2019 repress. Radio Martiko present a reissue of Abdou El Omari's Nuits D'été, originally released in Morocco in 1976. Reissue of this ultra-rare oriental psych monster from the organ king of Casablanca, combining traditional rhythms with spaced-out modern sounds. First part of Abdou El Omari's Nuits trilogy. Includes download code.

Restocked, last copies. French music, art, and publishing imprint Shelter Press release another chapter of its on-going documentation of the work of Gisèle Vienne. The Pyre: Versions Distilled To Stereo is the score composed and recorded by KTL (Stephen O'Malley and Peter Rehberg) for the dance piece "The Pyre", written and directed by Gisèle Vienne. The music created by KTL incorporates invisible and absent elements -- ghosts, one might say. It proceeds from simulated diegetic sounds (which are part of the action) interwoven with real sounds -- a musical creation that makes up an extra-diegetic sound score. This composition dizzyingly sculpts the space on stage and generates an impression of great spatial depth, which activates light-sculptures that in turn evoke the illusion of a tunnel, whose depth also results in a play of reflections. Through these different media, the aim is to develop and shatter -- without looking to resolve -- the exceptional intensity that can arise from the dialectical tension between presence and absence, as well as from the characters that are seeking flight. The music, originally performed on a multi-channel spatialized soundsystem has been distilled to this stereo version for home use, half-speed mastered and cut by Matt Colton. This record announces -- and is one chapter -- in the forthcoming release of the first monograph dedicated to the work of French choreographer Gisèle Vienne and documented by French photographer Estelle Hanania. This book -- is one of Shelter Press' most ambitious to date, catalog number 100 -- will be released in Spring 2019. Text and voice by Dennis Cooper. Photographs by Estelle Hanania; Design by Bartolomé Sanson. Printed innersleeves; Includes download card; First edition of 700 on clear green wax.

Restocked; gatefold double LP version. This version is unmixed. Arguably one of the world's most important underground dance music producer/DJs Theo Parrish lends his hands to selecting and mixing a set of jazz and funk records licensed from and originally released on the Black Jazz label 1971-1976. World-renowned for his DJ sets and remixes/productions, this Chicago-raised artist is near impossible to pigeonhole. Revered by a wide spectrum of dedicated music fanatics, he is known for his otherworldly DJ sets, and his serious approach to DJing as an art form. Theo gives special attention to fellow Chicago musicians The Awakening (three consecutive tracks, four total on the mix), one of the best funk/fusion groups that the Black Jazz label released, and whose only output was on that label. The set itself is a masterful "two turntables all vinyl" execution, a format that Theo is dedicated to -- no mp3, no CD-R, just the vinyl palette for the true aural experience. Sit back and be drawn into his world -- hear things his way. Other artists include: Doug Carn, Gene Russell, Calvin Keys, Rudolph Johnson, and Walter Bishop Jr.

Studio Mule presents a reissue of King Kong Paradise's Atsusa Mo Samusamo..., originally released in 1984 on Johnny's Disk. Johnny's Disk was an independent jazz label run by the owner of jazz cafe Kaiunbashi No Johnny located in Rikuzentakata City in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. The legendary label released a string of albums of high quality but down-to-earth music, spanning modern jazz, avant-garde jazz, and left-field pop. Albums such as Teru Sakamoto's Farewell My Johnny/Left Alone and Eiji Nakayama's Aya's Samba (STUDIOMUL 013LP, 2019) have reached cult status among fans as some of the best works to come out of the Japanese jazz scene. Following a cult classic jazz fusion album on Bourbon Records, King Kong Paradise delivered Atsusa Mo Samusamo... an album of alternative, left-field Balearic rock that was way ahead of its time. An anomaly that sticks out in the Johnny's Disk's catalog, this rare record may appeal more to new wave, reggae and rock fans than jazz heads; in fact, one might not be surprised if people like DJ Harvey or Theo Parrish dropped this oddity in their sets. If one digs the kind of weirdness that's being reissued by Music From Memory, one might find this record intriguing.

Repressed; Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Sun Ra Discipline 27-II, originally released on El Saturn Records in 1973. Arguably the last great original-era Saturn LP to be reissued on CD, Discipline 27-II has long deserved to be more familiar to Sun Ra fans and layfolk alike. Recorded during the same sessions in 1972 at Chicago's Streeterville Studios that produced Ra's most popular and best-known record, Space Is The Place (1973), it's got much the same vibe, from the 24-minute four-part suite of the title track -- an important conducted piece that Ra performed frequently in these years -- to the opening cut, "Pan Afro", with John Gilmore's sensational tenor work. Sporting a percussion-rich 18-piece Arkestra, the music can be thick, voluble, and dense or it can winnow down to a small group, as on the delightful track "Neptune", a vehicle for June Tyson's singing and the site of the indelible Sun Ra space chant: "Have you heard the latest news from Neptune, Neptune, Neptune?" This marks the first time Discipline 27-II has been reissued on CD. It has been remastered from the original tapes, includes a never published period photo of Ra by Charles Shabacon, and ends with an explosive bonus track from the same session, showing quite a different side of the same ensemble. Personnel: Sun Ra - electronic keyboard space age instruments, Moog synthesizer, vocals; John Gilmore - tenor saxophone, percussion, vocals; Marshall Allen - alto saxophone, flute; Danny Davis - alto saxophone, flute; Pat Patrick - baritone saxophone, bass; Danny Thompson - baritone saxophone, flute; Eloe Omoe - bass clarinet, flute; Akh Tal Ebah - trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals; Lamont Kwamie McClamb - trumpet, percussion; Russell Branch - percussion, congas; Stanley Morgan - percussion, congas; with Alzo Wright, Harry Richards, Lex Humphries, Robert Underwood on drums and vocals by June Tyson, Cheryl Banks, Judith Holton, and Ruth Wright. Cover art by LeRoy Butler; cover design by Alton Abraham. Recorded by Ed Michel at Streeterville Studios, Chicago, October, 1972; LP produced by Alton Abraham for Infinity Inc.

