Al Hirt's infamous Soul In The Horn is inextricably tangled up in crate-digger lore. Originally released in 1967, the album has been in heavy, heavy demand for over 30 years, entirely down to the majestic soul-jazz fire of "Harlem Hendoo." And it's a song so good, so vital, so timeless, that it will always tower above everything else in its proximity. However, it would be an error to dismiss this record as merely a one tracker, loaded as it is with dope samples for adventurous beat makers. Certainly the funkiest Al Hirt record, it definitely lives up to the "soul" in the title. Thanks to composer Paul Griffin and arranger Teacho Wiltshire, Hirt got uncharacteristically free and groovy throughout. Soul In The Horn represented an expressive detour into authentic soul-jazz for Al Hirt. Throughout is a fiery energy that's otherwise absent from his typically easy listening work. Without question, the slinky, magical "Harlem Hendoo" is the standout, here. It's also the reason why the record is so scarce and commands awe among crate diggers, sounding like something from an obscure and deeply revered spiritual jazz record. As is often the case, the true genius of the song is tricky to do justice to; it's like a minor miracle of songwriting and performance that simply swooned down from the heavens on the back of horns, bells and harpsichord. It's one of the sweetest musical compositions ever recorded inside a studio. Sampled brilliantly by De La Soul, it has also been used by The Roots for "Stay Cool" and Nightmares On Wax for "Damn." An album deserving of a place in every serious record collection. The audio for Soul In The Horn has been carefully remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring it sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original sleeve has been restored at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue. This is after-hours music. Let it speak for itself. Listen. Listen to the soul in Al Hirt's horn.

"There is, and has been, a prevailing orthodoxy permeating the Egyptian musical hierarchy that would render this spectacular piece as scandalous. But let us remember that over the past 100 years, Said Darwish, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Halim El Dabh, Ahmad Adaweya, and the modern Mahraganat movement have all experienced their fair share of scandal and opposition. Music must always be pushed forward -- it may not always succeed as revelatory, but in this particular case, it does. Much like the venerable magic carpet, The Handover slowly builds to escort you into its swirling, ascending expression of the psychedelic, eventually descending, step by step, back to earth, landing as a wonderous spaceship with wide open doors inviting us inside for repeat listening. Perhaps this should have been happening in Egyptian music 50 years ago but it's here right now, and that's what matters. We are often asked an impossible question to answer: 'What constitutes a Sublime Frequencies release?' For the moment, we can point to this record as the answer to that question." --Alan Bishop/Sublime Frequencies (March 2024)

In The Handover, Aly Eissa, Ayman Asfour, and Jonas Cambien explore the common and uncommon senses of Egypt's ritual music. It is clear that Aly Eissa's original composition is deeply rooted in Egyptian and Arabic traditions. At the same time, this band is one of the most progressive coming out of Egypt today. This is in big part thanks to Eissa, who has proven time and again to be not only an extremely skillful composer, but also a real visionary, combining tradition with modern experimentation. A performance by The Handover is typically one stretch without break: a long build-up that lasts for the duration of the concert. Towards the end of the performance, all the tension is released in an exuberant, joyful climax, when wild improvisations are driven forward on top of exciting dance-rhythms from rural Egypt. The Handover elegantly combines the delicacy of classical Arabic music, the raw expressiveness of Egypt's countryside music, and the spontaneity of free improvisation, carefully obliterating the artificial separation between acoustic and electronic instruments. Despite the remarkable absence of any percussion or drums, The Handover is an extremely groovy band, with an ability to slow down and accelerate the tempo in almost telepathic synchronization at exactly the right moments. Alongside the tight ensemble playing there is plenty of room for individual expression as the oud, synthesizer and violin take turns playing solos on top of repetitive riffs. Throughout the album, native Alexandrian Ayman Asfour plays the violin with breathtaking beauty, while not being afraid to make the violin buzz, squeak and rattle at times. Belgian/Norwegian keyboardist Jonas Cambien makes the synthesizer a melodic instrument in its own right, at times evoking almost classical Maqam, while in other moments it seems like he comes straight out of an Egyptian wedding. The oud forms the backbone in the composition's structure, as Aly Eissa's solos guide the listener from minimalist, meditative drones, to a compelling climax, and back to earth. There is much more to The Handover's sound then the obvious references to Arabic and Egyptian music. The opening drone section of the album is pushed towards abstraction and even noise, and the vintage Farfisa organ gives the music a touch of '70s psychedelic rock. The repetitive riffs can be reminiscent of Embryo's experiments combining krautrock with influences from the middle-east, but the use of repetition to induce trance dates way back in Egyptian music, and is present in many rituals like Sufi and moulid celebrations. The composed melodies on this album couldn't be possible without Eissa's deep love for this music. And what The Handover does with this composed material couldn't be possible without three strong individual voices, their love to play music together and their dedication to push the traditions forward. (Recorded in Alexandria Egypt in January of 2023, this Limited-Edition vinyl LP includes a two-sided insert with additional photos, liner notes and bios of the musicians).

