Far Out Recordings presents the first ever vinyl release of Milton Nascimento's Maria Maria, originally released in 2003 as a double-CD package. Recorded in 1974 and unreleased until almost thirty years later, the album was written as the soundtrack to a ballet which dealt with the legacy of slavery in Brazil. Milton Nascimento possesses one of the most immediately recognizable voices in Brazilian music: high and sweet and as breathtakingly sublime as that of any soul singer. Along with journalist and song writer Fernando Brant, lyricist Marcio Borges, and his younger brother Lo Borges, Nascimento wrote and produced what would become Milton's milestone album, Clube da Esquina (1972) which shaped the local scene and reflects the essence of "the Nascimento Sound". Milton's religious upbringing as an Afro-Brazilian Catholic saw him exposed to church choral music from an early age. This collection also displays his early fascination with evocative, non-verbal, scat-style singing, spare, harmonic guitar work and local folk music, jazz, and rock. In 1976, Milton and Fernando Brant teamed up with a new contemporary dance company called Grupo Corpo, whose Argentinian choreographer Oscar Araiz, would become a collaborator with the two musicians. Together, they conceived a show based on the composite life story of the daughter of a black slave called Maria. Nascimento wrote music to Brant's lyrics and Maria Maria was premiered in the main theatre of the Belo Horizonte Palacio das Artes that year. The music on Maria Maria was performed by an impressive group of young Brazilian musicians, including Naná Vasconcelos (percussion and effects), Toninho Horta (guitars), and Paulo Moura (sax). Several vocalists, including Naná Caymmi, Fafá de Belém, Beto Guedes, and Milton himself, had hits in years to come with reworkings of these songs. On the title track, Maria's story is narrated and translated to music through the use of African Percussion, drums, and metal signifying the field slave tools of the day. "Trabalhos (Works)" runs to work rhythms and whip cracks. "Lília" documents the beating of the slave woman. After "A Chamada" and the triumphant "Era Rei e Sou Escravo", things begin to turn and Milton employs tropical jungle cries to symbolize freedom. "Santos Catholicos x Candomble" represents the battle between African and European religions through the music of both sides. Milton's heavenly falsetto pours into "Francisco" and "Pai Grande" and the outstanding "Eu Sou Uma Preta Velha Aqui Sentada no Sol" conjures images of an old woman sitting deep in the forest, her memories painted in drums, piano, and voices. 180 gram vinyl.

This is the second single release from L'Épée, taken from the seminal album, Diabolique (AUK 133CD/LP). This three-track single contains an exclusive track to the release, "Shiny Shiny". Artwork by Frank Kozik. The band are Emmaunelle Seigner (Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle), Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre), and Lionel & Marie Liminana (The Liminanas). Recorded in Cabestany (France) and Berlin at Anton's Cobra Studio. 180 gram, yellow vinyl.

LP version. In Japanese folklore, Afuma indicates a time of day marked by spiritual or mysterious encounter. In Latin, one who inhales. Together as Afuma, Stefan Tcherepnin and Taketo Shimada breathe sepulchral energies into the brooding, cosmic fringes of guitar-based song vernacular. Tcherepnin's baritone and Shimada's lap steel guitar intertwine, smearing across world's-end horizons that propel Tcherepnin's ragged, foreboding vocal delivery and its lyrical portents of departure, of life's vessel unmoored onto a fathomless periphery. Shimada, a Tokyo-born musician and artist who has lived with Herbert Huncke and worked with Henry Flynt, also contributes Indian double-reed instrument shehnai to the band. And Stefan Tcherepnin, a contemporary artist and composer in fourth generation (continuing the family heritage of his great-grandfather Nicholas, grandfather Alexander, and father Ivan Tcherepnin), embellishes their dirge-scapes with electronics from the Sonica, a lute shaped version of the Serge synthesizer developed by his uncle. A family friend and student of Maryanne Amacher, Tcherepnin's piano playing alongside Marianne Schroeder's additionally graced Blank Forms Edition's publication of Amacher's Petra (BF 005CD/LP). Tcherepnin and Shimada are joined by drummer David Silver for Songs From The Shore, their debut LP, featuring artwork in the form of "A Rip In The Void", a newly commissioned painting by Bobby Beausoleil.

One day in the studio, something ridiculously great happened. It was deep Chicago winter, cold as shit. Four musicians assembled for a round-robin set of improvisations -- duets, trios, a few quartets. Approached casually, the late morning bloomed into Largest Afternoon, 15 crackling encounters between guitarist Arto Lindsay, saxophonists Joe McPhee, and Ken Vandermark, and drummer Phil Sudderberg. No expectations -- open minds and creative intent. Lindsay, a brilliant singer and songwriter and one of the key architects of no wave via his band DNA, has proven himself once again to be one of the world's top texturalists, and he is an equally sensitive and challenging group improvisor. Vandermark and McPhee brought their long friendship and musical partnership to the studio, and both engaged with Lindsay in different ways, bringing blue flame and melody. The session's final wildcard, Sudderberg, a versatile drummer who collaborates with Vandermark on the band Marker, brought a lovely sense of buoyancy and ear for contrast in colors, as well as a raucous rock pulse. With parts this stellar, imagine when Largest Afternoon > than the sum. Nobody knew this would happen.