Restocked; Double-LP version. 180 gram vinyl; gatefold sleeve. The series continues! He was one of the greatest blues musicians, who died too early: James Booker. This concert from 1976 shows Booker on one of his best performances ever. James C. Booker's performance was exceptionally marvelous and just what blues should be all about. All the talk about his problems and the creation of legends which immediately started after his early death in 1983 (in the waiting room of a rehabilitation clinic), seemed so unimportant and irrelevant that day, just as irrelevant as the timetable of the Hamburg metro; because it does not matter if the last train has already departed (as on that particular evening) with an artist performing many of his own creations but also several blues-classics with so much devotion while being deeply rooted in the spiritual soil of this special city located between Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain. Recorded October 27, 1976 at Onkel Pö's Carnegie Hall, Hamburg, Germany; Recorded by NDR Hamburg. Features extended liner notes in English and German by Michael Laages.

2019 repress. LP version with a 12-page full-color booklet with extensive notes and unseen photos. "With only six singles released between 1965 and 1966, and from an apparently remote place such as Lima, Peru, Los Saicos created a raw, wild and visceral sound, the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the garage rock that was coming out of the U.S. Northwest at the same time. Theirs is the same DNA shared by The Sonics, The Cramps and Black Lips. This release compiles all their recordings and tells their amazing story. This snarling maelstrom of nihilism was cut in Lima when the rest of the world was wetting itself over The Beatles, direct links to both The Stooges and The Cramps here and several more equally-enthralling combos. The latter spawned several generations of individuals who would dig deep to previously (mostly) unheard seams of music and other forms of culture that have since become part of the mainstream fabric. Another strong case of the same kind of happenstance to my mind is that which preceded the much-vaunted 'punk' explosion of the '70s." --Lindsay Hutton

Restocked. "This three-disc set marks the first appearance on disc of the music of the African-American composer Julius Eastman (1940-1990), who died fourteen years ago under unexplained circumstances and whose musical legacy was thought lost. This comprehensive and definitive document, which comprises almost all of Eastman's signature works, will undoubtedly be a revelation for those who have thus far been unable to hear his work. In his book American Music in the Twentieth Century, composer/author Kyle Gann briefly sums up Eastman's work and its importance: 'Born in New York, he graduated from the Curtis Institute in composition and was discovered by Lukas Foss, who conducted his music, including Stay On It (1973), one of the first works to introduce pop tonal progressions and free improvisation in an art context... Applying minimalism's additive process to the building of sections, he developed a composing technique he called 'organic music,' a cumulatively overlapping process in which each section of a work contains, simultaneously, all the sections which preceded it. The pieces he wrote in this style often had intentionally provocative titles intended to reinterpret the minorities Eastman belonged to in a positive light: for example, Evil Nigger, Crazy Nigger, and Gay Guerrilla (all circa 1980). These three pieces, all scored for multiple pianos, build up immense emotive power through the incessant repetition of rhythmic figures.' Eastman was an energizing underground figure, one whose forms are clear, whose methods were powerful and persuasive, and whose thinking was supremely musical. His works show different routes minimalism might have taken, and perhaps some of those will now be followed up. This set of discs is a bold beginning to restoring to history the works of one of the most important members of the first post-minimalist generation."

Souma Records present a vinyl reissue of Om Kalsoum's Alf Leila Wa Leila, originally released in 1969. They call her "The Rose of the Nile", "The Queen of the Nile", "The Daughter of the Nile", or even "The 4th Pyramid of Egypt" since she's known as the greatest Egyptian singer of all times. Om Kalsoum's mythical life story of a poor peasant girl who grew up to become the face of Egypt is a 20th-century fairytale. Almost half a decade after her death the power of her music and singing is still moving the hearts of millions of people worldwide. At the end of her overwhelming career she was introduced to the young but brilliant composer Baligh Hamdy who wrote this 30-minute lasting monument for her in 1969. In the footsteps of Mohamed Abdel Wahab, the godfather of Egyptian modern music, Baligh Hamdy refreshed the classical Egyptian orchestra sound with the addition of stylish instruments like electric guitar (Omar Khorshid), organ (Hany Mehanna), accordion, and horns that were adapted to the eastern tonal system. The studio version of this immortal "Alf Leila We Leila" must undeniably be archived under the best recordings ever made in music history. A Radio Martiko product.

Wire Recorded Pieces: Precocious Noise and Early Electronica Pt. 2 is a compilation for those who are not familiar with the fascinating world of primal electronica, noise, sound design, industrial, avant-garde, tape-music, etc. This set hopes to be the gateway to a completely new revolutionary sound experience, proving what John Cage predicted in the 1930s: "'I believe the use of noise to make music will continue and increase until we reach a music produced through the aid of electrical instruments which will make available for musical purposes any and all sounds that can be heard." Including a track recorded in 1921, almost a hundred years ago, and ending in the early 1960s, this selection includes artists of very different nationalities such as Egypt, USA, Hungary, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden, France, and even the USSR. It represents everything new and revolutionary that we have come to expect since the beginning of the postmodern era. These are relics with much to say to the contemporary listener as they sound impossibly way ahead of their and our time(s). Revolutionary since much of the included material did and still does push the very definition of what music is. Here are demonstrations of techniques and sound systems that shaped modern music as we know it today. These are the first examples ever to loop a track, play it in reverse or use a host of other effects which are all so common tools for musicians of today. Songs are sequenced to give a coherent and surprisingly easy way to enjoy and appreciate this music field that can be baffling -- in order to give the listener some of the most multilayered (in every sense of the word) experience. Thanks to 21st century advance techniques, every track here has a low noise floor, which has been achieved without the loss of palpability or dynamic range. These recordings sound fantastic: fresh, jarring, groundbreaking and adventurous. Features Johanna M. Beyer, Bengt Hambraeus, Franco Evangelisti, Remi Gassmanny, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Halim El-Dabh, Pierre Henry, Else Marie Pade, Herbert Eimert, The Blue Men, György Ligeti, Giselher Klebe, and Velimir Khlebnikov. Fully remastered; Audiophile transparent clear vinyl; Includes CD. File Under: precocious noise/early electronica.