"Finally, a new volume in the legendary Wackie's compilation series. This one focuses on Wackie's early digital productions with a selection of ten killer, rare, and previously unreleased tracks. In DKR fashion, this comes in a two-sided hand silkscreened sleeve in green or blue print."

"Daweh Congo has propelled himself to the forefront of conscious heartical roots reggae with this album Human Rights & Justice, originally released in 2000. Human Rights & Justice personifies the essence of jah music today. Daweh's voice and his righteous livications for Rastafaris and Marcus Garvey often result in his being compared to 1999 Grammy winner Burning Spear. On Human Rights & Justice, Daweh exalts his spirituality with such incantations as 'Jah is my shepherd,' 'Drums,' and 'Jah Mercy Seat.' His cries for a better world can be heard on 'One World,' 'Earth running,' and the title track. Daweh Congo recruited the formidable talents of Roots Radics, Jamaica's premier back -up band to lay the rhythms that can be heard throughout this album. The heavy drum and baselines from Style Scott and Flabba Holt, along with Daweh Congo's mesmerizing voice, have catapulted human Rights & Justice to the number one position on ireggae.com's top ten album for the month of May, 2000."

"All killer no filler ten-track compilation of peak late '80s digital tunes from Park Heights' most productive period. Pure fire produced between Jamaica and New York City. Featuring two previously unreleased tunes and the rest reissued for the first time."

Contemporary classical composer Sophia Jani and violinist Teresa Allgaier announce their new collaborative work Six Pieces for Solo Violin on Squama Recordings. Characterized by its calmness and poise, each movement focuses on a particular technical aspect, bending the boundaries of the instrument while maintaining the illusion of simplicity.

We Release Jazz announces an exciting new body of work by Joseph Deenmamode aka Mo Kolours. A catalog of critically acclaimed records, including his self-titled debut (2014), Texture Like Like Sun (2015), 2018 album Inner Symbols and three companion EPs, established Deenmamode as a prodigious musician and vocalist. The tracks on Original Flow have been constructed from sessions, improvisations and soundbites captured around the world; collecting contributions from musicians including Deenamode's brothers Reginald Omas Mamode and Jeen Bassa plus Andrew Ashong, Charles Bullen, Dwaye Kilvington, Eddie Hick, Stefan Asanovic, Myele Manzanza, Ross Hughes, and Tom Dreissler. Original Flow is an album of UK street-soul nouveau, future indigenous jazz fusion, Rasta Segga, Nyahbinghi jazz, Malagasy Hebrew hip hop. While retaining a spirit of exploration and improvisation, it sees Deenmamode grow and flex beyond beat tape brevity, expanding composition and stretching his musical muscle to play live with other musicians. Themes of empowerment, overcoming adversity, and mental liberation coexist with notes from ancient history, futurism, and science, as well as musings on family and togetherness.

2024 restock; LP version. Includes six-page booklet. One, two, three... hold your breath for 40 minutes for a peregrination through a special kind of pop music "made in France" between 1967 and 1970, a mix of ribaldry, flashes of brilliance, and adventurous twists on familiar sounds. We will plunge into French-style pop, unapologetic and defiant; blue-white-and-red pop that does not take itself seriously, not out of line with its "yé-yé" contemporaries, who were themselves uninspired by the boring, commercial teenage music that dominated in France at that time. It is pop music fueled by creativity -- though not always well-focused -- with peculiar arrangements, inspired compositions, and precarious production... but oh so tasty! WIZZZ 3 spotlights French artists who dared to try, to experiment... Includes tracks by Dansez avec Moa, Bernard Chabert, Joanna, Pierre Paul Jacques, Evariste, Jean-Bernard de Libreville, Crischa, Long Chris, Nato, Papy, Fatty Nautty, Balthazar, Jane et Julie, Bruno Leys, and Marcel Artero.

2024 repress; LP version. Printed inner sleeve. In 1966, a new pulse spread like wildfire on the sidewalks of Spanish Harlem and local radio waves. Like no music genre ever before, boogaloo brought together African Americans and Latinos. As the ultimate musical syncretism of popular genres in the Barrio, boogaloo is often described as "the first Nuyorican music". A revolutionary hurricane was then blowing on Amerika: in the trail of the Black Panthers and the Young Lords Organization, minorities were gathering in the streets to reclaim their rights from the establishment. Boogaloo was the soundtrack of a social revolution overtaking the country, before it got overshadowed by salsa. Boogaloo's energy seduced young people from different backgrounds, well beyond the borders of the USA, and especially in the Caribbean cradle land. From Fort-de-France to Pointe-à-Pitre, old biguines and mazurkas from West Indian orchestras strong of a bloodline of virtuosos, from father-to-son, became outdated by those modern beats. On Fred Aucagos's "Ti Man'zelle", there's a subtle mix of imports from the mainland, the USA, and the neighboring islands. Musicians dabbled with boogaloo, coming up with rather unorthodox interpretations. This is precisely what gives this compilation its singularity. It incorporates influences from the African continent thanks to the Rico Jazz (an adaptation of "Si Tu Bois Beaucoup" of the Congolese rumba orchestra O.K. Jazz). It rubs elbows with the "Jerk Vidé" of a David Martial before he turned in a doudouiste cliché. With the cheeky humor of the Guyanese Dany Play ("Mais Tu Sais"), the perkiness of Joby Valente ("Disk La Rayé" with Camille Soprann on sax), the listener (re)discovers classics published on two historic Guadeloupean labels: Aux Ondes of producer Raymond Célini, and Disque Debs, whose boss Henri Debs can be heard on "Ou Pas Z'ami En Moins". "Ou Qué Di Moin" from Monsieur X is a Creole funk pamphlet, neither Latin, nor festive, and not strictly boogaloo for that matter. The Nuyorican rhythm is a tiny fraction of what the West Indies orchestras were playing, as they often incorporated biguine and Haitian kopi elements. Assisted by Jean-Baptiste Guillot, Julien Achard spent over three years compiling this best of the Creole boogaloo. Also features: Maurice Alcindor, Gabby Siarras, Les Bois Sirop, Le Ry-Co Jazz, and Les Vickings. LP version comes with a printed inner sleeve with liner notes in English and French.