Recorded February 9, 2019, at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago. Engineered by Alex Inglizian. Mixed and mastered by Alex Inglizian with Ken Vandermark, John Corbett, and Jim Dempsey at ESS. Photographs by John Corbett. Cover design by David Khan-Giordano. Produced by John Corbett and Jim Dempsey. Personnel: Arto Lindsay - guitar; Joe McPhee - alto and tenor saxophone, pocket trumpet; Ken Vandermark - tenor and baritone saxophone, clarinet; Phil Sudderberg, drums.

Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Willem Breuker and Han Bennink's New Acoustic Swing Duo, originally released in 1967. Late in 1967, saxophonist Willem Breuker and drummer Han Bennink recorded the first LP for the new artist-run free improvised music label, ICP Records. New Acoustic Swing Duo was an instant classic, and remains one of the most enduring documents of Dutch improvised music ever recorded. With Breuker's omnidirectional reed work, which ranges from plaintive to excoriating, occasional sneering tone adds a kind of ironic twist to the expressive outpouring. He could be as explosive as Peter Brötzmann, but Breuker has a razor-sharp wit and sense of humor. Since this recording, Bennink has gone on to be seated among the royalty of jazz and improvised music drummers. At the time, he was a fresh-faced 25-year-old, hauling around increasingly immense kits with heaps of percussion flotsam and jetsam, playing tabla and vibrapan, and sparking it all with tsunami energy. Keep in mind, Coltrane and Ali had just recorded Interstellar Space (which would not be issued until 1974), and the economical drum/sax lineup was by no means yet a standard in improvised music. Shortly after recording this, Breuker and Bennink would join Brötzmann to record Machine Gun (1968), another European free music keystone. Somehow, despite its historical importance and aesthetic magnificence, New Acoustic Swing Duo has never been available as a stand-alone CD. Remastered from original tapes, this reissue includes the original cover with the "ICP 001" hand-stamp, as well as several versions of the handmade covers designed by Bennink, drawn from Mats Gustafsson's wonderful collection. Finally, as a special bonus, the two-disc package includes a legendary concert by Breuker and Bennink, recorded in Essen, Germany, in 1968, released here for the first time.

Pin The Needles is the first official live Urinals LP, released a mere 40 years after being recorded in 1979. The band was invited to play in Santa Barbara, a bucolic college beach community a couple hours north of Los Angeles. As you'll hear, the few people in the audience were treated to a set of Urinals classics and a few songs that would populate their debut LP released in 1983 -- just after the band broke up (and had changed their name to 100 Flowers to break out of the cookie cutter hardcore scene they felt trapped in). 22 tracks that transport you back to the late '70s; highlights include a slow workout of "Sensible Virgin", a hyper-manic "Surfin' With The Shah", and an early reveal of the now-classic "California's Falling Into The Ocean". This record is the Urinal's first ever release outside of the USA. Housed in an information-packed gatefold sleeve.

"In this 24-minute composition, released here in its original name for the first time, Raed Yassin encapsulates and condenses the aural and sonic landscapes experienced by those who bore witness to the war. In the 1980s, while the Lebanese Civil War, which ravaged the country between 1975 and 1990, was raging, television but particularly transistor radios were the only means through which people heard the news during interminable periods of power cuts or waiting in basement shelters. The audio material was collected by Yassin on his regular trips to the dispersed and neglected archives of militias and political parties, radio, and TV stations, and record shops across Lebanon. Built from over 300 hours of material, Yassin has woven together a composition using political speeches; radio and television commercials; news flashes and jingles; local '80s pop music; dubbed Japanese anime songs; propaganda, resistance, and revolutionary party songs; snippets from Ziad Rahbani plays, and many more. The recordings in CW Tapes are the sonic equivalents of Proust's madeleines to any individual who was old enough to remember the war and its immediate aftermath. Commercials, songs, and speeches collide and intertwine as if Yassin had plugged a radio tuner into his mind, sounding out a deeply personal sonic terrain that echoes the hidden sonic memories of his contemporaries. Beside the diversity of its sounds, what is most striking in this record is the minute attention to the musicality of the different recordings Yassin uses, whether they are propaganda pieces, vocal patterns or news jingles. What you hear in the beginning of the CW Tapes, for example, is Raed Yassin's fascination for the different political and musical figures that populated the Lebanese media landscape across the 1980s. In this bewildering introduction, he highlights the absurdity of the war by lacing together a political speech given by Bachir Gemayel with a frivolous and upbeat pop song by Lebanese pop singer Sammy Clark whose tunes are heard at different moments in the piece. The composition unfurls an array of overlapping tonalities and textures as well as a glossolalia made of processed voices that inhabited the archaic technologies of the time . . . In his continuous efforts to mine and work through the sonic archives of Lebanon's recent past, the CW Tapes is possibly Yassin's most personal output to date." --Rayya Badran, Beirut, January 2019 Mastered and Cut by Rashad Becker

Karl O'Connor's banging Regis 1998 blueprint is back in circulation for the techno ultras. The track list has been reshuffled from all previous versions. The A-side now runs through "Hands Of A Stranger" and the cold pipes of "Disease Through Affection", and is backed with the chewy grind of "Body Unknown" and the tonkin' hustle of "Barriers", while the C-side revolves "Concentrate" along with three hefty locked grooves and the D-side includes "Escape From Yourself" and the panic-inducing trample of "Indifference". It hardly needs to be reiterated but this set includes some of the meanest examples of late '90s UK techno, and more specifically, the Birmingham sound that Regis forged so definitively with this album, alongside efforts by his peers, Surgeon, Female, and Mick Harris. If you weren't party to the original pressing, this one stands out thanks to the remastering, which really highlights the pebbledash grain and clangorous industrial atmospheres of the original recordings, which surely set this record and sound apart from the crowd. Entirely remastered at Dubplates & Mastering and cut with three bonus locked grooves not found on the 1998, 2003, or 2012 editions. Includes new artwork. Edition of 500.