2019 black vinyl repress, Originally released in 1996 and now reissued on A Recordings, Anton Newcombe's own record label. Released on 180 gram black vinyl. Taken from the original vinyl release with the original tracks & re-cut at Abbey Road.

LP version. 180 gram, clear vinyl; superb deluxe packaging. The Brian Jonestown Massacre burst into 2019 with the release of their 18th full-length album, just seven months after their last one, Something Else (AUK 043CD/LP). The self-titled, nine-track album is released on Anton Newcombe's A Recordings, and it was recorded and produced at Anton's Cobra Studio in Berlin. The album was originally going to be released in September of 2018, but due to a hugely successful global tour -- taking in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe -- the release was delayed. Recorded in early 2018, the album features Sara Neidorf on drums, Heike Marie Radeker (LeVent) on bass, Hakon Adalsteinsson (BJM, Third Sound, Gunman, Holy Ghost) on guitar, and Anton Newcombe on multiple instruments. Also making a guest vocal appearance on "Tombes Oubliées" is Rike Bienert who has sung on previous BJM albums. The band performed songs from the album throughout the European leg of the 2018 tour. Anton Newcombe has been a very busy man over the past few years, having released four critically-acclaimed Brian Jonestown Massacre albums and an EP, one soundtrack album, and two albums with Tess Parks. All releases were fully recorded and produced at Anton's studio. The Brian Jonestown Massacre track "Bon Bon" was used in the 2015 Palm D'Or winner Dheepan. Anton penned the soundtrack for Moon Dogs, a film directed by multi-BAFTA nominated Philip John (Svengali, Downton Abbey, Being Human).

Beacon Sound presents a first-time collaboration between Thomas Meluch (aka Benoit Pioulard) and Sean Curtis Patrick, entitled Avocationals. Over the course of nine songs the two use synthesizers, reel-to-reel tape machines, field recordings, guitar, and processed voice to conjure the ghosts of 20th century Great Lakes shipwrecks. From the muffled thumping of "Stonefax", which might bring to mind the cracking and bowing of a ship on its way to the lake bottom, to the pulsating vocal drone that guides "Sunek", evoking peril and loss, each of these songs brings to mind the final moments of doomed seafarers and their cargo-laden ships, the disintegration of hubris, the fraying of memory. By the time "Cabot" rolls around, like a lonely fog horn crossing the waves on a stormy night, the effect is of watching a decaying film loop that is somehow not only representative of a distant past but also of what perhaps lies ahead. Wintery, yet humming throughout with a narcotic warmth, Avocationals will pull you underwater and submerge you in the murky depths of a lost world. As the artists themselves write, "An avocational is an amateur diver who assists in rescue, investigation and salvage relating to watercraft disasters. Dozens of freighters and small sank during the mid-20th century golden age of shipping on the Great Lakes; this album is about nine of them." Sean Curtis Patrick is a visual artist, photographer, adventurer, and musician. He has created art, design, and music videos for artists like Alessandro Cortini, Benoit Pioulard, Bana Haffar, Richard Devine, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Rafael Anton lrisarri, and many others. ln 2018, Sean directed and sound tracked a documentary about the devastation of the island of Puerto Rico after the hurricanes of 2017. He is an alumnus of the Banff Centre Musicians in Residence program and debuted new solo material on a Japanese tour in late 2018. Sean has released albums on Day Dot, Beacon Sound, and Muzan Editions. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Benoit Pioulard weaves natural sounds and textures of decay into his vague-pop songs, colored with the lushness and unpredictability of field recordings. His numerous albums for Kranky, Beacon Sound, and Morr Music document an evolving relationship with guitar, voice, and frayed layers of fidelity, alternately melodic, muted, and diffuse. He resides in Seattle, Washington. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll. Includes download card and insert; Edition of 300.

Double LP-version. 180 gram vinyl; Gatefold sleeve; Includes booklet and download. Ambient/traditional flute music from Japanese shakuhachi Master, Teruhisa Fukuda. The shakuhachi is an end-blown bamboo flute with one dorsal and four frontal holes and a beveled notch as mouthpiece. There are two elements in the name of the instrument: shaku refers to an ancient measurement which is the equivalent of 30,3 cm; hachi means eight. Originally, shakuhachi thus refers to a flute that measures 1,8 shaku, that is, 54,5 cm. For this release, Master Fukuda chose a series of seven pieces from a repertoire dating back to the seventeenth century. These were originally performed by monks belonging to the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism, who viewed their instrument as means for meditation. The seven pieces are destined to be played solo, in the spirit of Zen. Teruhisa Fukuda (b. 1949) is an eminent artist who has explored a vast range of musical techniques from, both, traditional and contemporary music.

