Black Editions present the first ever vinyl edition of Kan Mikami's I'm the Only One Around. For 50 years, Kan Mikami has stood as a master of the Japanese blues and outsider folk. His unmistakable, powerfully evocative voice and surrealistic poetry reveal a gritty, transgressive life on the margins shot through with evocations of sex and violence, religion and romance. Released in 1991, I'm the Only One Around was Mikami's first album with Tokyo's legendary P.S.F. label and heralded an artistic renaissance. It marked the beginning of an incredibly productive and wildly creative era for Mikami that extends to the present day. This opening salvo presents the essential core of Mikami's music; with nothing but his voice and a stripped-down electric guitar the album is a powerful, effortlessly emotional statement filled with moments of both brutal passion and gentle revelation. It is unrestrained, direct, brutally honest. It embodies Mikami's philosophy: "If you're going to make music, stake your life on it -- it's worth it. Making music is an intensely human act." In the newly translated notes to the album, Hiroyuki Itsuki, one of Japan's most renowned writers perhaps put it best: "What erupts here is all the fury and grief of Jōmon Man (the prehistoric people of the Japanese archipelago), lobbed into the middle of a 1990s city. Kan Mikami is unchanging, yet definitely in motion. He advances not forwards, but backwards. Not a retreat, rather he consciously progresses backwards. At the final destination for his full-steam astern poésie lies a massive, gaping black hole, exuding a dazzling, black light. This is the image evoked by the world of Kan Mikami that you can hear on this album." Mikami would go on to release 15 solo albums with P.S.F. as well as numerous collaborative efforts with other giants of the Japanese underground including Motoharu Yoshizawa, Masayoshi Urabe, and Keiji Haino, with whom, along with Toshiaki Ishizuka he formed the group Vajra. Features lyrics translated by Drew Stroud and newly translated notes by Alan Cummings. Remastered and cut to vinyl at Elysian Masters Los Angeles, pressed by RTI, packaged in heavy Stoughton tip-on jackets with insert featuring textured paper, gold foil stamping and metallic inks.

The follow-up to Chuck Johnson's acclaimed Balsams LP (VDSQ 021LP), The Cinder Grove delves further into the compositional possibilities of the pedal steel guitar. This halcyon collection of tracks draws on a wider palette of sounds, adding strings and piano, to dive deeper into the sound bath of Johnson's meditative music. The Cinder Grove is a profound, affecting statement on the nature of loss and irreplaceability as well as a major addition to the canon of Johnson's work. It's a suite of requiems for lost places. Many of the spaces that once fostered affordable living and creative work now only exist in sonic memory, like the echoes of ghosts. Like much of the California landscape in recent years, some of these spaces having succumbed to fire. Others, to the equally inexorable forces of gentrification. While his 2017 LP Balsams was intended to provide the listener with a space for respite and calm -- even healing -- The Cinder Grove seeks to remember what has been lost while celebrating the resilience of the human spirit and the natural world. In making The Cinder Grove, Johnson dug through archival recordings from Oakland DIY performance spaces to digitally extract their reverb and echo qualities. He then applied these effects -- as well as the digitally modeled reverberation of a redwood forest -- to the tracks on The Cinder Grove, allowing the pieces to bask in the lush virtual spaces, and in the process realized that these sonic re-constructions can only ever be approximations. We try to make spaces what we want them to be, whether in memory or in the material present.

A dazzling display of 12-string melodicism, Arc Minutes is the second full-length LP from once New Englander, now Tokyo-based, instrumentalist Rob Noyes. If one had to pin an influence from the holy trinity, rather than the existential drift of Fahey or the raga-tinged interpretations of Robbie Basho, Noyes excels at Leo Kottke-style dynamics playing huge, bright runs within compact arrangements that explode with exuberance. Since his debut, Noyes has matured with an intense focus and here delivers a concise, powerful collection of acoustic virtuosity, further cementing his status among the most revered young players to emerge from the modern solo guitar set. "I've strayed from double thumb type fingerpicking and a little more towards unusual rhythmic patterns and tunings that are unique to the 12-string," says Noyes. "There are general musical ideas I tend to focus on when writing, like dynamics, rhythm, how the texture shifts/develops, that were probably somewhat noticeable on the first record that I think are much more in the forefront this time. I've become a lot more comfortable playing over the past couple of years, so I feel I can play odd meter/polyrhythm type stuff with a lot more ease. It's taken some time for my playing to catch up to my writing, so I think this new record is a much clearer statement musically." These developments are front and center as Arc Minutes flows with a beguiling dexterity. While there are plenty of forceful displays of guitar picking, the album is punctuated by lovely ballads such as "Dwelling" and "And How" to show the gentler side of Noyes's playing. But these moments of respite only highlight the record's assertiveness. Noyes's easygoing mannerisms offstage belie a fierce command of finger-picking and composition that result in an album that hits immediately and rings resoundingly. Injecting a fresh spirit into classic forms, Arc Minutes is an essential addition to the VDSQ catalog, a new peak.

2021 repress . "Compiled from over eight hours of material, Love Is Overtaking Me reaches back further to Russell's first compositions from the early `70s, the most rare and, at the same time, arguably the most accessible part comprising 21 demos and home recordings of unreleased pop, folk and country songs selected by Audika's Steve Knutson, Ernie Brooks and Russell's companion, Tom Lee. A number of the songs feature prominently in the film Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell."

Caught somewhere between environmental sound studies and surrealist sonic architecture, Sugai Ken helps mark the 30th release of Field Records with an ambitious new album. Commissioned by the Dutch Embassy in Tokyo, Tone River is the product of a year's intensive work between artist and label, created in part to examine the relationship between Japan and the Netherlands with regard to water management. While its doors to the Western world were closed during the 17th and 18th centuries, Japan kept abreast of Western science via a Dutch trade post in the bay of Nagasaki. When the country changed from a feudal society to a modern democracy through the turn of the 19th century, Dutch engineers lent their expertise to large-scale water management projects. One of the most prestigious projects of the time was the Tone River, which stretches 322 kilometers across Honshu, Japan's largest island. For this project, Sugai Ken traveled to three points across the Tone River and used regular, binaural and underwater microphones to record environmental sounds, seeking to express the change in landscape of the river in its flow into the Pacific Ocean. On Tone River, these varied recordings are interspersed and juxtaposed with Ken's distinctive take on synthesis, where raw and precisely sculpted textures and tones interact in stark, neutral space. On this conceptually rigorous, yet beguiling and free-flowing record, Sugai Ken glides between the elemental and hyper-synthetic in a flexible exploration of sound and story.

