copies of this 2018 Black Friday RSD release. "Robert Johnson, 'The King of The Delta Blues Singers', achieved his reputation based on 29 timeless recordings cut for the ARC/Vocalion group of labels at five sessions held between November 23, 1936 and June 20, 1937. The impact of Johnson's combined intense vocals, outstanding guitar skills and songwriting talent introduced a musical and lyrical vocabulary that formed the foundation of modern blues and blues rock that influenced generations of musicians including Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones. Eric Clapton is quoted as saying that 'Robert Johnson to me is the most important blues musician who ever lived'. A special 2018 Black Friday offering of Robert Johnson's iconic 1936 recordings of 'Cross Road Blues'/'Ramblin' On My Mind' reproduced on the Vocalion label with sleeve as a 10-inch 78 RPM microgroove single."
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LP
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WRJ 002LP
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New "regular edition" on 140 gram vinyl. We Release Jazz (WRWTFWW Records' new sister-label) present the official reissue of criminally overlooked Japanese jazz gem Mellow Dream by Hokkaido pianist wunderkind Ryo Fukui, originally released in 1977. Released in conjunction with the its legendary predecessor 1976's Scenery (WRJ 001CD/LP/LTD-LP). Firmly standing on the foundation he laid down with Scenery, Ryo Fukui continues his exploration of modal, bop, and cool jazz sounds with meticulous grace and absolute mastery. As its title suggests, Mellow Dream ventures into slightly mellower, more soulful, and sometimes more contemplative territories (the Bill Evans-reminiscent "Mellow Dream" and "My Foolish Heart") while still packing the commanding punch Fukui's work is loved for, as heard on the amazingly bombastic "Baron Potato Blues" or the gigantic McCoy Tyner/John Coltrane-influenced "Horizon" which sees each member of the trio -- Satoshi Denpo is on bass and Yoshinori Fukui is on drums -- demonstrating their virtuosity for nine exhilarating minutes. With his sophomore album, Ryo Fukui swings from melancholy to vibrant joy with ease, and reminds you that jazz is best served with a pinch of blues, and displays an immensely rare combination of pure talent, unique personal approach and focused discipline. The man undeniably deserves a spot in the pantheon of all-time great jazz pianists. After releasing the outstanding Scenery and Mellow Dream back-to-back, Ryo Fukui worked on developing his live skills, often performing at Sapporo's Slowboat Jazz Club (which he co-founded with his wife Yasuko Fukui), and even releasing two live albums. He sadly passed away in March 2016, leaving behind a legacy of works that all jazz lovers should explore. Sourced from the original masters. Mastered at half speed; 140 gram vinyl; includes sticker.
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CD
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KOMP 150CD
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Wolfgang Voigt (aka GAS)-curated series, Pop Ambient returns with a change of pace. Be prepared for a more acoustically prominent/avant-garde collection that follows the aesthetic of previous editions... and goes where you have never heard before in the series.
"When a record label thrives after 25 years thanks to a focus of what was expected to be a short-lived music phenomenon called techno, then it stands to prove two things; that techno has taken its place amongst "serious" genres. KOMPAKT has never been only for techno, but stands as a broad-minded entity that has set out to cross-pollinatewithin the realm of electronic music. Through its course, KOMPAKT has sent all kinds of sub-genres, and crossover adventures based on the non-negotiable 4/4 beat around the world. The 100% kick drum-free Pop Ambient series is the most endearing and enduring concept that I have had the pleasure to curate. I felt there was a strong need to add a certain elegance -- ensouled by discourse as much as hedonism -- to a sound that was recognized as "chill out" music that could be heard in back rooms and forgotten festival areas. Over the years, I like to imagine that Pop Ambient has crystallized into musical universe of its own. I put together this year's edition by plowing through an ocean of sonic jewelry from all over the world. For this special edition, I create a homogenous experience that would both appeal to our followers and continue our tradition while integrating new micro-facets from neighboring musical universes as much as possible. The headline "Ambient" might sound a little too humble but it still helps as a necessary means of orientation in the best possible sense. Same goes for another dear tradition: Veronika Unland's abstract-floral cover design that keeps on pleasing our sore eyes year after year. Although every Pop Ambient edition doesn't shy away from diving into the relevant question of "What is contemporary discourse music", in the end it boils down to that elevated moment where all theory dissolves into ambient air, into a higher state of cosmic bliss. Pop Ambient is sacral music for non-believers." --Wolfgang Voigt Cologne, October 2018.
Features: Thore Pfeiffer, Coupler, The Black Frame, Kenneth James Gibson, Morgen Wurde, Gregor Schwellenbach, Last Train To Brooklyn, Max Würden, Thomas Fehlmann, Leandro Fresco, Yui Onodera, and Triola. CD version available as continuous mix.