Due to overwhelming demand for Jazzman Records' five-LP boxset, here are the first ever official individual reissues of all five of the iconic Lansdowne recording sessions by the legendary UK jazz combo, the Don Rendell-Ian Carr Quintet. The five albums; 1965's Shades Of Blues, 1966's Dusk Fire (JMAN 108X-LP), 1968's Phase III (JMAN 109X-LP), 1969's Change Is (JMAN 111X-LP), and 1969's Live (JMAN 110X-LP), have reached almost mythical status in the collector's world. Regarded as holy grail artifacts for even the seasoned aficionado, the collective second-hand market value comes to an astonishing £6000. Jazzman Records located and acquired the original analog master tapes from the Universal vaults and created masters at Abbey Road Studios to produce audiophile quality 180 gram pressings replete with replica artwork -- shape, design, and even paper stock. No stone has been left unturned to deliver this absolute labor of love to the highest possible standard. Inside is a link to a printable online pdf which contains never before seen photographs, interviews with the remaining living band members and liner notes from BBC Radio 3 presenter, and award-winning jazz writer Alyn Shipton. The band played together for seven years and during this fruitful time they made a plethora of deeply melodic, post-bop British jazz compositions that later on took influences from Indo and more spiritually guided jazz. Produced by the influential Denis Preston and recorded at his Lansdowne Studios in London, the band was primarily made up of saxophonist Don Rendell, trumpeter/composer Ian Carr, and pianist/composer Michael Garrick. This is UK jazz at its absolute finest and is a treasure not to be missed. Original replica flipback color sleeves; 180 gram vinyl, mastered from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios, London; poly-lined and printed individual inner sleeves; contains link to online PDF with printable liner notes.

Low Distance is Deaf Center's third full-length studio album and perhaps the most focused effort by the Norwegian duo to date. After their last record Owl Splinters (2011), which was quite an eclectic endeavor, Erik K Skodvin and Otto A Totland draw their sound back into something quieter and more minimal. The record starts with a piece of sweeping analog electronics. It's a spacious, yet dynamic opener that leads directly into the static tones and piano motifs of "Entity Voice", which balances a new sense of abstraction with the classic Deaf Center sound. It´s warm and close while sounding like it's set in the outer horizon. Overall, Low Distance feels both alien and familiar with its atonal synths, close pianos, and drowned-out noises. After meeting in studio for the first time since 2011, the recordings came out of a three-day session in 2017. It was then mixed at both EMS Stockholm and at Erik's home studio over a longer period to create a blend of deeply layered as well as stripped-down pieces. Both Erik and Otto have been active individually since their last meeting as Deaf Center: Otto has released two solo piano albums, while Erik has furthered his descent into musical abstraction both under his own name and as Svarte Greiner. It's long overdue to hear them connect their personalities into something new. Low Distance is a welcome return replete with beauty, mystery, and uncertainty. Full tone cover artwork; Includes printed inner sleeve. Includes download code.

Dexter Story is an artistic spirit in the truest sense of the phrase. From his work as a multi-instrumentalist for acts like the Sa-Ra Creative Partners, to his management role with Snoop Dogg and his turn producing Daymé Arocena's 2017 album Cubafonia, Story understands the business from every conceivable angle. Initially inspired by the music and cultures pervasive throughout the Horn of Africa, Story translated his experiences there into his previous album Wondem (SNDW 076CD/LP, 2015), followed closely by the single "Wejene Aola" featuring jazz luminary Kamasi Washington (SNDW 7022EP), both on Soundway Records. If Wondem was a brief glance into Story's new creative vision, Bahir is a pinpoint refinement of that purpose, the fine-tuning and expanding of the world he created on his Soundway debut. On Bahir, Story steps in front of those influences and melds his world into the one he fell in love with so strongly while in Africa. One way in which he's done so is by incorporating musicians from both sides of this coin. LA luminaries are featured throughout, as are African contemporaries he encountered throughout his travels. Sudan Archives gives a show-stealing vocal performance on "Gold", while the Ethiopian producer Endeguena Mulu adds impenetrable and psychedelic texture to the album's title track. So Bahir finds the polymath musician not stuck between two worlds, but as a member of both. We get Ethiopian jazz tonalities, Tuareg grooves, ekista dance rhythms, Afro-funk, Somalian soul, and forays into more contemporary jazz rhythms, too. Angelenos like Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Josef Leimberg give the record its backbone, while African artists like the Ethiopian singer Hamelmal Abate give Bahir its glimmer and shine. Also features Kibrom Birhane, Jimetta Rose, Haile Supreme, and Marie Daulne. For fans of: Sudan Archives, Kamasi Washington, Laraaji, Carlos Niño, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Zap Mama, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Josef Leimberg.

A Handful of Dust was founded over three decades ago by two giants of the New Zealand underground, Bruce Russell (The Dead C) and Alastair Galbraith. Declaring their raison d'être in the now infamous Free Noise Manifesto the group has advanced a radical aesthetic; rejecting any notion of structure or comfort they've ground music to its sub-elemental parts. A scraping and howling electricity, spontaneous, unrestrained, physical. Contains expanded and unreleased works spanning the group's history including their first studio recordings since 1995 and new writings, a late coda to The Journal of Vain Erudition, Logopandocy. Includes download. Deluxe 2LP Edition - contains expanded and unreleased works spanning the group's history including their first studio recordings since 1995.

2019 repress. Ennio Morricone's legendary soundtrack for the 1968 film Il grande silenzio (The Great Silence), directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski. This melancholic, emotive score, deeply moving and as cold as the snow-covered landscape of the film (an unusual stylistic choice for a Western), is considered one of the best Western works by Morricone since his collaborations with Sergio Leone for the classic Dollars Trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West. First vinyl reissue. Double-colored vinyl.