Pascal Comelade and Richard Pinhas met in Paris in 1974, when Pinhas was beginning to go on stage with his group Heldon. With Heldon and, afterwards, solo, Pinhas became the pioneer and accelerator of electronic music in France, and a fundamental reference throughout the world. Comelade's electronic period was much shorter, from 1974 to 1981. From 1983 on, he developed his policy of instrumental, strictly acoustic music. In 1975, Pinhas recorded the introduction to Comelade's Fluence album. In 1996, Comelade recorded "Back To Schizo" with Pinhas. In 1999, Comelade and Pinhas recorded their first duo album, a CD for the Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L'acier label: Oblique Sessions II. In 2012, they released a second CD album for the G3G label in Barcelona, Flip Side (of Sophism). In 2018, Comelade again invited Pinhas on his album Le Cut-Up Populaire. During the last few years, they have had several concerts as a duo in Paris (Cité de la musique, La Maroquinerie) and Barcelona (Sónar Festival). They met again in 2020 for this LP album, Le Plan De Paris. It contains six titles that were either previously unreleased or completely revisited, developed, remixed. Edition of 500.

A selection of eight songs covering the period from 1979 to 1989 by one of Rai's softest voices. Wah-Wah driven, mid-tempo guitar based early Rai from the city where Rai's "harder" form was conceived. Sad romantic songs about lost loves and other sorrowful tales. Mastered by Mark Gergis. Vinyl master and lacquer cut by Frederic Alstadt - Angstrom Studio. Edition of 300.

"... In the mid-1970s, the music scene in the Oran region was dominated by groups such as Les Aigles Noirs, Choc, or The Basils -- playing mainly Western pop covers, ranging from the Beatles to French romantic songs. Then, there were also the emerging new Rai sounds, championed by Messaoud Bellemou and his troupe -- with a sound driven by trumpets and saxophones. I was 17 in 1978, when I joined Les Aigles Noirs as a 'stage animator' . . . This is how I met Ahmed Zergui. Zergui and his group, Les Freres Zergui were pioneers. They were the first to introduce wah-wah pedals and drums in Rai . . . It combined Rai, rock and jazz elements into something unheard before. It was about 1979 when Ahmed Zergui offered me to join his group as an animator . . . In 1979, I released my first cassette Jayya Arassa / Jaya Techoufi Babak on Editions Mekkeraphone with Zergui on guitar. Cheb Khaled was the rising star of Rai after releasing 'Ya Sada' and he covered my song 'Jat Jat', which helped attract a lot of attention, and resulted in many show requests around Oran . . . Ahmed Zergui passed away in 1983 . . . The group separated and we did not know what to do . . . In 1984, I began reaching out to former members of the group, such as Omar Assou, Kassem Atek, Nasser, and Houari Toubi. In Oran, I linked with the label La Nouvelle Etoile, who invited me to start recording again. We signed a three-year contract and we released nine cassettes together; the first of which featured 'Jibek Liyam' and 'Malgre Ma Dert Fiya'. Rai was progressing fast, and had started to integrate modern instruments such as Roland synthesizers, drum machines, etc... We started recording at Studio Malik in Oran, and this is where we met the true legend that was Meghni Mohamed . . . By the late 1980s, we had worked with most of the established Rai labels such as Editions Anwar, Editions Maghreb, or Editions Saint Crepain. In 1994, Kassem Atek and I considered applying quarter tones and Hijaz Maqam to the electric guitar. I was very familiar with them on vocals, but applying them to guitar was a first in North Africa. This new sound had a relatively large success, which resulted in numerous releases...." --Drissi El-Abbassi (Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria September 2020)

Full Blast, live at the Tonic Club, New York, April 11, 2007. The recording of the last show ever in the legendary NYC club by Peter Brötzmann's Full Blast powerhouse was previously only available in a limited run of semi-official CD bootlegs. Now remastered for vinyl by Martin Siewert. Screenprinted cover with a design by Brötzmann. Edition of 500 (hand-numbered). Personnel: Peter Brötzmann - reeds; Marino Pliakas - e-bass; Michael Wertmüller - drums.

2021 repress! Deluxe 3LP version: packaged in a six-panel triple gatefold jacket with a 16-page full-color booklet. "
The untold story of Indonesia's various underground 70s musical scenes; extensive liner notes, photographs and ephemera; fully restored and remastered audio; officially licensed.
The progressive music scenes in 1970s Indonesia were largely underground as a result of strict censorship imposed by the dictator Suharto. Those who performed music marked by relentless fuzz, over the top, politically charged lyrics, strong rhythms and a cranky low-fidelity were truly rebellious. And the resulting output has been largely -- outside of the confines of this island nation -- unheard or ignored. Indonesia, based in large part on the restrictions imposed by Suharto, is better known for the coffee it exports than the music it creates. This situation hasn't been remedied by the rough-hewn Indonesian bootlegs that dotted the psychedelic landscape over the past five years. Thanks now to the tireless -- and expensive -- research of Canadian hip hop producer and Southeast Asian music specialist Jason 'Moss' Connoy - and the trust that Indonesian rock legend Benny Soebardja placed in Now-Again Records as he traversed his homeland's islands securing the rights necessary for us to offer you this anthology -- we feel like we can, in good spirits and conscience, shine the light on some of the most impressive organizations to offer their take on the psychedelic and progressive rock and funk sounds during the early shocking, shaking days of Suharto's regime." Artists: Panbers, The Brims, Rollies, Shark Move, Golden Wing, AKA, IVO's Group, Ariesta Birawa Group, Terenchem, Benny Soebardja and Lizard, Super Kid, Koes Plus, The Gang Of Harry Roesli, Black Brothers, Rasela, Freedom Of Rhapsodia, Rhythm Kings, Duo Kribo.