The latest volumes in this highly acclaimed series presenting the music of the Windrush generation: the post-war, London recordings of West Indians and West Africans, in the first wave of modern migration to Britain. Volume 7: Calypso, Palm Wine, Mento, Joropo, Steel & Stringband overflows with diverse musical styles, including steel band, string band, calypso, joropo, and mento. Features Lord Beginner, The Lion, The Mighty Terror, Dai Dai Simba, Willie Payne & The Starlite Tempos, Louise Bennett, Marie Bryant, Nigerian Union Rhythm Group, Calypso Rhythm Kings, Bill Rogers, Lili Verona, Billy Sholanke, Lord & Lady Beginner, West African Rhythm Brothers, and Trinidad Steel Band. Volume 8: Lord Kitchener In England, 1948-1962 is devoted to the great calypsonian Lord Kitchener. Double-CD comes with a forty-page booklet, including numerous stunning photographs, and brilliant new writing by Kitch's biographer, Anthony Joseph. Sound restoration at Abbey Road; pressed at Pallas.

"One of the delights of the age" --Songlines.

"a witty and joyous testament" --Guardian.

"impeccably curated and packaged" --Wire.

Shasta Cults is the musical project of Canadian electronics technician Richard Smith. For almost two decades, Smith was the official Buchla & Associates go-to repair person for studios, collectors, and musicians around the world, having worked with artists such as Aphex Twin, Suzanne Ciani, Mort Subotnick, and institutions such as The Library of Congress and Mills College, Smith has had the unique experience of restoring and interacting with nearly every model of Buchla instrument constructed over the past 50 years. "Recording demonstrations of the rare equipment that found its way on to my work bench," is how Smith describes the origins of Shasta Cults. Although sounds have been trickling out for decades, it wasn't until 2017 that Smith recorded his first album using one of these rare instruments: the Buchla 700. Configurations, released in September 2019 by Important Records (IMPREC 432CD) and the catalyst for this latest release, features eight tracks of heavily-modulated, wave-shaped explorations drenched in effects. Recorded over the span of three months in the fall of 2018, this album was programmed using the only fully-functional Buchla Touché. Developed in the early 1980s with hardware by Don Buchla and software programmed by musician David Rosenboom, the Touché features waveforms generated internally by twenty-four digital oscillators and uses frequency modulation along with sophisticated digital and analog signal processing to produce complex timbres. This LP is a continuation of themes first heard on Configurations, with more consideration given to the generation and recording of the pieces. The album's six tracks -- a collection of sonic experiments and hypnotic drones -- span almost forty minutes, showcasing not only the incredible fidelity of the Touché but also Smith's evolution as an audio engineer. Put on some headphones, find a comfortable chair, and let this LP transport you to the mystifying southern cascades of Siskiyou County. Manufactured at RTI and cut by John Golden.

"Lugar Alto presents their very first release: the incredibly rare and absolutely stunning Homenagem, by Leonardo V. Boccia. This is a forgotten gem from the eighties that examines traditional Brazilian themes such as choro, northeastern folk, and capoeira with touches of eighties electronics and new age. Leonardo Boccia is a musi-cian, multi-instrumentalist, composer, researcher and university professor of Culture and Society at the Federal University of Bahia, whose interests include sound studies, manipulation of sound media, audiosphere and aesthetics, musical theatre, audio cul-ture and neuromusic. Born in Italy, this respected academic studied music in Berlin, moved to Rio de Janeiro and established himself in Salvador where he was invited to research the northeastern music of Bahia. There he created the experimental group Macchina Naturale, an eclectic combo that performed regularly during his stay. In No-vember 1980, Boccia participated in the first Instrumental Music Festival of Bahia as a soloist where he performed works of his own. But it was in 1983 that Professor Boccia composed, directed and produced the LP Homenagem. With photos by re-nowned photographer and artist Mario Cravo Neto for the front and back cover of the booklet, the album presents new and original compositions for instrumental ensembles, such as: 'Choro Fantasia' -- for guitar and berimbau --, 'Canção para Iracema', 'Home-nagem', and 'Lenda do Sertão'. The LP was originally released on January 3rd, 1984, with a live performance in the main hall of the Castro Alves Theatre under the title Trib-ute to Brazilian Music, with the participation of vocalist Sueli Sodré, who contributes to the album, instrumentalists Zeno Millet and Onias Camardelli, accompanied by chore-ography and visuals. Much of Homenagem examines the genre of Brazilian music known as Choro, or Chorinho, a genre which appeared in Rio de Janeiro in the 19th century. Choro is regarded as the first typically Brazilian urban music and, over the years, it has come to be considered one of the most prestigious genres of national pop-ular music. Stylistically, it originates from Lundu, a percussion-based rhythm of African inspiration but also influenced by European genres. The instrumental composition of choro was based on the trinca flute, guitar and cavaquinho. Over time, other wind and string instruments were incorporated. Here, in Homenagem, Professor Boccia deliberately mixes the old and the new, the traditional and the innovative; the album is the environment of Chorinho reconsidered and recontextualized, and its melodies and harmonies still capable of surprises. Just listen to 'Terra e Povo' -- it has an almost pro-to-acid-house quality to it, while the synth washes on 'Mãe Natureza' with the ethereal vocal stylings of Sueli Sodré ushering in the progressive quality of the album. Too long out of print, new label Lugar Alto now offers you the chance to reappraise this fascinat-ing reissue of yet another forgotten chapter in Brazilian music."