2024 restock; LP version. Yīn Yīn's dazzling second album dives even deeper into dancefloor propulsion and space travel atmospherics than their lauded debut The Rabbit that Hunts Tigers (2019). The beautiful, old and somewhat staid city of Maastricht, where the band is based, isn't really conducive to setting up a bustling music scene: and it's a place where the outsiders quickly recognize each other. Yīn Yīn are all "nightlife people", which meant their friendship initially came about through co-organizing and deejaying DIY parties. Things started to move for real when Yves Lennertz and Kees Berkers decided to make a cassette tape that drew on references to Southern and South East Asian music. Once the idea was formed, Lennertz and Berkers wasted no time in taking "a lot" of instruments to a rented rehearsal room in a small village near Maastricht. They asked friends to help out, and they became a full band: with Remy Scheren on bass, Robbert Verwijlen on keys and Jerome Cardynaals, and Gino Bombrini on percussion. A "united against the world" stance is also heard at the end of "Declined by Universe". It's a funny, maybe surreptitious statement of belief in what they do. Yīn Yīn also wanted to create an illusion of strength in other ways: "Declined By Universe" sounds as if there is a large group of people playing, not just the core band. Nods to brilliant, invigorating dance music abound, some of the thumping beats in numbers like "Chong Wang" the title track and "Nautilus" drop some thumping 1990s-style electric boogie and Italo disco chops along the way. Then there is "Shēnzou V.", which plots a stately course between eastern-inflected pop music, Italo, and Harmonia-style electronic meditations. The expansive richness in sound and feel may be down to the fact that more samples, drum computers, and synthesizers are used on The Age of Aquarius than in their previous records, a process that intertwines with real-time playing in the studio. "Faiyadansu", for example, started with a sample found on an old traditional Japanese koto record. Cosmic appropriations of time also crop up in the titles, which may give the lie to some of the band members' preoccupations with the state of the world. An old trope musically the Age is most famously referenced in the hippie musical, Hair. Other direct references to cosmic times are in the track names "Kali Yuga" and "Satya Yuga": the Kali Yuga, in Hinduism, is the fourth and worst of the four yugas (world ages) in a Yuga Cycle, preceded by Dvapara Yuga and followed by the next cycle's Krita (Satya) Yuga.

Wisdom Teeth co-founder K-Lone is dropping two EPs on Aus Music: the first instalment nods to UKG and house flavors, while the second offers a deeper, broken techno vibe. "Give It Up" opens Part 1 with a bubbly rhythm and bassline that percolates through the woody, organic percussion. Lush pads and neon lines swirl skyward to silky and seductive effect as various other samples and daubs of color bring the groove to life. The heady "Wait 4 U" is a textbook K-Lone house cut with low swinging bass, sultry sax stabs and molten R&B samples that get the juices going next to warm, diffused synth lines. On the flip, "What I Want" ups the pace but keeps it deep and smooth with rubbery kicks and gooey bass overlaid with soft-edged chord stabs that will pump the floor. Lastly, "Own Way" closes down with a tumbling bassline that takes you deeper as muted vocal sounds and glowing chords hook you into an infectious groove suited to the most intimate dancefloors. UK trailblazer K-Lone heads up the label Wisdom Teeth with fellow producer Facta and has released everything from club-primed garage to innovative home listening records. Whether cooking up kinetic beats and bouncy bass or soundtracking a lazy summer's afternoon with synthesized bird calls and lush marimbas, the London-bred artist is a proven studio wizard. Critical acclaim has come for both his Swells and Cape Cira albums, and now his Catching Wild EPs for Aus Music offer yet another portal into the colorful world of his idiosyncratic, signature sound.