"2020 Rewind, our mammoth annual survey of the last 12 months in underground music across 30 pages of charts and comment. This year has been the hardest on record for everyone working in underground music. The Rewind issue offers you the chance to share your stories of survival and your plans for the future in what is traditionally The Wire's biggest selling issue of the year. So whether you're a label, musician, festival, venue, institution, online platform or shop, the Rewind issue offers the perfect opportunity to remind our readers of how you survived in 2020 and give them advance notice of your plans and ambitions for 2021. Full details of the adverts we offer, as well as our newly revised tech specs, can be found here. Also, as ever at this time of the year, we're offering special discounted rates if you opt to advertise in both our January and February issues. Contact one of us in the advertising team (Shane, James or Astrud) for more information. The Rewind issue includes our 50 new releases of the year and 50 archive releases of the year, along with specialist genre charts covering all bases from avant rock to jazz & improv via modern composition, hiphop, global and more. Plus: our crack team of critics and contributors, as well as some of 2020's most active musicians, reveal the things that helped them survive the year of covid."

Within the elusive confines of this film awaits an unreleased album that defies categorization by a musician who in a different time and space would be revered amongst some of the most important exponents of progressive rock, dark ambient, krautrock, and pioneering synthesizer composition -- not to mention sound design and art-house film scores. As a protégé of François Bayle and Luc Ferrari who had studied classical music before immersing himself in found-sound manipulation and oscillators, Alain Pierre quickly became an enthusiastic go-to man for sound sculpture and technical studio proficiency in Belgium's small film industry. To the many generations of dedicated fans of the visual work of Philippe Druillet it might seem virtually impossible to adequately "score" the alien, futurist landscapes of the man who many called the "space architect", but once you have heard the sonic reactions of Alain Pierre on this the first-ever dedicated Druillet documentary, Ô Sidarta. Despite Druillet's large number of collaborations, it is fair to say that this criminally unreleased album by Alain Pierre would conjure up the closest synergy between sound and vision that either artist would come close to. The almost twelve of continuous music that Alain Pierre supplied for Ô Sidarta in 1974 fortunately appears in its entirety, unedited, as it does here for the first time ever away from its original broadcasts. Broadcast on Belgian and French TV that autumn, the film received a warm reception from Druillet fans, prospective film producers and space rock fans lucky enough to catch the short feature. Alain was a serious "live" performer, and his lesser-documented performances resemble the sound of Ô Sidarta most closely, proving that the Druillet collaboration was naturalistic and conceptually close to Alain's personal stylistic agenda. A rare recording of a one-off concert at the Université libre de Bruxelles in October 1976 reveals a very similar set of movements and soundscapes found on Ô Sidarta. This rare artifact has been included on the second side of this record under its original title "Notions de physique intérieure" (Notions Of Interior Physics) and stands as a perfect companion piece to Ô Sidarta -- complete with a very similar "kit list" including the welcome addition of an Arp Sequencer, a Korg Vocoder, and a Theremin. With Ô Sidarta, Alain successfully combines more unlikely musical influences, experimental techniques, and previously unheard soundscapes and studio tricks in to one twelve-minute score. Licensed with the full cooperation of composer Alain Pierre and remastered from the original master tapes.

50th anniversary deluxe edition of this Spanish psychedelic/progressive masterpiece from 1970. First ever vinyl reissue featuring the intended but never used at the time nude gatefold cover design by painter Claudio Bravo. Double set including the Spanish version of the album plus, for the first time on vinyl, the alternate English version that Fernando Arbex (Brincos main man) considered to be the definitive one and that he couldn't release at the time, including different track list/mixes than the released at the time English one, resulting in a fabulous psych album with a strong late '60s British feel. In 1969, Los Brincos, probably the most famous Spanish '60s pop band -- often dubbed "the Spanish Beatles" -- added a new member to their line-up: Colombian born, accomplished keyboard/guitar player Oscar Lasprilla (Time Machine, The Speakers). Influenced by psychedelia, prog-rock and underground sounds, Los Brincos (now simply named "Brincos"), led by drummer/main songwriter Fernando Arbex, decided that their new album would be a conceptual work -- something never seen in Spain until then. The concept behind the album was supposedly to be based on the three enemies of the soul: the world, the flesh, and the devil, hence the final title: World Devil Body. This ambitious work was recorded by the new Brincos line-up, with famous Spanish musician Augusto Algueró as arranger -- at the same place where King Crimson recorded their legendary debut, Wessex Studios in London, using the same sound engineer, Robin Thompson. Some songs were sung in Spanish, some in English, being the central piece an outstanding 12-minute long conceptual psych suite, sung in English and titled "Mundo Demonio y Carne" ("World Devil & Body"). There was nothing similar in Spain at that time and this track stands today as one of the earliest, if not the first, progressive pieces ever recorded by a Spanish band. Regarding the other tracks, you find many surprises: a long eastern sounding instrumental ("Kama-Sutra"); the eerie "Esa Mujer" featuring members of the London Symphony Orchestra; British influenced psych-pop "Jenny La Genio", "Promises and Dreams" or "Butterfly" (with vocals sung through a megaphone!); hard-psych with plenty of guitar and Hammond ("Emancipation", "Misery & Pain"). Includes 12-page color insert with detailed notes; includes poster.

Zauberberg -- Wolfgang Voigt's most fundamental (and foreboding) release under his alias GAS and perhaps of all in his untold discography -- finally stands alone once again and is released in the way its original splendor. Originally released in 1997 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint Mille Plateaux, and then reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS Box (KOM 370LP, 2016), Zauberberg is now released on CD on his own label, Kompakt. Though this narcotic symphony is not the first release under the GAS moniker, Zauberberg is the first to disclose the true nature of Wolfgang Voigt's unified sound and ideology as GAS. Layers of ominous intensity supported by muffled kick drums as classical music loops incessantly swirl with no direction, Zauberberg is the definitive GAS album and a perfect starting point for those not familiar with his music.