Magic Box present a reissue of The Common People's Of The People / By The People / For The People From The Common People. This moody classic came and went in the summer 1969. Produced by "Lord" Tim Hudson (The Seeds, The Lollipop Shoppe), it's a remarkable blend of garage rock and orchestrated psychedelia, featuring a three-song opening salvo unlike anything else in pop. It makes its long-awaited return here, complete with four rare bonus tracks on the included CD (from privately-pressed pre-LP singles) and liner notes detailing their history.

Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer as Vilod, with their second full-length album following 2015's cult classic Safe in Harbour on Perlon. Housed in a stunning gatefold sleeve. "Cryptic, twilight emissions from Villalobos and Loderbauer; their synthetic compound of electronics and ouroboros jazz has walked from ECM and Perlon over to Mana. Developing a sound that tends to drift along as otherworldly atmospheres and strange fusion, Vilod evade easy categorisation, even compared to Villalobos' already experimental and genre-twisting solo minimal offerings. He and Loderbauer pull away the backbone inherent to the structure of that dance music, and The Clouds Know refines a deft and subtle musical noir built on ambient cues, sparks and claps of electricity, brushed drums, black voids and subterranean bass swoops. There's a twinkle in the eye and moments of deadpan levity, but the overall mood here is sober and introspective. Emotions run deep. Through studio mastery and an enigmatic language, the album forms a fascinating sonic and sensory work with few compromises. With erratic rhythms notably submerged -- techno remains as an irregular pulse in the belly of the beast -- fields of crisp, uncanny detail expand greatly. Humid environments appear, dense with the chatter of synthesized insects and the gentle rain of drums and whispering cymbals, enchanting the listener in focus or sublimating into layers of ambience depending on your disposition -- and the quality of your stereo field."

"Born in 1938, and raised in Glendale, California, Lloyd Miller has had one of the most unusual careers in all of jazz. By age 12 he had declared an intent to make his living as a jazz musician, and by high school he had already begun to experiment, shunning swing music's mechanical perfection, and chafing at his parents' desire for him to nurture his talents with formal training. This tumultous relationship with his parents would eventually lead to a stint in a psychatric hospital, before reuniting with them in moving to Iran, his father having accepted a job working for the Shah. Stops in Hong Kong, Japan and Pakistan on the way to Iran deepened Miller's connection to other cultures he'd first felt while listening to old world music compilations. He felt a definite calm and peace, an immense respect from everyone towards everyone else, and immersed himself in other cultures and languages immediately. Miller spent a year in Iran with his family, picking up Farsi after a few short months, and steadily gaining more and more of an appreciation for how deep the roots of Persian art run. However, still committed to his decision forge a career in jazz, Lloyd left Tehran in 1958 to head to Europe to see if he could make a living from jazz music. Miller kicked around the continent, first in Germany, then in Switzerland, Sweden and Brussels. He collaborated and performed alongside 60s jazz legend Jef Gilson, and experimented with exotic instrumentation before returning to America to resume his studies at Brigham Young University in Utah. In the years following his stint with Gilson, Miller had become more and more disillusioned with both modern music and modern society, which had ashewed jazz for rock music, which he detested. In Miller's conception, for a music to have value it had to have a deep connection to a tradition, specifically connecting jazz to African lore. To Miller, something like 'Tuareg African music is blues, just with no chord changes.' Oriental Jazz was recorded, compiled and self-released in 1968 while Miller was studying at Brigham Young. The record, originally pressed in a quantity of 300 copies, sought to combine a cool, modal style with the exotic arrays of instruments and styles that Miller had picked up during his travels. Miller included songs he'd cut with Gilson in his Parisian studio years before, and a solo piano piece that he recorded in one of the school's practice rooms. Despite Lloyd's professed aversion to modernity, there nevertheless is something strikingly new sounding about this music, which fits together in startling juxtapositions. Traces of Bill Evans, Stan Getz and Jimmy Giuffre rub shoulders with Persian santur, Arab oud and Turkish saz music. Copies of Oriental Jazz languished in Miller's home for years after numerous failed bids for record contracts, before finally ending up in the hands of record collectors decades later. After its release however, he would find a second life after returning to Iran, doing field recordings, and eventually hosting a weekly television show that programmed both American jazz and the best traditional Persian musicians he could find. It was not to last however, as he abruptly abandoned the country to return to the US in the late 1970s, predicting the arrival of the Islamic Revolution."