Digitmovies presents the soundtracks composed by Bruno Nicolai for four of Jess Franco's movies: A Virgin Among The Living Dead, 99 Women, Nightmares Come At Night, and Eugenie De Sade'70. A Virgin Among The Living Dead's score features several atonal music themes for strings with additional distorted electric guitar. Nicolai has written a wonderful love theme for the main character of Christine, a sweet and melancholic theme performed by the crystal voice of Edda Dell'Orso. For Nightmares Come At Night, Bruno Nicolai has written an OST of experimental kind, perfect as background for the protagonist's recurrent nightmares. He alternates experimental atmospheres with piano and percussions, with suspended motifs for guitar, organ and light percussions and with a magic love theme. The soundtrack for Eugenie De Sade'70 was originally released in 1969 on the Gemelli label. On the 99 Women soundtrack, Nicolai has written and conducted a symphonic score that alternates mysterious, dramatic and action themes to other romantic and sensual ones given by the sax and the orchestra that reprise instrumental variations of the main theme song. For this publication, Digitmovies used every take found in the original master tapes.

2024 repress; LP version. "Bristling with guitar strings and laced with harmonies, Lie Down In The Light is the brightest album to date from the Bonnie 'Prince.' Brisk tempos skip among his signature slower numbers and ballads. Bonnie's vocals are among his most expressive: carefully nuanced, singing all up and down his range, showing him at a judiciously dynamic and tuneful apex. Coloring the sound, is a subtle backdrop of percussive slaps and shakes (but nary a drumkit), touches of keys and steel, delicate harmony-vocal arrangements and other sweet surprises that might send some sad-sack fans back to their auto-erotic dungeons, fresh toys in hand. Lie Down In The Light features Bonnie repeat players Paul Oldham and Emmett Kelly and also benefits from the multi-instrumental presence of Shahzad Izmaily, who works percussion, piano, guitar, banjo and the mysterious, sensual 'row of wenches' -- I mean, mysterious, sensual 'row of wrenches.' New (duet) partner Ashley Webber forges her own presence next to Bonnie in a pair of fantastic turns. Additionally, some of Nashville's finest appear in between the band's strings and harrows, adding light (and yeah, we see a little darkness, too) wherever they appear."

"City Gates was released by the George Adams-Don Pullen Quartet in 1983. The quartet consisted of George Adams on tenor sax and flute, Don Pullen on piano, Dannie Richmond on drums, Cameron Brown on bass, and together they recorded five jazz-bop tracks. All tracks were either written by George Adams or Don Pullen, except for the traditional African American spiritual song 'Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen' which was arranged by Adams and Pullen. City Gates is available as a limited edition of 500 copies on white colored vinyl and contains liner notes on the back sleeve by music journalist Frits Lagerwerff."

Duo in the mirror that, in a continuous game of doubling and multiplication, ventures into another world, dense with unexpectedness and vital thrills. Sun Ra and post-rock, as well as Chicago experimentation and echoes of the world of Suzanne Ciani and minimal music, are the hints one can sense while listening to Medea, a journey to the edge and beyond. Star Splitter's new album comes five years after the debut album, a period in which Gabriele Mitelli and Rob Mazurek experimented with the infinite possibilities of this lineup, the length and breadth of Europe, at some of the most important festivals. In complete freedom, a three-day session in the recording studio in Reggio Calabria gave birth to Medea, a dedication, in retrospect, to the film work of Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Limited repress; LP version. First reissue of these cult 1974 recordings of a Mayan brass band playing funeral dirges and popular songs in its distinctive extended harmonic and rhythmic style. The members of the San Lucas Band lived in the mountain village of San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala, playing local events of both religious and social nature. The pride of their town since 1922, the band represented a fast-disappearing musical tradition when these recordings were originally released in 1975. Their unique sound derived from an unusual combination of instruments, a repertoire including pieces dating from more than fifty years before the recordings were made to more recent ones, and above all from the highland Maya style of their playing, which is characterized by a preference for freer rhythmic structures and a wider variety of pitches than Western scales allow. One of Jon Hassell and Charlie Haden's favorite records, it was nominated for a Grammy Award upon first release and has remained much beloved by a small community of enthusiasts for decades. A profound and rewarding musical experience for all adventurous listeners, notably fans of Albert Ayler, microtonal and raw cosmic music.