Seven intense Egyptian shaabi remixes by Cairo's finest. Features ABADIR, 1127, 3Phaz, ZULI, KZLK, Nadah El-Shazly, and Youssef Abouzeid. Master and lacquer cut by Frederic Alstadt - Angstrom Studio. Back cover photo by Hendrik Hegray. Edition of 300.

Raster presents Il Quadro di Troisi a project by Andrea Noce (Eva Geist) and Donato Scaramuzzi (Donato Dozzy). The record is a colorful ode of an Italian scented vision, overflowing of details and profound intensity. The contemporary world condition, the pandemic in Italy and around the world define Il Quadro di Troisi as a unique and right-on-time release. This record is an enigmatic collaboration between the two Italian natives Andrea Noce and Donato Scaramuzzi. Andrea Noce takes lead on the vocals, with Donato Scaramuzzi carving the dreamlike soundscapes of the record. The record was born with a correspondence between the two artists about the late actor and director Massimo Troisi, and this exchange soon became an inspirational source of identification. Andrea Noce's lyrics are sensitive and multi-faceted, they perfectly cling to the musical phrases and flow like a filmic monologue from the oeuvre of that very Troisi. In a highly creative and confident manner, entire decades of national music history are comprehended and transformed into the here and now. The record takes its cue from the Italo-disco, synth pop tradition corroborated by the contribution of artists such as the legendary Twilight Music co-founder, Pietro Micioni. With Il Quadro di Troisi, Noce and Scaramuzzi prove their eclecticism, and passion for their home country. Il Quadro di Troisi is a collaboration between Raster and the Milan-based festival Terraforma. With this release, the first with a purely Italian topic at its center, Raster celebrates its long-standing relation with Italy and the Italian audience, encapsulated in the label's project "Electric Campfire" held in Rome for ten years. Terraforma is an international experimental and sustainable music festival taking place since 2014 in the park of Villa Arconati, where Dozzy has been invited at every edition in different forms, DJing, live performing both in solo and with Voices From The Lake (together with Neel).

Fabulous UK psych and proto prog, recorded in 1970 at IBC Studios and originally pressed only as a handful of ultra-rare test pressings. Melodic vocals, killer Hammond with distorted guitar, and fabulous songs. With connections to Scots of St James, Hopscotch, Fleur De Lys, Glencoe, Studd Bump. Five Day Rain was formed when Rick Sharpe (guitar), Clive Shepherd (bass), and Dick Hawkes (drums), from power trio Iron Prophet, met organ player Graham Maitland (Scots of St. James, Hopscotch, Fleur De Lys). The original intended name for this new band, "The Entire Building Is About To Collapse", was soon discarded in favor of Five Day Rain. Thanks to a mutual friend, they were recruited by the producer/engineer team of Brian Carroll and Damon Lyon-Shaw, famous for their work at IBC Studios with some of the top bands from the '60s. Drummer Dick was replaced by Kim Haworth and sessions for the FDR album began at IBC in late 1969. Guitar player John Holbrook (Baba Scholae) was invited to play some leads and the great Sharon Tandy and members of America did some backing vocals. The result was a perfectly recorded and executed finished album comprised of ten songs. Showcasing the stellar work of Rick and Graham on guitar/organ on tracks like "Marie's A Woman" and the long instrumental "Rough Cut Marmalade", the FDR sound is a great example of the transition from post-mod psychedelia to early prog. Once the album was finished and a few test pressings in blank sleeves pressed, the whole project was abandoned due to some disagreements with the producer, so the album was never actually released. In the late '80s, copies of the original test pressing were discovered by psych collectors and bootleg reissues appeared on the collectors' market. It wasn't until 2006 that an official reissue, done with involvement from the band members, was released by the Nightwings label from Italy. After many years out-of-print, we present a long overdue new vinyl edition of the Five Day Rain album. Remastered sound; Includes insert with detailed liner notes and rare photos/memorabilia; New artwork by artist Sara Gossett.

2021 repress, with new remastered sound. First issued by Trunk Records in 2014, Tam... Tam... Tam...! is an incredibly rare Brazilian LP by José Prates and Miecio Askanasy. Issued only once in 1958 as a souvenir from Meicio Askansay's Braziliana, this remarkable exotic and insanely rare LP is the blueprint of the Brazilian sound that was to come over the next decade. Here you will hear the origins of "Mas-Que-Nada" along with chords, rhythms and sounds that with be strangely familiar to you. But nothing sounds quite like Tam... Tam... Tam...! Tam... Tam... Tam...! is a landmark in the development of the Brazilian sound that would explode around the world in the decade to follow. It's stunning both as a historical touchstone and as a standalone musical triumph. The infectious rhythms, melodies, and exotic sounds that fill this album are deep, raw, and totally engaging. This new master was taken from the "Egon" original, this is Egon from Now-Again, who has a rare original in near perfect condition. This is a cleaner fresher sound than the first issue.

Incredible follow-up to the sold-out Tapes 1 (JBH 065LP, 2017), this vinyl continuation takes you deeper into the sublime world of the cult Dutch director Frans Zwartjes' soundtrack tape archive; dream-like, disjointed, disturbing, peculiar, sexy, unexpected, and totally unique. Frans Zwartjes is famous for his art-house films. A Dutch underground auteur, his prolific output dates from 1968. A unique talent, Zwartjes produced, directed, and edited his own films (his last work was in 1991), but more importantly he created and improvised the soundtracks too. Zwartjes and his large body of work is only now being recognized by a wider, more international crowd with screenings at the NFT and other important art-house cinemas across the world. The recordings on Tapes 2 were mixed directly from the Zwartjes soundtrack tape archive. They were assembled directly and in real time by Zwartjes archivist Stanley Schtinter and have never been issued before. The music and sound have been put together as two long, seamless sequences; they are dreamlike, unsettling, peculiar, plugged-in, prescient, and unlike any other soundtrack you have heard. All cues mastered and sequenced by Jon Brooks, AKA The Advisory Circle. Includes download.

