LP version. "Fans of Sun Ra's Space Bop and genre-bending jazz were in for a shock with Strange Strings. Even in the eclectic and sometimes baffling Sun Ra catalog, Strange Strings is an outlier. It's primitive, it's sophisticated, but it's not a gradient of either. It's brutal, yet highly sensitive. Is it music, or just noise? Or noise as music? John Cage could not be reached for comment. For this album, Sun Ra collected an arsenal of exotic string instruments and handed them out to his Arkestra on the precept that 'strings could touch people in a special way.' That the Arkestrans didn't know how to play or tune these instruments was not beside the point -- it was the point. Ra framed it 'a study in ignorance.' The result was primitive, yet sophisticated; brutal, yet highly sensitive. In his essay for this expanded edition of the 1967 Saturn LP, musician-curator David Toop calls Strange Strings 'saturated in mystery.' The original 1967 Saturn LP version of Strange Strings was monophonic, contained three tracks, and suffered distortion in the mastering (perhaps due to the high-decibel studio performance and excessive reverb). Yet some sessions were captured in stereo. A dozen strange-string works have been located, five of which are included on this remastered edition. (The others have been released on other labels; see discography inside gatefold.) No track titles appeared on the original Saturn LP verso, but the three works issued were later identified as 'World's Approaching,' the LP title track, and an inversion of the title, 'Strings Strange.' A belatedly discovered tape box listed the third recording as 'Strange Strange,' a title which has been used in this edition."

"Drag City presents the first official reissue of Dorothy Carter's 1976 album debut, her folk-music exegesis, Troubadour. In her lifetime, Dorothy, a self-made traveling musician and folklorist, brought forth masterful evocations on hammered dulcimer and psaltery from a myriad of times and places. Her music was played, produced and sold outside of that era's mainstream music distribution. Troubadour reissue producer Eric Demby can look back to a childhood spent off the grid: the early '70s in rural Maine, and later on, in Boston -- wherever his freewheeling father brought the family, at one point or another, there too was Dorothy, as she lived and breathed, playing her hammered dulcimer. The early '70s found everyone living up on the farm up in rural Maine; it was here that Rutman, Constance, Dorothy and some others formed Central Maine Power Company, a troupe of almost feral improvisers playing on a combination of self-made and found instruments, with live video feedback to boot. In 1976, Dorothy had been playing music for decades, but had yet to record any of it. That year, she went to Cambridge's Studio B with Rutman and friend Steve Baer at the console. Constance and Sally Hilmer accompanied her. The performances captured there were released later that year as Troubadour. In addition to hammered dulcimer and psaltery, Dorothy played the flute and sang. She chose songs from all over: Appalachian folk tunes, old and ancient psalms and hymns, Scottish, Irish, French and Israeli melodies, with a few of her own songs for good measure. They all flow together effortlessly under Dorothy and friends' hands in a syncretic space that we can identify today as a garden of world musics -- a highly energized, alternately meditative and proselytic recital whose vitality has only burgeoned in the decades since it appeared. As it should be: the music of Dorothy Carter is akin to a portal, linking her with the eternal. This edition of Troubadour reproduces the original album package, adding an insert adorned with additional photos of Dorothy and her collection of instruments, as well as notes from Eric Demby exploring the era -- his childhood -- from a vantage point of some 50 years. This reissue is a long-held family dream come true, and it is dedicated in loving memory to Bob Rutman, Constance Demby, David Demby and Dorothy Carter."