Nexx grime mutant Logos checks the electric blue pulse of UK hardcore music on Imperial Flood, the stunning follow-up to his pivotal underground grime/electronica classic, Cold Mission (LDN 042CD/LP, 2013). Setting a new high-water mark for UK dance-related albums, Imperial Flood stakes a claim for Logos as a key dramaturgist of all things darkside, techy and schooled in the hardcore continuum. Where his debut album highlighted links between '90s Metalheadz D&B, Wiley's Devil mixes, and contemporary sci-fi cinema on its deliciously noirish soundstage, with Imperial Flood he expands that aesthetic in widescreen plasma HD. Pulling in broader influences from acid and dub techno, experimental computer music, D&B minimalism and the speculative literature of Jeff VanderMeer, Christopher Priest, Lando, and JG Ballard, the results vividly speak to the idea of a UK sound as a product of its brutalist, paranoid environment. Arriving ten years after his debut 12", and five after his seminal debut album, Imperial Flood comes after a significant period of creativity for Logos. Over the latter half of this decade he's been instrumental in new grime movements, co-running London's acclaimed club night, Boxed, whilst also diversifying his bonds with Mumdance and Shapednoise as part of improvising noise trio The Sprawl and most importantly with Different Circles; a label/club night catalyst responsible for boundary-pushing dances and a number of cult releases from Airhead, Rabit, Szare and Raime, not to mention his own EPs with Mumdance. It's not difficult to hear how this activity has fed Imperial Flood. From the bullet- time Matrix-style intro of "Arrival (T2 Mix)" through the hair-kissing weightless rave sensation of "Weather System Over Plaistow", he sucks listeners into a soundworld made all the more visceral and real through his exacting production, morphing from the sentinel-bot growls of "Marsh Lantern" to lush viscous/arid acid ambience in "Flash Forward (Ambi Mix)", and Dynamo-style dub on "Lighthouse Dub", before tagging in Mumdance on "Zoned In", and freezing the dance with commanding force on "Stentorian". Ultimately there's no shortage of imitators for this style, but Logos' combination of dedication to his craft and unique grasp of narrative places Imperial Flood in a rare echelon of UK music shared only by the likes of Burial and Raime. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. RIYL: Burial, Raime, Stingray, T++, Rabit, Mumdance.

Environment is My Disco's uncompromising album of avant-industrial and synth despair for their staunch allies at Downwards. It was written and recorded during winter in Berlin, 2018, in a studio previously used by Einstürzende Neubauten, Keiji Haino, and Pan Sonic, and channels those heroes' uncompromising aesthetics into a radical departure from the band's previous releases, leaving behind gnashing guitars, cold metallic percussion, and gloomy pads reverberating in derelict, factory-like space. Gutting out the driving, math-y repetition of their prized early work (2010's Steve Albini-produced Young/You (PTYT 053CD, 2010) is a favorite of Karl O'Connor/Regis), the Melbourne-based trio now recall the ungodly offspring of Raime and Swans, operating with an increased appreciation of space, rhythm, and tone that will shock even the hardest to please explorers of avant-rock and industrial fault lines. In no uncertain terms, its eight tracks plumb the depths of a foul mood, strafing thru a series of antechamber-like stations like some inelegant beast encumbered with clanking manacles and ankle restraints. Thanks to the visceral, vivid nature of the recording and production, the devil lies in the synaesthetic sonic/visual detail, riddling a mostly wordless narrative that perfectly says it without saying it. Biting down first with the jagged metallic klang and gnawing drones of "An Intimate Conflict", the album continues to fetishize both bleeding-raw and cinematic themes through the torture chamber ambience of "Exercise In Sacrifice", and the red-lining tone poem "Act", leading into belly of the beast bass growls on "Rival Colour", before the dissonant, keening might of "No Permanence" calves off into a closer to end all closers, with the band's Cornell Wilczek feeding Buchla Easel tones into the empty tank strikes and fetid atmosphere of "Forever" with a febrile effect worthy of Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement. By any measure, Environment is one of Downwards' most singular albums, and a must-check for disciples of proper, unheimlich sonics. Mastered and cut to vinyl at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Edition of 500.

Twenty years ago, Jan Jelinek's debut album Personal Rock was released by Source Records (1999). Under the pseudonym Gramm, it brings together eight tracks that have not been available on vinyl since their original release. Faitiche presents the re-release of the album: Personal Rock will appear as a double-LP, featuring the original cover artwork. Includes download code.

What people wrote about Personal Rock two decades ago:

"Situated somewhere between Jelinek's much loved Loop-Finding Jazz Records, Farben, Move D's Conjoint project and Atom Heart's most immersive work for Rather Interesting, it's a late night album full of subtle production tricks and melodic house structures that belong to the pre-millennial IDM heyday, but which transcend its overly-masculine templates." --Boomkat

"A serene little masterpiece." --De:Bug

"Though many producers have pushed forward the clicks-and-cuts style of experimental ambience developed by German experimentalists Oval (among others), few have been able to match their knack for making abstract cuts into pieces of undeniable beauty. Jan Jelinek's first LP as Gramm is one of the precious few, and it's obvious from the opener." --AllMusic

"Organized in organic structures and minimal movements, the tracks get into utopian states and super-desirable moods, offering superior contentedness and dependable taste of the kind seldom sustained for a whole album. (...) Subway-Escalator-Soul." --Spex

Faitiche releases a new collaboration between the Japanese sound artist Asuna and Jan Jelinek: the album Signals Bulletin brings together joint improvisations and compositions made over a period of three years in Berlin, Kyoto, and Kanazawa. Asuna's meandering organ drones merge with Jelinek's pulsating synthesizer and field recording loops to create dense superclusters that span broad harmonic arcs. Includes download code.