The 20th anniversary year of Dial Records couldn't have been more exciting for the label! They announce the second album release of 2020: XDB's Inspiron. As a longtime companion and true inspiration throughout the label's twenty-year history, Kosta Athanassiadis, aka XDB, releases his long-overdue full-length debut albumInspiron. For almost three decades now Kosta Athanassiadis aka XDB has been involved in the constantly changing world of dance music. His curiosity and dedication to electronic music spiral deep into the depth of house music and techno and wherever he appears he generously shares his unique knowledge in this field with equally dedicated crowds. Whether you follow his bloggish Tracks I do really LOVE, a collection of club essentials and a library of taste, or you witness one of his remarkable DJ sets from Panorama Bar to Freerotation Festival -- XDB will elevate you to one of those unforgettably magical music moments. In 1993, Kosta Athanassiadis started his DJ career in the medieval hometown of Goettingen. To find what he was really looking for, namely, the newest and most exciting new records he frequently had to leave this picturesque city, that is most popular for inventing the traditional Baumkuchen pastry, but has not been on the maps of music connoisseurs necessarily. Frequent trips to visit records stores and clubs around Germany built a network of likely minded people. By the turn of the century, XDB hosted a series of nights at Goettingen's Eletroosho, where he invited Dial's own Lawrence and Carsten Jost in 2002, the beginning of a still ongoing friendship. He had established himself as a sought after and internationally active DJ and started his fist endeavors into music production as well. Later on, XDB founded his own Label Metrolux and released on iconic labels like Sistrum and Wave to be followed by countless remixes for legends like Aaron Carl, Norm Talley, and Patrice Scott. There are rarely DJs and producers who keep searching for this hidden formula in such a microscopically detailed way to pass a lifetime in house music and techno on to the world. XDB's Inspiron embraces this unique approach, filters and develops inspirations in an entirely delicate way, and magically emphasizes the desires of the most dedicated listeners and dancers.

Waves 1 is the first release of Curd Duca since the legendary Elevator series (1998-2000). Waves is an album trilogy. Waves 2 and 3 will be released on Magazine in 2021. If you think of Curd Duca's Waves in terms of sound, rather than in terms of form, each track on Waves is actually like the large, illuminated, richly decorated initial letter that introduces the narrative of so many medieval manuscripts. It is as if Duca was collecting extraordinary letters, opening up an alphabet of sounds, and developing a musical phonetics between adjacent terms. From gong to gone; bell to bells minus drone; dome to father. The real beauty of Curd Duca's cycle lies in the fact that it opens up differently from so many perspectives. That you can understand it as a collection of treasures, as a commentary on our acoustic environment, as an attempt to dissect the world and stylize its parts. Much like a printer's typesetting box, Duca proposes an inventory of everything that sounds. Some of the pieces are exaggerations. Some allusions. Others abstractions, parodies, and transgurations. It is often not even clear whether the music is based on a recording or a synthetic sound. Is the nightjar real or is it a synthetic imitation? Did Duca really use brass and zither sounds or simulate them on the computer? The hermaphroditic nature between reality and arti ciality is a central aspect of Duca's sound world. There is only one thing you must not do with this music: trivialize it or underestimate it. With Waves, Duca is exploring the very essence of sound, and its possible meanings and contradictions.

Spencer Clark is back with the second volume of his futuristic eco-friendly record, Avatar Blue -- It's life on earth as you never heard it. The story goes like this: Spencer wanted to do a soundtrack for the yet to be made Avatar 2. And if you know Spencer's work, you'll know that he engaged on this mission reading material that influenced the rich and crazy imaginary world of Avatar. If you think about it a little bit, something like Avatar could have really come out from the mind of Spencer Clark. But it didn't. So, he dwelled around the idea of that soundtrack, working on what is now known as Avatar Blue. The record Pacific City Discs now release is a selection he made from the double-CD released in 2019. Like many of Spencer's other alias or incarnations, Star Searchers introduces the listener to a new world. Besides making sounds/soundtracks for alternative realities he cares about making a world for his music to live in. It's never superficial or dedicated just to the act of imagination, Spencer creates sounds that sustain the reality he imagined. That's why they're so rich and consequential in the realization of music as a medium. Avatar Blue is music but also literature. And cinema. Star Searchers' sound creates an absorbent sound about what's happening in aquatic life. It goes beyond the perception of what we've seen or what we've known, it's a neo-future aquatic life, with a world building structure and sounds and narratives that go along with it. All done with a sound-aesthetics that could be described as slowed-down-trance, that fits 1980s synth nostalgia and dreams of sci-fi to come. Vinyl cut at Dubplates & Mastering Berlin.

"... The city of Mankato, Minnesota has been the steady gathering point for the band since its beginnings. Mankato had always provided an ominous backdrop: built on stolen Dakota land, the city was the site of the largest mass execution in US history, when 38 Dakota prisoners were hanged on in 1862 in a straightforward act of genocide. But in their music of the past twelve years, Maths Balance Volumes has made music in and of a hometown overshadowed and unsettled by its history, music for a world in which things have never been okay. Traditional American folk genres seep in at times, but never as the incarnation of a living popular culture -- only as ghosts or unliving effigies. A Year Closer tells you in its title what its theme is: approaching death, time ticking away and getting closer with each track of the record. We are told in the first song that our protective mask isn't working, warned by the storm clouds and a ticking bedroom clock in 'Dark Skies'. We hear fears of death approaching in the sad words exchanged by lovers who see they will run out of time, or already have, as in 'We Had Time' or the romantic lament of 'When I Drink.' In 'Work Last Monday,' all of life passes with cold automatism in an 'office apartment,' as a narrator broods over early onset dementia, remembers the details of rituals for respecting the dead, and thinks of how a hole is opening up in reality itself. The singer of 'Over the Hill' isn't apparently afraid of growing older and becoming a 'man,' but only leaks a few disjointed details of his plans for disappearing, collapsing, turning into a tree, and finding a home. 'Angel of Mercy' tries to resurrect the Christian promise of a life after death, anxiously asking if anyone is up there waiting for us after the oblivion of this world. But these are just the moments when A Year Closer speaks in words clear and audible enough to be understood. The giddy, agitated voice of 'The Price' speaks only to itself in a private language, hidden away in a tin can somewhere. Musically, A Year Closer is a series of pieces that make symphonies out of separate processes of decay and disappearance: unidentified cracking and creaking objects, broken equipment, and lost melodies that seem to have escaped other songs and wandered into the room looking for a place to hide..." --Paul Buchholz Includes A4 insert; edition of 283.