Raime explore exquisitely honed rhythmic instincts with scintillating results on the second release on their RR label. Where the London duo's 2018 EP and RR debut We Can't Be That Far From The Beginning (RR 001EP, 2018) evoked a meditative mood from the info overload of their home city that left acres of space to the imagination, the Planted EP rejoins the dance with four tracks that icily acknowledge strong influence from Latin American and Chicago footwork styles in a classically skooled mutation of hardcore British dance music. In four, fleetingly ambiguous dancefloor workouts they carry on a conceptual theme exploring the digital subconscious with persistently invasive, alien ambient shrapnel -- half-heard voices, aleatoric prangs, and tag-covered signposts -- woven into and through their tightly coiled and reflexive drum programming. Uptown, "Num" flexes tendons and hips like a Leonce riddim that danced all the way from NOLA and ATL to the wintery dawn of a LDN warehouse, while the lip-biting tension of minimalist 160bpm jungle/footwork patterns and jibber-jawed vocals in "Ripli" suggests the Alien film's protagonist lost in a mazy rave space, chased by H.R. Giger-designed face huggers (or gurning energy vampires). Downtown "Kella" then catches them on a grimy dub-tech bounce, cocked back and straining at the harness, before "Belly" shuts down the dance with invasive, demonic motifs exploding over dark blue chords, and palpitating jungle subs with impeccable darkside style. RIYL: Leonce, Kode 9, Demdike Stare, Lee Gamble. Edition of 500.

Mark Gergis is a producer, musician and audiovisual archivist known for his radio and video productions, recordings, and performances. His work has focused on regional folk-pop music from the Middle East and Southeast Asia, including choubi and dabke from Iraq and Syria. As an archivist, Gergis is currently working on the project Syrian Cassette Archives, for which he aims to restore, preserve, catalog and share his large collection of Syrian media from what can be called Syria's "cassette era" (1970s-2010). As an artist, under his name and others (Porest) he has released music on the Sublime Frequencies, Discrepant, and Nashazphone, to name just a few. It's a wonder that amongst this hectic schedule he still finds time to present us with a new (old) collection of early century recordings (1999-2013). Locational recordings, radio, and TV intercepts, cassette excerpts, environments, and street music all expertly all expertly meshed into a vivid sound journey from places that were (and might) never be again.

"4 Letter Word is Canadian artist Logan Sturrock's first EP for the label. It was put together in the first few months after his move to Berlin." --Resident Advisor

Landscapes is the latest release from prolific Yorkshire born composer and producer Kirk Barley (Bambooman). Across a tight 34-minute runtime, the album presents eleven short pieces that inhabit an exotic, other-worldly space of chiming guitars, buzzing insects, and squelching synth tones. Working with looped fragments of his own instrumental, electronic, and field-recorded sounds, Barley assembled the tracks from edited improvisations, some of them enriched with live drums from Matt Davies. Barley's skittering, off-kilter loops overlap freely, combining with meter-less, free-jazz-inspired drumming, and processed environmental field recordings to craft gently surging sonic environments. At once static and constantly shifting, the pieces unfold themselves like views of a landscape, where we take in individual details one at a time while always remaining aware of the whole. Deeply influenced by the "Fourth World" philosophies of trumpeter Jon Hassell, champion of a music bridging global traditions and contemporary technologies, Landscapes integrates electro-acoustic techniques with suggestions of a variety of non-western musical forms, from the pitched percussion effects of "Water Wheel" (calling to mind the incredible bamboo tube percussion of Solomon Islands music) to the stately Gamelan-esque procession of clanging metallic tones and deep, filtered synth chords that underlies the pop and crackle of fireworks on "Ark". Several pieces make use of a drifting pentatonic harmony that brings them close to the work of Japanese ambient pioneer Hiroshi Yoshimura, though Barley's productions are so rich in detail and surprise that they demand active listening. At other times, a distinctly English sensibility makes itself felt in the pastoral expanses of gently spaced chords and chiming guitar harmonics, calling up the delicate miniatures of Simon Fisher Turner and Colin Lloyd Tucker's cult Deux Filles project. Landscapes is an unassuming but powerful work that uses a rich array of details, materials, and techniques to conjure 11 snapshots of a unique sound world, one both comforting and disorienting. Recommended for anyone moved by the evocative sketches of Eno's Music for Films (1976), the fourth world fusion of Jon Hassell, the abstract explorations of the far-side of club music techniques of Giuseppe Ielasi/Inventing Masks or the tropical soundscapes of Lievens Martens/Dolphins Into The Future.

Art Yard present a reissue of Sun Ra's The Antique Blacks, originally released in 1974. The vitality you hear on The Antique Blacks is a testament to the unique energy of the community around The Foxhole Cafe in Philadelphia, as Ra honed his unique brand of Afro-futurism through the late '60s and '70s. Cosmic theater, spiritual chants, and experimental electronics make this record an essential document that was ahead of its time. Recorded as a radio broadcast in Philadelphia, according to Dale Williams, The Antique Blacks has a well-defined but oddball structure. Sun Ra was a master architect, very concerned to use the unfolding of an album, a broadcast, or a live performance to create a satisfying structure. "Song No. 1" is a lively, tonal introduction, featuring John Gilmore on tenor saxophone, Sun Ra on roksichord, Dale Williams, then aged 15, on guitar, and Akh Tal Ebah on trumpet. Sun Ra's poetry is featured on "There Is Change In The Air", a track which has on occasion been used for the album title: in its original incarnation as a Saturn LP, there was no dedicated sleeve artwork, and this record appeared under many names. Ra's poetry is allusive, elusive, and paradoxical, and this was its first major appearance on a record. During instrumental passages, Williams's guitar is heard, along with the saxophones of Marshall Allen and Danny Davis. The Antique Blacks is a similar setting for a Sun Ra poem, which encompasses "spiritual men", and Lucifer as a dark angel. The Arkestra is heard in conducted improvisational ensembles, in between the sections of the poem. "This Song Is Dedicated To Nature's God" has Arkestral vocals, with John Gilmore's voice in the foreground. Sun Ra's poetic declamations provide the structure for "The Ridiculous I" and "The Cosmos Me", which also has a fine unaccompanied tenor solo by John Gilmore, keyboard improvisations by Sun Ra, and closes with bass clarinet from Eloe Omoe. Sun Ra's keyboards are heard with minimal Arkestra support on "Would I For All That Were" -- a fine synthesizer improvisation, with electric piano left hand accompaniment. Tension is resolved by "Space Is The Place", which rounds the album out in an upbeat mood, with Akh Tal Ebah, James Jackson, and Sun Ra prominent among the vocalists. The closing section includes the chant Sun Ra And His Band From Outer Space, often used at the close of live performances.