LP version. "Like a bolt echoing back from the blue, We Have Dozens of Titles restrikes the iron of Gastr del Sol, plunging the listener back into the maelstrom of their all-too-brief passage of 1993-1998 via an assembly of previously uncollected studio recordings and beautifully captured unreleased live material. Gastr del Sol's music was of the transformative variety -- or was it transfiguration they were up to? Or transmigration? Flux was key, to be sure. David Grubbs formed Gastr from the final lineup of Bastro; on Gastr del Sol's debut, The Serpentine Similar, Grubbs, Bundy K. Brown and John McEntire downshifted from a thrashing electric outfit into a droning, acoustic-based one. Following this, the lineup shifted again, decisively -- Brown and McEntire departed to focus on the project to be known as Tortoise, and Jim O'Rourke arrived, pairing with Grubbs to make a sequence of unpredictable leaps across genre and practical approach alike, over three LPs and a pair of EPs. We Have Dozens of Titles contains nearly an hour of previously unreleased live recordings, alongside another near-hour of studio recordings culled from previously uncollected singles, EPs, and compilations. At long last, vinyl purchasers will hear the full range of 'The Harp Factory on Lake Street,' 'Dead Cats in a Foghorn,' 'Quietly Approaching,' and 'The Bells of St. Mary's' for the first time on vinyl -- all of it, live and studio alike, lovingly mastered and remastered by Jim O'Rourke, and packaged in a three-LP box set with a wicked Roman Signer image on its removable lid, interior printing on the box bottom and inner sleeves for each LP with performance credits for all the songs. As much as Gastr del Sol's albums showcase a group eminently at home in the studio, they were inclined to thoroughly reinvent their compositions in performance. While reviewing live tapes for this compilation, the studio versions of most things felt more and more definitive, with the exception of the live takes included here, which essay startling new qualities in pieces that have been in the public ear for several decades. The majority of these live performances come from a miraculous find in the CBC archive -- a broadcast-quality recording of Jim and David from the 1997 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. The extended company of players on these numbers includes Jeb Bishop, Bundy K. Brown, Steve Butters, Gene Coleman, Thymme Jones, Terri Kapsalis, John McEntire, Günter Müller, Bob Weston, and Sue Wolf. We Have Dozens of Titles revisits the slow-burning incendiaries of Gastr del Sol, finding, once again and after so much time elapsed, another, further set of reinventions."

This is the legendary Krzystof Komeda Quintet caught live at the Jazz Jamboree Festival in Warsaw in 1963. A marvelous combo featuring some of the greatest Polish jazz musicians such as Tomasz Stanko (trumpet), Michal Urbaniak (tenor sax), Maciej Suzin (bass), and Czeslaw Bartowski (drums). Komeda, Stanko and Urbaniak were sort of pioneers who effectively opened up a way for jazz in Poland. Komeda's fluent modern jazz conception was a perfect synthesis between the American influence and a certain Slavic lyricism. The album includes an astonishing version of "Ballad -- From Knife In Water" from Komeda's soundtrack for the 1962 Roman Polanski movie. A major statement in the East European music history.

Pyramid is an instrumental trio hailing from Nuremberg, Germany. Their new album Beyond Borders Of Time is the follow-up to their 2019 debut album. A mesmerizing journey through stoner psychedelia and progressive e instrumental rock, it weaves a kaleidoscopic landscape that unfolds like a sonic travel through time and space. Their craftsmanship and heady grooves make them a must-have for fans of bands like My Sleeping Karma or Yawning Man. The first stones to Pyramid were placed at the house of former singer Steinmetz (Sascha Dametz), together with former drummer Julian Klusacek, bassist Michael Kümpflein, and guitarist Shane Saban. After Klusacek left Germany for Bali and vocalist Steinmetz decided to follow his own path, the band welcomed drummer Lukas Schomann on board, opening the door to the now-trio full potential and helping define their sound. After the release of their debut album in 2019, two European tours, multiple shows and festivals appearances in Germany (including performances alongside Colour Haze and Elder), Pyramid is now ready to unfold its magical seven-tracker Beyond Borders of Time.

Color vinyl version. Zolle return with an album where the heavy parts are lovingly heavier and the melodic parts are monstrously more melodic than in the past. Imagine Crowbar on a diet singing the Ramones refrains at an AC/DC show with Metallica as an opening act. "Rosa" is Italian for "pink" but it also refers to the flower itself. Rosa sounds incisive and unconventional, its nine tracks brimming with a buzzing energy and featuring playful vocals and melodies, muscular riffs and highly propulsive drums.

Color vinyl version. Thomas Greenwood & The Talismans become, through the years, a psychedelic rock band heavily contaminated by '70s influences, the western movies scenario with a neo-psychedelic taste. Founder Thomas Mascheroni (also guitar/voice of stoner trio Humulus) gave birth to the first record in 2021 called Rituals. Entirely self-produced, with Ramble Records from Melbourne and Echodelick Records from Atlanta printing the vinyl. After a long period of wild jams into an old barn on the mountains of lake Iseo, this new record Ateş is ready. Ateş is an imaginary hidden city under the mountains of Turkey. A magical place buried by the time where men found shelter during the hardest environmental catastrophes.

The magical encounter of three skillful players, right before their self-titled debut on ECM. On September 1, 1978, the musical trio Codona performed live in Willisau, Switzerland. This Swiss FM broadcast captured Codona in full flight, with Collin Walcott on sitar, Don Cherry on trumpet, and Nana Vasconcelos on percussion. Their performance weaved a magical web of sound. The opening track, "New Light," is a 16-minute journey of pure joy.