Double LP version. The legendary PILZ label released the first album of the Berlin-based electronic group Mythos in 1972. The current album, Berliner Schule Sequencing, is a brand-new production and the first new release on the PILZ label for 45 years. Mastermind Stephan Kaske presents the typical sound cascades and sequences of the Berlin School.

Triple LP version. Tresor Records announces From The Far Future Pt. 3, a new album from Terrence Dixon. Continuing the story of his previous two iterations on this title, it is a serene undertaking of unrivalled Motor City rhythms and sound. It finds the Detroit producer oscillating, from excursions in paradises of synth pointillism to husky storytelling and Dixon's peculiar beat work. A master in letting shapes find their form, Dixon allows the listener to wallow in recurring scenes. "Lost Communication Procedure", "Found In Space", and "Remarkable Wanderer" etch a sound world of choral vibrations and cinematic dirge. Where gaseous clouds scrape the natural sonic pastures of such environments, the hypnotized listener staggers a drunken step, moving sideways by 0 or 1 or -1 into new scenes. Not least an expert in industrial abstraction, a human silhouette permeates Dixon's sound. His ethereal storytelling portrays the heart-rending romance of "Unconditional Love" and unearths in "I'm Away In Detroit" monologuing moodscapes recalling our GPS voice assistants. "Out of Darkness" initially recalls Kraftwerk's "Geiger Counter", as from pure signal data and feedback spells an unceasing locomotive wormhole. Hazy, dense grooves drive across bleak city scenes in "We Can Rebuild Him", into the raw vibe of "Framework" and the rude stabs of "Spectrum of Light". The varying presence of Dixon's work is one of his textural signatures, at arm's length, brushing right within, and far out. The bumping mood of "Earth Station" is one such moment, close enough to isolate the diving bass somewhere within, simultaneously from afar it becomes positively gravitational. The first two records of the series are rightfully considered among the finest embodiments of contemporary minimalism, symbolic documents of Afro-futurism. This new work revives the classic series, continuing the relationship between Tresor and the undisputed master of Detroit techno into the present day. Includes one vinyl-only track.

"That William Parker is a bassist, composer and bandleader of extraordinary spirit and imaginative drive is common knowledge among any with an interest in the progressive jazz / any music scene of the past 25 years and more. What's become increasingly apparent, though, is Parker's stature as a visionary of sound and song -- an artist of melody and poetry who works beyond category, to use the Ellingtonian phrase. The latest multi-disc boxed set from Centering Records/AUM Fidelity devoted to Parker's expansive creativity underscores his virtually peerless achievement in recent years. Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World (Volumes 1?10) is a 10-album collection of vocal and instrumental suites all recorded expressly for this set between late 2018 and early 2020, with women's voices at its core (both on voice & other instruments). This is music as empathetic as it is intrepid, as philosophical as it is visceral, as resolutely modernist as it is attuned to tradition. Parker's art not only draws from the deepest well of African-American culture; it breathes in inspiration from across the globe, with sounds drawn from Africa, Asia and Indonesia as well as Europe and the Americas; there is free improvisation and re-imagined sonic collage; there are album-length explorations of solo piano and solo voice, along with string ensembles and ancient wind instruments. There are dedications to jazz heroes, Native Americans and Mexican migrants, plus tributes to the great African-American culture of Harlem and the mix of passion and compassion Parker found in vintage Italian cinema. Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World conjures a vast world of music and feeling, and its creation is a feat that ranks with that of the most ambitious talents in any genre."

First ever vinyl pressing. Originally released in 2014. With her joyous stage persona and intoxicating blend of Amazonian, Afro-Brazilian and Caribbean rhythms, Dona Onete is one of world music's most entertaining recent success stories. Described by her manager as "Grace Jones trapped in the body of Cesaria Evora", Onete's songs talk about the delights of seducing men, herbs that make your body "shake" and her encounters with legends of the Amazon. Onete sings carimbó, an indigenous rhythm and dance from Pará, the state of Belém, influenced by both African and European traditions, and which forms the basis of the more famous lambada and other Caribbean rhythms. She recorded Feitiço Caboclo aged 73, and an international release from Mais Um in 2014 saw critics fall immediately for this sassy, saucy and sexy septuagenarian -- influential French magazine Les Inrocks made the album one of their top 5 "world" releases that year and rapturously received festival performances at Womad UK, Paris's Cabaret Sauvage, Portugal's FMM Sines followed in 2015. Onete was born in Cachoeira do Ararí, nestled in the delta of the Amazon across from Belém. She claims she only started to sing properly at the age of 11. "I used to spend the whole day on the river banks, washing clothes. One day, I saw a dolphin and thought that I should sing for him. The next day I sang again, and another came, and another, and soon a whole family of dolphins came to listen!" By the age of fifteen she was singing samba, quadrilhas, boi bumba, and other Northeastern genres in the bars of her hometown, yet Onete never considered a career in music. She became a Professor of History and Amazonian Studies in Igaparé Miri and ardently researched the rhythms, dances and traditions of the indigenous and black people of the area. This led her to establish several music and dance groups, which regenerated traditional customs, and which eventually saw her elected as the Municipal Secretary of Culture of Igaparé-Miri. Absorbing all these genres and rhythms, Dona Onete also began to compose, creating the hybrid genre for which she would later become famous, the carimbó chamegado.