2019 repress. LP reissue, in gatefold sleeve. "L'Incendie is the first collaboration between Areski and Brigitte Fontaine. It's an exceptional album for BYG records. In a perfect symbiosis with Brigitte Fontaine's magnificent voice and surrealist texts, Areski creates a minimalist 'ethno-folk acoustic universe.' In the uniquely French 'dark chanteuse' genre, this is a classic. Originally released in 1974."

2019 repress. Second volume in the BYG Actuel series; gatefold sleeve, 180 gram vinyl. "This album was recorded in Paris on June 23, 1969 during the Art Ensemble's initial days in France with just a quartet (Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Malachi Favors, and Joseph Jarman). A shockingly formalist album though far from conventional in any way."

Through the combined brilliant minds of Fabrice Lig, Kiko Navarro, Karim Sahraoui, and Jean Vanesse, the new musical force known as Quadra 163 has arrived. Working together in Jean Vanesse's Belgium studio, their debut EP, Spin Coaster, was born. Through intense live collaboration over three full days, the results are these incredible original tracks and a remix from the American house legend, Osunlade (Yoruba Records). Belgium's Elypsia Records have an absolutely essential release here for those looking for proper club weapons --each track dreamt up by a crew of producers with decades of critical acclaim and club credibility. Osunlade kicks off the release on A1 with his rework of "Spin Coaster". The remix is a late-night machine jam saturated with sharp synth textures and a shuffling rhythm which will lock the dancefloor tightly in place. A perfect blend between house and techno, it's a shining example of Osunlade's keen ability to capture imagination with function, tension with release. "Ghetto Beat" steps up as the A2, with a drum heavy cut full of off-kilter hits and tones which twist and turn in frequency and timbre. It's the type of track that will get the crowds cheering and jackin' and dancing without a break. A proper tool to slam into the set whenever energy levels need to lift higher and things need to get slightly twisted. Title track "Spin Coaster" sets up the B-side with a master session of primetime techno making magic. A playfully thick bassline resonates in and out of the analog rhythms while a synth tone builds tension over the track's entire duration. A few breaks for the clubbers to catch their breath are placed in the perfect spots -- but only for a brief moment before things kick back in. Rounding out the release is "Ghetto Train", an absolutely mental banger designed to melt the minds of those fortunate enough to be on the dancefloor when it's dropped. Relentless rhythms, huge hand claps and a sharp staccato shuffle drive the tune whilst synth stabs grow filthier with each passing phrase. Clearly the results of an insane studio session from the crew.

Typical for Ramleh as they stand now, both songs represent just two of the many sides they're now given to exploring. Bold, serious, playful and once again illustrating exactly how easily they straddle the line of being great musicians never afraid to turn that notion on its head by rising to new challenges, this single pays testament to their current upward curve. Green vinyl.

2019 repress; white vinyl. "In the 4 years after The Clipse dropped their sophomore classic Lord Willin' the duo was able to build a legacy that had fans hungry for new material. After the smoke cleared and they hit the studio the Virginia brothers recorded the confidently mature sophomore effort, Hell Hath No Fury. Best known for their unconventional radio smash 'Grindin',' Clipse are no strangers to taking risks with the boundary-pushing Neptunes, who return as trusted co-pilots for Hell Hath No Fury. As always the duo is right at home over The Neptunes crafted beats which perfectly embrace Pusha's inventive drug-game metaphors and Malice's soul-baring confessionals. Get On Down now proudly issues this Neptunes produced favorite on LP for the first timel."

Whistling Arrow is the debut collaboration between critically acclaimed composer and performer Laura Cannell, This Heat/Camberwell Now founder and seasoned composer/improviser Charles Hayward, multi-disciplinary musician Andre Bosman, and prepared guitar minimalists Ex-Easter Island Head. Brought together by a shared bill on Cannell's Arts Council-funded Modern Ritual tour, the six musicians convened for a single session in Liverpool's Parr Street Studios in 2017. Recording live in the room with few preconceptions and an appreciation of each other's work, the sextet improvised on violins, recorders, drums, piano, electronics, prepared guitars, percussion, and voice. The music of Whistling Arrow represents a deeply empathic meeting of unique musical voices: evoking a musical territory of the ancient and the modern, earthen, and concrete. Laura Cannell's over bow violins wring melodic fragments and modes into groaning chordal shapes, gut-strung, and rapturous; scraping the ground and circling treetops, birdcall double-recorders chirruping in concert. The mallet-struck guitars of Ex-Easter Island Head surge and drift against clouds of overtone-rich amplified strings, excited with motors, Allen keys, and bows, emerging like sun rays through the foliage. Andre Bosman's marshland electronics permeate with humid unease -- glinting metal half-buried, clandestine cabling in wild country. Charles Hayward's expressive command of rhythm and intricate percussive color moves the music forward in swung leaps and nimble left turns, rolling resonances pushing and pulling the formal anchor of Jonathan Hering's piano into tumultuous terrain and gleaming chord shapes. With sleeve notes by writer and comedian Stewart Lee name-checking Faust, Arvo Pärt, the Velvet Underground, and Hildegard Von Bingen as sonic touchstones, the music of Whistling Arrow draws upon the decades-worth of compositional/improvisational practice of the sextet.