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LP
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FTR 386LP
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"In March 1995, soon after the German Veracity label issued Wolfways, and just before they did Parsnips Snips (1995) (Hurley's first vinyl after a nine-year drought), the Great Snock undertook his first European tour. Joined by bassist Robert Michener (from the Richmond scene Hurley'd been involved in) and percussionist Mickey Bones (legendary Boston drummer & bones player), Hurley hit a bunch of places and Germany and also KLUB K4 in Llubjana, Slovenia, where this set was recorded. The sound is beautiful, the band plays with lazy perfection, and Hurley's vocals are energetically melodic. He does some songs that were only released on the series of cassettes that immediately preceded Wolfways ('Horse's Ass,' 'The Beggar's Terms'), stuff from Wolfways ('Letter in Neon,' 'Portland Water,' 'I Paint a Design'), classics like 'O My Stars,' and a few cover tunes. And More! Packed up in a new Hurley art cover design (based on the Euro tour t-shirt), with great liner notes detailing the rigors of a German press junket from right before the tour-proper, this package is sure to please discerning Snockophiles of all stripes. It's a fantastic spin. Dig in today." --Byron Coley, 2018.
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LP
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CY 991LP
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Song Cycle Records present a reissue of Michael Snow's The Last LP: Unique Last Recordings of the Music of Ancient Cultures, originally issued in 1987. The album is an extraordinary collection of tracks "of rare music derived from threatened, obsolete, or now-extinct cultures from around the world" that although the claiming of being field recordings of ancient musical experiences, are in fact pieces played, conceived and recorded by the artist himself. As it was for Musics For Piano, Whistling, Microphone And Tape Recorder (CY 999LP, 2016), with this issue the Canadian artist further developed his conceptual investigation around the object-LP where the single elements (the record, the music, the text and the jacket) are so indissolubly intertwined to create what the artist calls a "sonics-sculpture-text". Partly motivated by the announced obsolescence of the vinyl format, The Last LP is also a critical reflection on the impact of new technologies on the relationship between played and recorded music. Presented with remastered sound from the original tapes and a faithful reproduction of the original artwork. Gatefold sleeve, 180 gram virgin vinyl. Edition of 500.
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2LP
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BKEDIT 017LP
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Boomkat Editions presents a first vinyl edition of Akira Rabelais' sophomore album, Eisoptrophobia, a spellbinding, uniquely decayed rendering of solo piano pieces by Erik Satie and Bela Bartók. The 2001 release forms a poetic farewell to the 20th century and a bittersweet embrace of new technological possibility. It's required listening for lovers of The Caretaker's haunted ballroom elegies, Stephan Mathieu's electro-acoustic microphony, or indeed the original, classical pieces. First released in 2001 on CD by Ritornell, a sub-label of Mille Plateaux, Eisoptrophobia is an early iteration of Akira applying his Argeïphontes Lyre software to classical music, and opening a fascinating schism between the original object and his modern, subjective perspective in the process. This process would also generate rarified and haunting results on Akira's Spellewauerynsherde (BKEDIT 015LP, 2017). The original piano recordings of Satie and Bartók pieces were made at Wave Equation Studios in Hollywood, California, and subsequently transformed with Argeïphontes Lyre, Adobe After Effects, SoundHack, Peak, and Pro Tools with beautifully elusive results. The recognizable melodies here ring out in myriad new ways, sometimes fractured and indented by patinas of crackle that echo the original contours, while, at other times, they're smudged into mind-bending obfuscation or spectral, timbral things. They have the uncanny capacity to resemble exhumed artifacts, dug up after decades of decay, and riddled with potently psychedelic mycelium ready to spore on the listener's mind. In its unique process and disjointed effect, Eisoptrophobia is arguably an album without precedent, and one that never ceases to yield anything less than a deeply reflective, perhaps even transformative experience with keener ears. Lacquer cut at Dubplates + Mastering, Berlin. Photography by Jacqueline Roberts, design by Michael Worthington. Gatefold jacket.
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LP
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FTR 413LP
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"Newly remastered reissue of Willie Lane's 2009 solo guitar LP, Known Quantity, originally released on his own Cord Art label. Over the last few years, this album has been requested at the store more often than just about any other, but it sold out not long after it was issued and has risen in price consistently since that time. Listening to Known Quantity, it's not hard to understand why it has such a strong rep. Lane came out the Hampshire College scene that aligned itself with the Apostasy Records crowd (Krefting, Shaw, Rosenblum, etc.). His first known recordings were actually with some of the noisier experimental units associated with this cabal. Willie was based in Philadelphia for a long time after college, where he fell in with Jack Rose and the whole Fishtown scene of the early Oughts. Moving back to the Valley, Willie also began working with Matt Valentine's tribe, and his first solo album,Recliner Ragas, was issued as a C.O.M. CDR in 2006 before getting vinylized by the Humito label in 2012. And keen listeners out there will detect a certain "Spectrasound" feel to some of the electric passages here. The music on Known Quantity is a buttery mix of electric and acoustic string aktion. Samara Lubelski plays bass on one track, but it's all solo apart from that. And it's a wonderland of textures and sound shapes. Some of the pieces are almost straight ahead (somewhat more in tunes with the work Willie does when he plays live), but others are as wobbly and jagged as a drunk peacock. It's an amazing record, and rewards multiple listens with constantly unfolding details. Max Milgram (from Watery Love) did the new cover art (based on the original LP's photographic frontispiece) and the mastering by Carl Saff is mighty nice. Enjoy..." --Byron Coley, 2018. Edition of 500.
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