Sommor Records present the first legitimate vinyl reissue of Little Big Horn's self-titled album, originally released in 1971, expanded to a double-LP set with the addition of the killer 45 B-side "Just A Game" and excellent unissued material from the time. Little Big Horn evolved from Luton-based pop-psych band Wild Silk. As occurred with many British bands from the '60s, they adopted different musical influences as the decade progressed and "underground" was the thing to be, so by the late '60s, Little Big Horn incorporated West Coast, Americana, and hard-rock elements to their powerful sound. Their sole album was released only in Germany in 1971 as part of a deal between Shel Talmy Productions and the Bellaphon label (along with other obscure acts like Sunday and Diabolus) and it's an interesting mix of roots-y Americana and heavy rock. Transferred from original master tapes. RIYL: The Band, Led Zeppelin, Byrds, Badfinger, Grapefruit, Bronco, Plastic Penny, Youngbloods. Gatefold sleeve; includes insert with rare photos and detailed liner notes by Alec Palao. "A fine example of its era, showcasing seasoned, but not slick, ensemble playing, and it has enough flashes of genuine inspiration to warrant reappraisal." --Alec Palao

It was the beginning of 2019 at the WattHaus studios in Perpignan when The In-Fuzzed rose from the incandescent ashes of Hair & The Iotas. They still played garage rock, but with even more fuzz and energy. The arrival of an ex-member of El Vicio and Destination Lonely certainly shook things up a bit. After several concerts in the South of France and two singles, The In-Fuzzed now release their first, eponymous album in collaboration with Staubgold. 13 original titles, linked together seamlessly, have the listener in a state of constant alert, on the lookout for any blast and under the impression that anything may burst from the depths of this devilish rock n' roll among roaring fuzz-pedals and explosive drums. Two guitars (sometimes three: Nico Delseny, ex-member of the Beach Bitches and Sonic Chicken 4, lends a strong hand on some tracks) and an infernal rhythmic section (Michel Morales and Franck Menguin, both veterans of Hair & The Iotas) are recorded live at the rehearsal room by the musicians themselves on an eight-track ½" recorder, a testament to the thrive for authenticity that characterizes them. The vocals and some percussion are overdubbed by Nicolas Faus (El Vicio/Destination Lonely) and Guillaume Picard (Beach Bitches/Les Bellas/Hair & The Iotas). All compositions are original, including "Motor City Baby" and "Xmas Night", early versions of which appeared as singles in 2019. "Lost Time Rock'n'Roll" appeared in 2020 on Renaud Picard's (The Liminanas) new label. "Blind Man", on the other hand, was exhumed from Nicolas Faus's time with Destination Lonely. The track is so good that Destination Lonely have also re-recorded it with different lyrics and released it on their latest album. In terms of influences, The In-Fuzzed are placed at a crossroads of all forms of rock n' roll, from the purest garage-punk, passing through blues, country, and rhythm n' blues all the way to the Beach Boys ("Xmas Night") or Creedence Clearwater Revival ("You Ain't No Friend of Mine"). It has been a long time since there has been such freshness in a genre that has frequently been rejected, disparaged, and disregarded in the last decades. With The In-Fuzzed, garage rock raises its head again.

Recording of the premiere performance of Hermann Nitsch's latest large-scale symphony for full orchestra, brass ensemble and choir, in five movements. Composed for the 155th Action of the Orgien-Mysterien-Theater, and performed at the Nitsch Museum, Mistelbach, September 9th, 2018. As the first action to be staged in the Nitsch Museum it coincided with the occasion of his 80th birthday. Directed by Andrea Cusumano. Full color, six-panel digipak; Edition of 270.

LP version. Viennese improvisation guitar/drums duo ALSO return with a superb live recording. Katharina Ernst and Martin Siewert have been working together for more than five years now and continue to enjoy their compelling dynamics. This set is full of fire and thunder but also drawn by some striking and fragile moments through a variety of effects and some delicate lap steel play -- true two masters in working on the axis of refracting and reflecting, and throwing it back again. Personnel: Katharina Ernst - drums, toys; Martin Siewert - guitars, electronics. Recorded live by Ronald Pfisterer at the New Adits festival in Celovec, 2018. Produced by Katharina Ernst/Martin Siewert. Mixed and mastered by Martin Siewert. Cover artwork by Michael Breyer.

LP version. Purple vinyl. Philip Parfitt is best known as the founder, guitarist, vocalist, and primary songwriter of the Britain's The Perfect Disaster. Formed in 1980, the alternative rock band released four albums and reached number fifteen on the UK Indie Chart before splitting up in 1991. Ahead of this, he presents the single "All Fucked Up" featuring Bordeaux-based psychedelic folk-rock artist Alex Creepy Mojo. The accompanying video, starring actress Melissa Oxlade, is directed by filmmaker Luigi Dias -- both also collaborated on the previous single "Somebody Called Me In", shot on location in Liverpool and Melbourne, Australia. Parfitt played on Spectrum's first album with Jason Pierce and guitarist Terry Bickers (House of Love, Levitation) contributed to Oedipussy's album, Divan (1994). Parfitt also gave significant starts to Josephine Wiggs (who played in the Perfect Disaster before joining The Breeders) and to the Heliocentrics' Malcolm Catto, who likewise played on the Perfect Disaster's first. It's a surprise to realize that Mental Home Recordings is only his second solo album, following his I'm Not The Man I Use To Be released in 2014.