"In the Merry Month of May is the final studio recording of the late, great Tony Conrad, and the first duo release with Jennifer Walshe, one of Conrad's most important collaborators in the final decade of his life. Befitting these two absurdly gifted hell-raisers, this is a wild, improvisatory flaying of song, with Walshe's clarion voice at the heart of the enterprise. The sheer sonic force of opener 'In the Merry Month of May' recalls the ecstatic charge of Conrad's Slapping Pythagoras. Ramshackle, go-for-broke performances provide gist for your next twelve months of earworms. Conrad's and Walshe's prior work are about the only relevant reference points, and even then In the Merry Month of May is a one-of-a-kind concoction whipped up by two fearless and often peerless souls. It's a joy to hear the two of them, with such manifest mutual regard and commitment to busting a gut. According to Walshe, early in their collaboration Conrad related how they 'first began working together after they ran from service as servants of King Pepy I at the end of Old Kingdom Egypt. They were subsequently monks in Carolingean Gaul during the period roughly 820 to 850, Venetian courtesans at Pope Eugene's court during the mid-15th century, and prisoners on what was then Van Diemen's Land in 1843, where Walshe tried to secure Conrad's escape using 'remote viewing' techniques. The unfortunate outcome of the latter incident resulted in Conrad's work as a stage magician in Australia in the 19th century, where in trying an audience riot, they both accidentally ingested leprosy vectors and subsequently lost three legs and two arms between them.'"

"Bill MacKay and Drag City are delirious with pride to announce the discovery of a new territory: Locust Land, a record which seeks to reflect the nerve-shredding consciousness run amok in our world today -- and somehow allay it with sound. Bill's music is a visceral crackling where it meets the air, and Locust Land can't help but reflect its era more than any other in his discography. It's been five years since the release of Fountain Fire -- but in the interim, Bill has barely stopped moving, collaborating with artists across the spectrum, including cellist Katinka Kleijn, banjo player Nathan Bowles, and keyboardist Cooper Crain. He's also contributed to recordings by Steve Gunn, Ryley Walker, Bill Callahan & Bonnie Prince Billy (Blind Date Party), and Black Duck (on their self-titled record featuring Douglas McCombs and Charles Rumback). Bill's sense of music as art is constantly modulating -- lifting off from where it is found and naturally migrating to some other place. Sometimes, that's elsewhere -- others, it's simply to be found deeper inside the starting point. And so, the action of moving on informs the landscape of Locust Land. Within the arrangements, there's also departure from previous norms -- in addition to the brilliant guitar work for which he is known, Bill plays a variety of keyboards, from piano to organ to synth, extending his music with the available voicings, while enriching the sound field without abandoning his signature brevity. Also different: on his previous solo recordings, Bill played every sound. Here, he has invited other illustrious Chicagoans to join him: Sam Wagster (The Father Costume, Mute Duo) plays bass on three songs, two of which feature the percussion playing of Mikel Patrick Avery (Natural Information Society, Jeff Parker, etc.). Additionally, Janet Beveridge Bean (Eleventh Dream Day, Freakwater) adds otherworldly vocal textures to the elegiac 'Neil's Field.' With cover art also by Bill MacKay (the third of his albums on Drag City to feature his work), Locust Land stands as a thoroughly personal statement from Bill to everyone everywhere."

Black Truffle announces the first vinyl reissue of Trancedance, a wild slice of Swedish Afro-fusion from Christer Bothén, originally released in 1984. A major figure in Swedish jazz and improvised music since the 1970s, often heard on bass clarinet and tenor sax, Bothen studied doso n'koni (the large six-stringed "hunter's harp" of the Wasulu) in Mali in 1971-1972 before turning to the guinbri (the three-stringed lute of the Gnawa/Gnauoua) in Marakesh later in the decade. In between, he performed extensively with Don Cherry during his Organic Music Society period and taught Cherry the doso n'koni. In the later '70s and '80s he worked with the most important figures in the distinctive Swedish jazz-rock-world fusion scene, joining Archimedes Badkar for their African-influenced Tre and participating in Bengt Berger's legendary Bitter Funeral Beer Band. Many of the musicians who played on the Bitter Funeral Beer Band's ECM LP (including Berger on drums, Anita Livstrand on voice and percussion and Tord Bengstsson on piano, violin and guitar) joined Bothén for one of the sessions that produced Trancedance, the first release under his own name, dedicated to his compositions. The other session introduced his seven-piece group Bolon Bata, heard on the second track of each side. Using an expanded 16-piece ensemble, the music balances untethered improvisation with carefully arranged passages of knotty ensemble playing that at points suggest Mingus, Moacir Santos, or some of the ambitious post-free work being done in the same years by figures like David Murray or Henry Threadgill. A must for fans of the Swedish scene around groups like Arbete och Fritid and Archimedes Badkar, as well as any listener who has been seduced by Louis Moholo's Spirits Rejoice!, The Brotherhood of Breath, or, more recently, the guinbri grooves of Natural Information Society, Trancedance is a lost classic ripe for rediscovery.