Jan Jelinek on the album (Berlin, 2018): "Watching the Japanese sound artist Asuna playing the organ, some people might be surprised. Asuna is no virtuoso flying over the keyboard in a rage. Instead, with the calm gestures of an office worker, he cuts strips of adhesive tape to the correct length before sticking them onto the keys of his instrument. In this way, large clusters of keys are held down, creating a dense and sustained range of frequencies, while the sound artist continually prepares further sets of keys or removes tape again. I have rarely seen a more convincing performance concept, with such a power to fascinate. I first met Asuna when we both gave a concert at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, his home city. He performed the organ drones as described above and I immediately knew I wanted to collaborate with him. Six years and five meetings later, we completed Signals Bulletin. The album includes both joint improvisations and compositions, recorded in Berlin, Kanazawa and Kyoto. Whether using prepared organ, Casio keyboards, or mechanical plastic toys, Asuna creates rich textures of sound that barely change over long stretches of time. It is a music without breaks. For a while, I was unsure how my loops made using modular synthesizers and live sampling fitted here -- until I realized the role I had to take in this duet: I would provide the rhythmically pulsating foundation over which his dense continuums could unfold. The result is harmonically drifting superclusters that put us into a meditation-like state. It can perhaps be compared to Automatic Writing -- a mode of creative expression floating somewhere between concentration and distraction . . . It is no coincidence that Asuna owns a collection of Doodle Art -- drawings jotted down during conversations or while talking on the phone . . . The artwork for Signals Bulletin features pictures from the collection, in this case sheets of paper from the pads provided in stationery shops to test out pens..."

"Remastered reissue of the second brilliant Willie Lane LP released by Cord-Art, originally available (for a few moments, anyway) in 2012. Guitar Army of One is a bit less folk oriented than its predecessor, Known Quantity (FTR 413LP), in as much as there's more electricity and pedals being employed. But Willie's playing at this time was such a weird hybrid -- from quiet country blues passages to blown psychedelic bong-wash in the blink of an eye -- that no technique or approach was ruled out. Everything was permitted. Which led to some mind-bending results. As the album's title infers, Willie is on his lonesome this time with nary a collaborator in sight. But the sounds he layers on tape can be so complex (not unlike some of the work by his occasional running partner, Matt Valentine) that one gets the sense this the sound of Willie Lane playing duets with himself. Recorded in Philadelphia, shortly before he returned to Western Massachusetts to become, like the fictional Jesus, a carpenter, Guitar Army of One is a superbly satisfying spin. From the Heldon-esque vibe of 'Ill Star,' to the damaged canoodling of 'Rare Psych For Wayne' (which is also in the running for best Record Scum song title of the 21st century), there's a strange surprise around every damn corner. A monster of a record." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 500.

B-movie junkies, gather round and prepare yourselves for what could only be described as a cinematic speedball. Take a combined hit of two of the most potent strains of toxic cinema, dress it up in ritualistic robes, and make it dance to the beat of a stoned, motoric, country commune soundtrack. Like an exploit-o double-bill where both films merge into a single feature, this directorial debut by an ex-Roger Corman protégé and future Russ Meyer art director (another heady cocktail) is the product of one writing duo's fleeting time in the driving seat as the moviedrome marathon approached its dwindling finish line. Werewolves On Wheels emerged in 1971 in a climate where the B-movie genre of the previous two decades began to make way for the early glimpses of imported slasher films and video nasties. Entirely out of popular context in 1971, the soundtrack music of Don Gere (Curt Boettcher, Kid Dynamite, Don & Stevie) would perhaps reveal him as the most versatile actor involved in the whole production. Until this point, Don Gere had been a pop folk songwriter and a country music devotee, but while riding with the werewolves, Don Gere became a disjointed psych rock stoner making ritualistic commune country with more coincidentally in common with Germany's emerging krautrock scene or the more localized stoner psych of Skip Spence (whose radically ahead of its time LP OAR (1969) was recognized by Columbia Records as their lowest selling record in the company's history). Imagine guitarist Sandy Bull jamming with Munich's Amon Düül or some Swedish prog outfits like Träd, Gräs Och Stenar or a sedated Kebnekaise. In comparison to the Curb Records/Davie Allan scores, for films like Wild Angels (1966), Devil's Angels (1967), Thunder Alley (1967), and Born Losers (1967) (often released on Curb's own Sidewalk or Tower Records), the new music made by Don Gere, only three years down the line, sounds like it's from an entirely different generation... "Pre-certified biker psych from the hillbilly Haxan. Amazing!" --Sean Canty (Demdike Stare)

Selected Tracks 2. 1995-1998 is a double album with a new selection of tracks recorded by Esplendor Geométrico between 1995 and 1998. This is the second part of Selected Tracks, the first one was published in 2015 (GR 2136LP). Ten of the thirteen tracks appear for the first time on vinyl, and some rarities only released in very limited CDR editions during the '90s and without distribution, are also included. Esplendor Geométrico are pioneers and masters of rhythmic industrial music since their formation in Madrid in 1980, enjoying international cult. In this double album, you will find machine and hypnotic rhythms, metallic sounds, tribal sonorities, distortion, collages with voices, which also show their influence on the current trends of industrial techno. The songs have been chosen from albums like Polyglophone (CD-only release in 1997), EN-CO-D-ESPLENDOR (published in Japan only on CD in 1998), and exclusive live tracks that do not have studio versions: "Al Asalto", "Nuevo Frente", "Elektrozavod", or "Ciudad Électrica". Also included are three tracks from the Syncrotron EP (1998). Gatefold sleeve; Edition of 700.