"Philip Parfitt's songs on Mental Home Recordings possess both scars and genius. If Parfitt's previous work lurked within the sharp garage tradition of Bo Diddley, the Velvets and the Stones, he operates now within a quieter idiom: Nick Drake, Ronnie Lane, Syd Barrett. Quieter but not softer: this record will scrub you raw" --Matthew Specktor

"Imagine a Reed/Dylanesque vocal lacquered in a modern blend of elements of The Church, The Red House Painters and Slowdive... Now you don't have to (imagine). Just listen... Heartfelt and folk-centered with Ride-esque uplifting interjections on the chorus, Parfitt has found an optimal balance between bard and rock star. We love it" --Big Takeover Magazine

Pyramid was an underground/homemade label created by Toby Robinson and his friend Robin Page (the Fluxus artist) while they were living in Cologne, Germany, in the '70s. Toby -- aka The Mad Twiddler, aka Genius P. Orridge -- is well-known to krautrock collectors as one of a number of engineers working at Stockhausen's WDR and Dierks Studio in Cologne in the mid-1970s, where he assisted on recordings by many famous kraut bands such as Can, Birth Control, Mythos, or Dzyan. Pyramid was home to a series of fascinating homemade albums by impossible and lost-in-time kraut-kosmische bands like Cozmic Corridors, Golem, Nazgul... all of them reissued by Mental Experience in the last years. One of the most celebrated tracks from the Pyramid catalog is "Interstellar Shortwave" by The Astral Army, originally included on the Cologne Curiosities comp (MENT 005CD/LP, 2016). It's a heavy-disco-kraut-groove, DJ friendly, Hawkwind-inspired track recorded circa mid-70s, and it's presented here in its original version -- pressed at 45rpm for maximum and expanding sound quality -- and also as an edit by Gareth Goddard, aka Cherrystones, who also offers another edit of "The Dead Marshes", one of the tracks included on The Nazgul album (MENT 016CD/LP). Here, Cherrystones transforms the spooky, avant-garde sound of the track into a kind of cinematic, horror spaghetti western soundtrack. To round up the 12", there's an experimental Cherrystones rework of "Daruber", a dark ambient/kosmische classic by Cozmic Corridors. Includes download card; edition of 300.

2021 repress. "Returning after their Last Transmission collaborative album with Melvin Van Peebles, the Heliocentrics finish off their trawl through the vaults of tracks recorded at their old digs -- Quatermass Studios -- with psychedelic tinged funk and jazz instrumentals Rolling Stone describes as 'sprawling, with percussive patterns that suddenly morph into extraterrestrial sound blasts and opaque, detouring patterns.;"

Cold Spring Records release the official soundtrack to the cult Icelandic horror film, I Remember You (Ég man þig). Heavy dark ambient/industrial/orchestral soundscapes composed by Frank Hall, with a beautiful, solemn, folkloristic finale featuring Icelandic choirs. The soundtrack was created at the old industrial area of Grandi in Reykjavík, at a studio due to be "gentrified" and forcefully emptied of the artists. "I was alone in this large building in this deserted area, working late hours, making music for a horror movie. It was during winter... wind blowing, darkness. There were some tense moments . . . As soon as I read the script, I heard low brass in my head and that kind of stuck. We used a lot of brass instruments, filtered and processed throughout. I also ended up using a lot of bowed guitar, sometimes doubling the brass, sometimes more like a sound effect." Hall also used analog synths on the special climactic track "Montage". On the finale, Hall reminisces: "'Móðir mín í kví kví (My Mother In The Sheep Pen)' is an old Icelandic folk song. The lyrics are based on Icelandic folklore about a woman who had a baby which she couldn't afford to have and left it outside to die, wrapped in a rag. The infant then becomes what we Icelandic call "Útburður" -- the ghost of a child who has been left out to die. Sometime later, the woman wants to go to a dance but has no pretty clothes to wear. She is in the sheep pen attending to the sheep when she hears this whispering outside: 'My mother in the sheep pen, don't you worry because I'll lend you my rag, my rag to dance in.' It's a rather ominous lyric and this song is sometimes sung for Icelandic babies as a lullaby... a little odd custom perhaps. I remember my mother singing this to me. This is one of my favorite Icelandic folk songs, and when I created the music for I Remember You, which is about a lost child that haunts people, I suggested to director Óskar Thór Axelsson that I should make an Icelandic choir version of it and use it as a theme/credit song. He loved the idea." I Remember You is based on the internationally acclaimed novel by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, the "Queen of Icelandic Crime". A must for fans of Graeme Revell, Steven Price, Lustmord, MZ.412. Digipak.

Color de Trópico is a carefully-compiled work of healing and reconstruction, documenting a special moment in the history of Venezuelan music, when the country's democracy was just a few years old and the profound impact of the oil industry on society had only just begun. DJ El Palmas and El Dragón Criollo have chosen eight impossibly hard-to-find jewels, originally released between 1966 and 1978, reissued here for the first time on vinyl. In this period, Venezuelan musicians assimilated a wide range of influences and styles, both local and global, to generate something new, a "modern" identity for Venezuelan music; artists who set their eyes on the future without giving up the search for their own sabor (flavor). This is how jazz, rock, salsa, funk, psych, prog and disco, sat next to guajira, cumbia, cha-cha-cha and even the hugely-popular Venezuelan style of joropo. It started a long tradition of Venezuelan musical pioneers, many of whom are still to get the recognition they deserve. "El Despertar" ("The Awakening") kicks off things with a goodbye for it was the last single Los Darts released before their dissolution in 1974. A cha-cha-cha rhythm with bossa nova piano, bluesy stylings and a Caribbean context -- a blueprint for tasty miscegenation -- with the use of electric guitar, arriving in waves of chords, signaling the onset of modernity. "Guajira con Arpa" by the pioneering Hugo Blanco, who lists the creation of countless rhythms and his early adoption of rhythms like ska amongst his claims to fame, is a fusion that arrives without complexities. With "Zambo" the party is on. Here we have an all-star line-up comparable to master Cortijo's brief project with his Time Machine in Puerto Rico. "Gaita Universal" by El Combo Los Capri, gives you a moment of solace, recalling the cultural, rhythmic, and even spiritual brotherhood of Venezuela not only with the Caribbean but with the continent, South America, and neighboring Colombia. Nelson Y Sus Estrellas is reminiscent of the Caribbean wave but here under his "urban" outfit. Nelson plays guaguancó in the style of original salsa, specifically in this version (the theme evolves over time) with a disco-soul twist on "Fantasía Latina". The cosmic "Tu y Yo" from Almendra plots a journey between soul-jazz and psychedelia that sails over a Moog until ending as a P-Funk descarga. The album closes with Tulio Enrique León y Su Organ playing "Bimbom", a European pop-styled track from 1975. Also features La Retreta Mayor, Germán Fernando.