2024 repress. "One of the first releases on EMI's progressive rock label, Harvest in July 1969, Alchemy was the debut album by Third Ear Band. One of the earliest signings to Harvest, the band was formed in 1968 around a nucleus of Glen Sweeney (percussion), Paul Minns (oboe), Richard Coff (violin, viola) and Mel Davis (cello). Third Ear Band were unique in their exploration of exotic baroque music fused with experimental rock. Signing to Blackhill Enterprises in 1969, the quartet opened for many of the legendary Hyde Park free concerts by Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Blind Faith. Recorded at Abbey Road studios in the early months of 1969, Alchemy is regarded as one of the most striking and original works of the era with its unique gothic improvisational music and this new Esoteric Recordings 180 gram vinyl edition is a faithful reproduction of the original 1969 gatefold LP release. It has been re-mastered from the original Harvest master tapes and has been cut at Abbey Road studios for this definitive edition vinyl reissue."

Restocked. Mixing fuzzed-out hard-rock with tinges of psychedelia, Majic Ship's only album from 1970 is a classic from the US private press/psych scene. Raw fuzz guitars, organ, and soulful-melodic vocals on nine original tracks plus their homage to Neil Young/Stephen Stills on the 11-minute cover of "Down by the river"/"For what it's worth." With original copies changing hands for hundreds of dollars, here's s legit straight vinyl reissue, featuring new remastered sound and insert with detailed liner notes.

"Dicks' debut LP has been acknowledged as a foundational statement in punk ever since its initial 1983 release. Following their first single, 1980's Dicks Hate The Police, and a live split with fellow Austinites the Big Boys, Kill From The Heart does not disappoint. Originally released on SST, the album stands apart from the mass of generic thrash-hardcore contemporaries -- fueled by the manic, but controlled power of singer Gary Floyd along with the original lineup of guitarist Glen Taylor, bassist Buxf Parrot and drummer Pat Deason. Dicks were operating at an absolute peak at this point, alternating damaged workouts that suggest Flipper or No Trend on one end and highly charged tracks in the vein of Minutemen or Tales of Terror on the other. Straight out of the gate on 'Anti Klan,' the band trades blues-grounded guitar with squealing feedback and intensely political lyrics. The raw emotional sincerity of Floyd, who was openly gay in Reagan-era Texas, provides unmistakable urgency to songs such as 'No Nazi's Friend,' 'Rich Daddy' and the title track, which remains one of the stone-cold classic punk anthems. Forty years on, Kill From The Heart continues to smolder -- an arresting testament to the possibilities embodied in creative rage. It is no surprise that Dicks have been covered by Mudhoney, Jesus Lizard and more. Superior Viaduct is honored to present this truly essential reissue. Comes with original tracklist, insert and download card."

LP version. "Originally released in 1974 on Shandar, Dream House 78'17" is the second full-length album by La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. This first-time US edition reproduces the original gatefold sleeve with beautiful calligraphy by Zazeela and liner notes by Young and French musicologist Daniel Caux. Side one was recorded at a private concert (on the date and time indicated by the title) and features Young and Zazeela's voices against a sine wave drone with Jon Hassell on trumpet and Garrett List on trombone. This work is a section of the longer composition Map of 49's 'Dream the Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery' (begun in 1966 as a sub-section of The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys, which was begun in 1964 with Young's group The Theatre of Eternal Music). The piece evolves with the oscillator changing pitch and dictating an ornate pattern over the course of the performance. Side two is an example of one of the sets of frequencies sustained in the Dream House, the composite sound environments conceived by Young and Zazeela. The composer suggests listening while seated -- to experience how the sound interacts with the room and other perceptions of its arrangement -- as well as while walking. As Young states, 'The frequency ratios are monitored continuously as lissajous patterns on the oscilloscopes and, in spite of the great stability of the oscillators, the phase relationships of the sine waves gradually drift which causes their amplitudes to add and subtract algebraically. Not only does the sound become a bit louder and softer, but at very loud levels, one actually begins to have a sensation that parts of the body are somehow locked in sync with the sine waves and slowly drifting with them in space and time.'"

Limited 2024 restock. A collection of demos including 1975 demos featuring Richard Hell, and recorded by Brian Eno. Killer stuff from before Marquee Moon (many of the songs on this tape ended up featured on that album) while Richard Hell was still in the band.

Double LP version. Yellow color vinyl. "Culled from three 1985 gigs in the UK during a transitional and transcendent time in the band's story, Sonic Youth's The Walls Have Ears appeared/disappeared as a 2LP set in 1986, not just a live album but an artful tapestry full of live experimentation with songs, between-song tape segues, darkness, humor and audio verité. It's now issued for the first time officially under the band's auspices."