Alice Coltrane, live at Carnegie Hall, New York on February 21st, 1971. On Sunday, February 21st, 1971, a benefit was held in New York's Carnegie Hall for Swami Satchidanda's Integral Yoga Institute, featuring Laura Nyro, the New Rascals, and Alice Coltrane's All-Stars. The latter band was a remarkable coming-together of talent, with Lady Trane joined by legends such as Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and Jimmy Garrison on stupendous form (with a little assistance from members of the Yoga Institute). The astounding performance of John Coltrane's "Africa" on this set, finds them improvising thrillingly. Includes the entire WQXR-FM broadcast, digitally remastered and accompanied by background notes and images. Also features: Kumar Kramer (harmonium), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Cecil McBee (bass), Clifford Jarvis (drums), and Ed Blackwell (drums). 10" record with insert.

"Recorded in 2000 with essentially the same team as Shades of Bey and River Man and a similar variety of tunes and textures. It includes covers of two Milton Nascimento classics ('Bridges' and 'Saidas e Bandeiras'), a cover of 'Fragile' (by Sting) and standards such as 'I'll Remember April', 'Just Friends' (with strings), 'Invitation' and 'Little Girl Blue', as well as the sultry original 'Tuesdays In Chinatown'. This is Andy Bey in fine form, and includes performances by Ron Carter, Geri Allen, Mino Cinelu and Steve Turre. First time on vinyl."

2019 repress. Mad About Records present a reissue of 1971 soft-core porn soundtrack Procura-Se Uma Virgem by prolific Brazilian composer Erlon Chaves. Working here with the Orquestra Saint Moritz, this is one of the most sought-after of Chaves's releases. This soundtrack was recorded for a Brazilian soft porn movie with killer organ funk instrumental tracks as well as several funky, erotic, and modal tracks, all arranged and directed by maestro Chaves. Deluxe packaging includes a thick card stock cover and obi strip.

The second album by this gifted British underground singer-songwriter Keith Christmas was originally released in October 1970. Featuring superb acoustic guitar from Christmas, as well as expert backing from members of Mighty Baby and a stunning duet with the enigmatic Shelagh McDonald, it's finally made available again here. 140 gram vinyl; in sleeve with insert.

"Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba's double-bill Lesotho concert was a daring, defiant and ultimately dazzling act. For the first time since its limited release in South Africa in 1981, Matsuli Music is proud to re-issue this gem of a pan-African, funk-infused, extended audio double album with unpublished photographs and new liner notes from Atiyyah Khan. The Christmas-weekend stadium-filled concert deeply challenged and disturbed South Africa's apartheid regime. Makeba and Masekela were banned from entering South Africa, yet tens of thousands of their South African fans invaded Lesotho to party with their musical heroes. Live in Lesotho documents an inspired Hugh Masekela and his stellar New York band putting a new spin on crowd favourites. Another South African jazz gem from Matsuli Music's growing catalogue of essential high-quality reissues. For an artist as prolific and famous as Hugh Masekela, it is a real surprise that this particular recording took so long to resurface."

In 1980, Dutch outfit Renée came out with the album Reaching For The Sky. It's made of delicate pop-songs, with lovely little hooks and ice-cold guitars. From songs that sounds almost ABBA, to more Reggae-sounding stuff, and avant pop. In the middle of it all you'll find Anja Nodelijks hypnotic voice. The albums highlight is the song "Change Your Style", already a semi-classic on the Balearic scene. The song can probably be described as "wonky pop funk", with a twist. On the A-side you get the original. On the B-side Prins Thomas has stretched the greater parts, giving the song the length it probably deserves. Almost six minutes of bliss. Renée's "Change Your Style" is the second release by Norwegian label Neppå. This piece of music has never been presented like this before, with the song cut over a whole side of 12" vinyl. The music is remastered, and licensed from CNR entertainment. Second release for Neppå, the Oslo-based label focusing on lost and overseen recordings.

"I could play the guitar, but I was pretty useless at it. We had an old amplifier that distorted everything, but we thought we were cool!"--Johnny Chester

The world down under produced some of the most ferocious and provocative sounds to have emerged from planet earth in the 1960s. Crammed full of fuzz, distortion, feedback and wild dementia, this menacing and uncompromising sound was the precursor to punk rock as we know it.Particles presents the evil twin to Buried Alive!!... The long-awaited sequel to the original groundbreaking box set boasts an incendiary collection of non-stop amphetamine fury! Jammed tight with the most venomous, vile and repulsive '60s trash ever put together. Definitely not for the faint-hearted! This second and final instalment of the landmark six-disc box-set edition culls together another 150 long lost sounds of toxic, teenage rebellion from Australasia. Includes rare and previously unreleased material. Caution: Things sure get ugly! 6CD box set with 80-page, full-color, perfect bound booklet.