"When I think of the word industrial... I think machines, gears, factories with tall smoke stacks. Esplendor Geométrico means exactly that to me. Hard minimal rhythmic machine music that grinds like a huge device that is cutting metal girders for large buildings. Though most would quote bands like Throbbing Gristle, Neubauten and Coil as being the truest form of industrial, the music of Esplendor by far best describes the word industrial when applied to music." --Adam-X, 2004

Benjamin Finger, James Plotkin, and Mia Zabelka craft a mesmerizing sonic world that buzzes and drones, glitches, and slithers, eventually careening into unexplored musical territory. Pleasure-Voltage was born in the mind (and studio) of Benjamin Finger -- a composer, electronic music producer, DJ, photographer, and film-maker based in Oslo, Norway who in recent years has become quite a prolific artist, expanding his stylistic palette from piano miniatures and off-kilter pop experiments to lysergic, dream-like sound collages spiced with gentle warmth and sublime melody. These ingredients are also characteristic on this latest work where Finger set the musical frame before passing it on to his inspired collaborators: Mia Zabelka who for decades now has been involved in countless projects, be it as musician (violin/electronics), curator, or founder of the international sound art center klang.haus and who has worked with, amongst others, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Electric Indigo, Robin Rimbaud (Scanner), Dälek or Phil Minton. And last but not least there's James Plotkin who entered the scene with his first band Old Lady Drivers (or O.L.D.) on Earache in 1987 and later was a member of Khanate (with, amongst others, Stephen O'Malley) while also exploring the areas of dark ambient and electronics by working with or remixing Scorn/Mick Harris, K.K: NULL, and more. On Pleasure-Voltage, which had its live-premiere at the Rewire festival 2018, the trio crafts a mesmerizing sonic world that buzzes and drones, glitches and slithers, eventually careening into unexplored musical territory somewhere between ambient/drone/psychedelia. Personnel: Benjamin Finger - synthesizers, piano, field recordings, electronic devices, alien objects; James Plotkin - electric guitar, granular synthesis; Mia Zabelka - E-violin, electronic devices, alien objects. Mixed by James Plotkin. Mastered and vinyl cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Artwork/drawing by Sverre Malling.

The Rockets were natives of London's Ladbroke Grove, and precursors of UK punk rock heroes Warsaw Pakt. They played high-energy rhythm & blues with hard-boiled street-smart lyrics delivered quick and cool against super-charged Chuck Berry guitar licks. "Two of the best tracks are presented here for the first time: the tough, cocksure rocker 'Even Money' and the explosive, Who-influenced 'Steppin' Outa Line'. While The Rockets were still rooted in rhythm & blues, their revved-up approach signaled the changes that were already taking place in the streets around them." --Mike Stax

Nyege Nyege Tapes deliver another volley of breathless Singeli from Tanzania, this time the vinyl debut of Duke showcasing the sound of Pamoja Records, following multiple zingers from the scene's core Sisso Studios. Yet again making practically everything else seem pedestrian and tepid by contrast, Duke's take on Dar Es Salaam's Singeli style is ruthlessly fast and rugged, crammed with colorful samples and, quite crucially, loaded with a pair of blistering vocal tracks starring MCZO & Don Tach, and Dogo Lizzi, respectively. In Uingizaji Hewa the tempos thrillingly tilt over the 200bpm mark, but they're held in check with a clutch of slower instrumentals written in Duke's newer hip hop Singeli style. When he goes fast, dancers will know about it in the likes of "Naona Laaah" featuring machine gun rapid rhythms somehow matched for pace by MCZO & Don Tach, and again in the pedal-to-the-metal recklessness of "M Lap" starring Dogo Lizzi switching up from dancehall bark to fasssst-chat styles that put Daddy Freddy to bed. But those hi-NRG bombs are only half the story. The rest of the LP shows off Duke's wicked way with a hook and the diversity of his drum programming in highlights ranging from the PC Music-compatible bounce of "Sing4444444", to the cascading chromatic licks and slow/fast suss of "Duke 4", the joyful dervish of "Duke Bit Puyo", and two dizzying pieces with spiraling, Bollywood-style vocal samples that close the record with a blinding flourish. RIYL: Sounds of Sisso (NNT 005LP), PC Music, Shangaan Electro. Master and cut by Matt Colton. White vinyl; edition of 300.

2019 repress; LP version. "Originally released in 1982, Kakashi is another high water mark in the 80s Japanese underground. This album, which has gathered cult status in recent years, is the project of musical visionary Yasuaki Shimizu, and considered to be a highlight of his solo career. Shimizu was the bandleader of Mariah, who also saw their album Utakata No Hibi reissued by Palto Flats in 2015. Kakashi offers a similar blend of saxophone experimentations, jazz fusion and ambient dub excursions."

2x12" version. Smallpeople's debut album, Salty Days (SMALL 005CD/LP), was released in 2012. In the time since, much has changed in the world of dance music. have remained dedicated to their unapologetically reassuring vision of house music as-a-whole. Smallpeople, as well as expanding their Smallville Records shop in Hamburg's St. Pauli, has continued to act on their direct-line to the beating heart of house music at some of the world's finest clubs, including their monthly residency at Hamburg's legendary Golden Pudel. Of course, all these maneuvers sit alongside their work running Smallville Records, and its sub-label, Fuck Reality. Given Julius Steinhoff and Dionne's stewardship in filtering the crème de la crème of house music from the underground and into clubs across Europe and further afield, it would be particularly cliched on this occasion to stress that their second record is "eagerly awaited". In their own way, they have already given us enough great records. But with Afterglow, there's another great record, and more importantly, one carved directly from the hearts and record collections of two individuals whose understanding of dance music appears to be some sort of blissful second-nature. This sort of earned assuredness is immediately established on opening track "Magic Interference", a rolling, deep, and somewhat jazzy house number with tumbling keys and sky-walkin' chords. This steady, blissful vibe sets the tone for the first half of the record, as the pair patiently unfold their touchstones; equal parts Chicago ("Hearts at Whole"), Detroit ("All States of Dawn"), and Hamburg, famed for it's transatlantic routes via groundbreaking clubs such as Front, it's a crystalline distillation of a sound that's earnest, but never nostalgic. Intuitive selectors as they are, Smallpeople pick the ideal moment to up the pace for the home-run, defined here by the spiky, disco bassline of "Beyond", an unexpected ingredient that Steinhoff and Dionne nevertheless manage to diffuse into space dust. It's a brilliant wrong footing before the wide-eyed, warm-hearted anthem-in-waiting, "Sonic Winds", a wonderfully cheeky glimpse of Smallpeople as peak time heroes, before the acid-flecked shuffle of "Benevolent Reciever" reveals their spiritual soundboy side. In conclusion, title track "Afterglow" surmises the generous spirit at the heart of Smallpeople's operation; a sensitive and irresistible ode to record stores, parties, community, and discovery. So, worth that seven year wait? Who cares about time, when your music is this timeless.