"The '85 shows were the second time the band appeared on UK soil, Brits now getting juiced to the mythos of the emerging guitar-slinging American independent underground; an art/punk band from NYC sporting casual attitudes and tees sporting Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, and Prince made some good press copy on top of their bludgeoning stage appearance. Paul Smith of the newly-founded Blast First label acted as an overseas diplomatic envoy for Sonic Youth through their SST years as well as issuing their classic 1988 Daydream Nation outside the USA. However the Smith-produced 'bootleg' of their '85 UK gigs surfaced much to everyone's surprise, just before EVOL was to be released. It turned out to be a marker of the group's dissatisfaction that ultimately led to the release's deletion, and the band and Smith parting ways after Daydream. In this 2LP set brimming with primitive classics like 'The Burning Spear,' 'Death Valley 69,' and 'I'm Insane' (uncredited on sleeve), segues and live guitar changes ooze together threaded by Madonna tapes and vocal loops off the board (somewhat a necessity for distraction until the band had a full-fledged stage crew to prepare guitars). The first two sides of Walls are massive, cavernous, with newly-drafted drummer Steve Shelley. SY tear it up especially on one trash-fi excerpt of 'Blood On Brighton Beach' (actually 'Making The Nature Scene') from a legendary outdoor gig November 8th where [Thurston] Moore, [Kim] Gordon and [Lee] Ranaldo's guitars treble-blast dissonant shockwaves over the black-stoned beach of Quadrophenia fame. The record's second slab spotlights an April 1985 at London's Hammersmith Palais and was one of the final appearances live of Bob Bert on drums, again featuring some molten takes on 'Brother James,' 'Flower' (listed as 'The Word (E.V.O.L.)'), and others. This document remains an essential representation of some lean and mean years of the quartet's throttling march out into the world." --Brian Turner

2024 repress. "There was a time when traditional music was just folk -- a time when folk wasn't hyphened up with words like psych and rock and pop. It was just there on its lonesome, like a lone girl and guitar. That's what you hear on Meg Baird's Dear Companion. Her lyrical singing and songwriting imbues the sound of the psych-folk group Espers, but this is Meg's solo debut. Traditional songs are of such great age that it is not known where they began. They are lost to time, for a world to pick on and interpret. With songs like 'The Cruelty of Barbary Allen,' 'Willie O' Winsbury,' and the title track, Meg interprets the old airs with voice and fingerstyle picking. Mixing traditional songs with her original compositions lends the album its variety. She further mixes it up by reaching for some deep cuts from a few records most listeners haven't yet heard. Sure, there's a Jimmy Webb song -- but there's Meg to thank for all future listens to Fraser & DeBolt (whose delightful 'The Waltze Of the Tennis Players' is covered) and Chris Thompson. And her cover of The New Riders of the Purple Sage song 'All I Ever Wanted' will make your heart explode in a way the NRPS version never did -- gently. Dear Companion has such a completion that just as the album is finishing and your mind is thinking 'Great record, I wish she'd sing one a cappella,' the moment comes when Meg does just that, as if a mind were being read somewhere. Whether you're a listener of hyphenated folk music or not, Dear Companion is a musical companion that will show you a bit of the traditional sandstone that folk is built upon and the simultaneous empathy and entertainment it can provide."

Founded in the southern German city of Bietigheim-Bissingen by Heiko Maile, Oliver Kreyssig, and Marcus Meyn in the year 1984, the band Camouflage scored an unexpected international hit with their debut album Voices & Images in 1988. Their sophomore album Methods Of Silence, released just a year later, was an even bigger success. Songs like "The Great Commandment" and "Love Is A Shield," went on to become perennial classics of the synth pop genre. Heiko Maile and Marcus Meyn recorded their fourth album Bodega Bohemia in the synthsound studio of Belgian producer and electro-pop pioneer Dan Lacksman. It was released on 26 April 1993. To mark the 30th anniversary of the album, the band opened up the archives to assemble a special bonus edition including a wealth of rare and unreleased recordings.

2024 restock, LP version. Reissue. Originally released as private pressing in 1971, the Farm album is highly sought-after and revered by collectors. Recorded by this Southern Illinois band in 1971 at the legendary Golden Voice studios, it's chock full of jammy, bluesy guitar psych with heavy dual guitars, organ, congas, harp... Recommended if you like Quicksilver, Allman Brothers, Canned Heat, Ten Years After... Remastered sound; original artwork; includes booklet with photos and extensive liner notes by Kevin Rathert (It's Psychedelic Baby) LP version includes download card. "A vital album for fans of vintage guitar action." --Patrick Lundborg (Acid Archives).

Repressed. "In 1962, legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans collaborated for the first time on record with jazz guitarist Jim Hall to create the landmark album Undercurrent. And even though it is a two-person improvisational affair, it is almost unfathomable that these two giants alone fill up all the grooves on this record. The thoughtful interplay between these two musicians created such a beautiful, lush, and emotional journey that their work influenced many. At the time of this recording, Bill Evans was one of the top jazz pianists (his performance with Miles Davis on Kind Of Blue is still a high-water mark), but he had stopped performing and recording after the death of his peer, bassist Scott LaFaro. Eventually, he was persuaded to return to music, and this was one of the first recordings upon his return. Guitarist Jim Hall -- who had worked with Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins, and Chico Hamilton -- started his partnership with Evans during this time. Recorded over two sessions in April and May 1962, the two have that beautifully unspoken musical language of give and take; their recordings are refreshingly busy but also incredibly sparse. These two giants understand that intertwining their personalities and harmonic styles could create greatness. This notable re-issue is an all-analog production affair -- AAA Mastered and cut live by audio guru Kevin Gray (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Charles Mingus) -- and it's never sounded better."