Features The Breakaways, Barrington Davis, Russ Kruger, The Marksmen, The Blue Beats, The Fabulous Blue Jays, The Showmen, The Lost Souls, The Librettos, The Others, The Sunsets, The Rayders, Tony Worsley & The Blue Jays, The Morloch, Ward Austin With Python Lee Jackson, The Pink Finks, Laurie Wade's Cavaliers, The Bluestars, Johnny Chester, Toni McCann & The Blue Jays, The Moods, The Clique, Marty Rhone And The Soul Agents, The Feel Goods, The Groop, Machine Gun Kelly's Rejects, Tom Thumb, The Purple Hearts, The Birds, The Missing Links, Wee Hike, Blues Rags 'N' Hollers, The La De Da's, The Twilights, The Pleazers, The Clefs, Five Sided Circle, Bobby & Laurie, Normie Rowe & The Playboys, Chants R&B, The Loved Ones, Tony Barber, The Down And Out, The Spinning Wheels, Roland Storm, Donnie Sutherland & The Titans, The Easybeats, The Kravats, The Vacant Lot, The Bitter End, Larry's Rebels, The Pleasers, The Chicks, Colin Buckley, Judge Wayne & The Convicts, Blues Syndicate, The Chimney Sweeps, The Cherokees, Russ Kennedy And The Little Wheels, Grim Ltd., The Rondells, Johnny Cooper, Dene Hunter, The Selected Few, Ray Brown & The Whispers, The Phantoms, The Syssys, Colin Cook, Bobbie Thomas & The Beaumen, Running Jumping Standing Still, The Reins, Hubb Kapp & The Wheels, The Throb, Southern Gentlemen, Graeme Chapman, The No Names, Johnny K., The Leprechauns, The Cult, The Elois, MPD Limited, The Second Thoughts, Peter Nelson & The Castaways, The Jackson Kings, Wild Colonials, The Crests, The Movement, The Black Diamonds, Mike Furber & The Bowery Boys, The Blackout, Merv Benton, The Lincolns, The London Criers, Freddie Cook & The D-Men, The Pacifics, The Bentbeaks, Gemini Five, The Last Straws, The Kinetics, Richard Wright Group, The Soundelles, The Pogs, Third Party, The Deakins, Phil Jones & The Unknown Blues, Vyt & The World, The ID, The Questions, Python Lee Jackson, Glen Ingram With The Clan, The Flamingoes, The Escorts, Normie Rowe, The Mystics, Jeff St. John & The ID, The Atlantics, Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, Vince Maloney, Glen Ingram, and Bobbie Thomas & The Whispers.

"Meditations is two long-form episodic ambient pieces performed with a reduced palette of kalimba, treated guitar, wavetable & analogue synths and hardware effects; recorded in London with Andy Ramsay of Stereolab. Conceived as a companion to Ultramarine's acclaimed seventh album Signals Into Space (2019), Meditations was originally issued by Les Disques du Crépuscule as a limited edition CD and is now available for the first time on vinyl via Real Soon."

Limited box edition. "Limited gold vinyl, limited picture vinyl with unreleased bonus material, CD, 2 postcards, two posters, gold pendant with bag, insert with liner notes by Bobby Beausoleil. Limited 149 copies."

Touch Sensitive Records present their third release with Ivor Novello and BAFTA Award-winning modern master of the soundtrack, David Holmes, working in collaboration with composer Brian Irvine. Set in Northern Ireland, directed by Holmes's longtime friends Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D'Sa (Good Vibrations (2012), Cherrybomb (2009)), and written by legendary Irish playwright Owen McCafferty (whom Holmes has known for forty years), the film tells the extraordinary story of Tom (Liam Neeson) and Joan (Lesley Manville) -- their life and love as they enter the uncertainty and upset of Joan's cancer diagnosis. In a career rich in highly personal work, Ordinary Love is up there with the most affecting in Holmes's canon. Recorded between Abbey Road and Holmes's own Drama Studio, the soundtrack features input from some of his most trusted collaborators. Holmes states: "I worked on the score with Brian Irvine. He is a longtime friend and the first person I ever had studio experience with 27 years ago. It felt important to work with Brian on this as his father (Ronnie), Owen's father (Gerry) and my father (Jackie) -- all now deceased -- were great friends through a shared love of Point-to-Point horse racing and their work as bookmakers." With contributions from Holmes's bandmates, Jade Vincent and Keefus Ciancia, who comprise the trio Unloved. Vincent provides a stand-out performance -- lending her haunting and smoky vocals to the album's centerpiece and final track -- "Isn't It So". The score to Ordinary Love wasn't inspired by any other soundtrack or even musical composition but by a mathematical theory called The Game of Life. Devised by mathematician John Conway in 1970, The Game of Life consists of a collection of cells which, based on a few mathematical rules, can live, die or multiply as the cells form various patterns throughout the course of the game. "Because of the nature of the story, this really spoke to Brian and I in a musical sense and we started to create the score with the notion that the notes in each cue resembled human cells, living and dying as Joan's journey with cancer unfolded." The score uses gentle rhythms and repetition to underline the comfort and balance in Tom and Joan's routine -- even though a potentially life-changing event looms over them. The score grounds the listener whilst providing an almost dreamlike blank canvas in which to live and to love.