Double LP version. Includes two inserts. An Anthology of Greek Experimental Electronic Music 1966-2016 aspires to map the heterogenous landscape of Greek experimental electronic music in all its contextual, sociopolitical, geographical and aesthetic disparity. With a single exception: it zeroes in on post-80s music. It comprises works of very different kinds by composers of all sorts of backgrounds that, still, can be thought of, as both "Greeks" and "experimentalists". Experimental electronic music is generally expected to be highly variegated, especially when examined in a breadth of several decades, and with respect to all sorts of artistic, academic, subcultural, and other influences. What is not so obvious, however, is that the very notion of Greekness, as well as its contextual and historical offshoots, are highly diversified, too. This anthology is an attempt to map the various kinds of experimental music that has been produced by Greeks over the last few decades. More, it is also an attempt to delineate different understandings of what "Greek" or "experimental" may stand for, by means of zeroing in on the numerous, often overlapping, realities and micro-scenes that are associated with the former. Double-CD version includes 20-page booklet.

Features Anestis Logothetis, Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga, Panayiotis Kokoras, Christos Michalakos, Free Piece Of Tape, Ilan Manouach, Anastasis Grivas, Theodoros Zioutos, Nicolas Malevitsis, Ilios, Michalis Adamis, Fani Konstantinidou, Scizhic InzC, Georgia Spyropoulos, Panayiotis Velianitis, Iannis Xenakis, and Marinos Koutsomichalis.

Double LP version. Gatefold sleeve, embossed; Includes four-page booklet. The Noise Of Art: Works for Intonarumori contains seven compositions, created by the Opening Performance Orchestra, Blixa Bargeld, Luciano Chessa, and Fred Möpert. All the pieces relate to the theme of futurism and employ intonarumori, instruments invented and used more than a century ago by the Italian Futurists in their noise compositions. CD version includes 16-page booklet.

"In antiquity, life was nothing but silence."

"Today noise reigns supreme over human sensibility."

The Art of Noises, pertained to the entire 20th century. Published in 1913, in response to Francesco Balilla Pratella's Manifesto of Futurist Musicians (1911), Luigi Russolo's text encompassed the fundamental ideas for the new music of the modern age. Radical ideas required original compositional approaches, as well as new types hof instruments -- hence the futurists opted for the intonarumori. The two quotations prompted the Opening Performance Orchestra to give thought to creating compositions in which they would return to the early 20th century, when noises as means of musical expression emerged for the very first time. The typical instruments used by the Opening Performance Orchestra are laptops, by means of which they conceive their fraction music, which can be briefly characterized by the slogan "no melody no rhythm no harmony". Constructing three intonarumori, writing their own pieces for these instruments and performing works by other contemporary composers -- Blixa Bargeld, Luciano Chessa, and Fred Möpert -- represented for the Opening Performance Orchestra getting into close contact with the beginnings of the musical avant-garde, as well as returning to the historical roots of the music that had served as the basis of noise in art.

In United, her debut LP as UCC Harlo, classically-trained musician Annie Gårlid distills hauntological pop, sound art, medieval, and baroque music, and left-field club production into a series of ecclesiastical-wave ventures. Written over six years in Germany, United began on train commutes during Gårlid's stint as a violist in an opera orchestra near Cologne and developed further during her time in Berlin. Through gestures such as reframing music by Bach and Magister Zacharias, through DAW experimentation and field recordings, United proposes sonic reconciliations between the old and the new. United also reflects the idea that sound and music always exist in broader, complex contexts loaded with historical and environmental information and mediated by internal emotional landscapes. For Gårlid, this acknowledgement is a metaphor for our urgent need to be attentive to non-human agencies and voices. United acts as a means of claiming a right to obscurity and of "sounding" ambivalence, doubt, and messiness in an age that demands transparency and clarity. Annie Gårlid is a New York-based writer, musician, and musicology researcher concerned with our ever-shifting, tenuous relationships with ecology, technology and care. Creating and discovering links between the old and the new, Gårlid operates equally in the realms of experimental, club and early music. She is a member of the Holly Herndon Ensemble and the band Songs, has collaborated with Caterina Barbieri, Bill Kouligas, and Emptyset, and has performed with ASMR-artist Claire Tolan. She works regularly with an array of composers and artists, and performs as a viola player and singer in both Europe and the USA.

A trumpeter and improviser living in Mexico City, over the last ten years Jacob Wick has become known for deconstructing the instrument itself and any expectations of how it "should" be played. The explorations on Feel focus on sound as it relates to specific spaces and in turn the subtle but profound connections they have to emotions and the body. The result is a highly personal music that is both unique and immediate, abstract yet undeniably visceral. On Feel, Wick creates two intense side-long improvisations. On the surface they appear to be works of rigorous minimalism; on closer listen they reveal sounds that slowly but constantly shift and evolve. Texture and plosives replace melody and rhythm. Body and breath become indistinguishable from the instrument, the moment is stretched and expanded. Each sound is so closely linked that the player and listener are drawn completely into the present. Feel is an uncompromising and entirely original album -- an intimate sound experience that rewards anyone that chooses to enter.