Returning to the unreleased oeuvre of the master of cybernetic sound Roland Kayn, Frozen Reeds hereby unveils a new high watermark for longform electroacoustic composition, unfolding across 15 CDs in a luxurious gold-stamped boxed set. With Jim O'Rourke applying his signature restorative touch to the audio, and Robert Beatty taking his cryptic cybernetics-inspired artwork several steps beyond the label's previous Kayn box, The Ortho-Project (2007) finally sees a fitting release. In 1970, Roland Kayn began a decades-long period of research, development and creation at the Instituut voor Sonologie in Utrecht. In the mid to late '90s, Kayn retired, relocated to the Dutch countryside, and began to realize new electronic works at Reiger Recording Studio -- his modest home facility. "I finally came to the conclusion," he would later point out, "that I no longer needed studios to construct my own electronic music." The working methods Kayn arrived at individually -- without the room-filling synthesizers, mixing desks and signal-processing equipment of Sonology at his disposal -- saw him turning his own career into a cybernetic process. From the hours of recorded sound amassed in prior decades, he began processing and assembling a mountainous quantity of new music. His works of this period are focused on reabsorbing and recontextualizing his life's work to produce yet another series of utterly alien landscapes. From his retirement until his death in 2011, Kayn was wildly prolific, leaving an archive of dozens of finished electronic pieces. Earlier source material is often resculpted using the technology Kayn had available to hand, while other techniques such as sampling radio broadcasts or the plunderphonic quotation of others' works occasionally intercede. No notes accompany any of this music -- no word of explanation or expression of intent. Only the works and their titles remain, the latter often simply deepening the mystery. Their durations range from around 20 minutes to almost 18 hours. The Ortho-Project, presented here in its entirety, is among the longest. At this scale, Kayn's music is perhaps at its most immersive; the listener senses they are being invited to envelope themselves in a rich environment of diverse timbral physicality rather than a programmatic work. This is simply electronic music as you have never experienced it before.

"The mystery, the grace, the boundless invention -- Kayn's machine music is a vast catalogue of very human wonder." --The Guardian

Mick Harris has been an epitome of extremes: either as a drummer or as a sound sculptor and explorer of crushing beats, heavy bass or darkest soundscapes. Through the last 30 years, Harris has been an utterly prolific electronic artist (Monrella, The Weakener, Fret, Quoit), but known mostly for his famous project Scorn. At the beginning of the century, Harris started one of his longest-standing projects, HedNod. Alongside Scorn, HedNod turned out to be his most fruitful project, which in the meantime made up of as many as twenty volumes. GODrec is happy to announce the first instalment of HedNod boxes, featuring EPs that were originally available only as a download.

Wewantsounds presents the reissue of Steve Beresford's highly sought-after album Dancing the Line, released in France in 1985 on the French label nato. The album, taking its inspiration from French designer Anne Marie Beretta's fashion, features his Alterations acolyte David Toop plus Alan Hacker and Kazuko Hohki (Frank Chickens) with lyrics by Andrew Brenner. The music mixes sophisticated ambient pop powered by a RX11 drum machine with elements synth funk and experimental music. "Tendance" and "Comfortable Gestures" have become underground classics over the years and this is the first time the album is reissued, in partnership with nato. The reissue includes audio newly remastered by Translab in Paris, original gatefold artwork, and a four-page insert with liner notes by nato's Jean Rochard. British musician, composer and arranger Steve Beresford has been a vital force in the British and international music scene since the early '70s. Starting his recording career in 1973, recording with the Portsmouth Sinfonia alongside Gavin Bryars and Brian Eno, he went on to collaborate with a wide array of leading musicians in the free improvisation field and beyond, including Derek Bailey, John Zorn, Han Bennink, The Slits, Prince Far I, Thurston Moore, and Christian Marclay. In 1985, Rochard introduced Beresford to French fashion designer Anne Marie Beretta and, in Spring of that year, the musician came over to Paris with his friend and collaborator, lyricist Andrew Brenner to spend a few days at Beretta's atelier in order to write songs for an upcoming album themed around the designer's works. Together they came up with several songs inspired by the fashion ideas, the fabrics, the colors used by Beretta and the emotions they conveyed. The recording featured Beresford on piano, voice, Yamaha DX7 keyboard and RX11 drum machine, David Toop on flute and guitar, Alan Hacker on Clarinet and London-based Japanese singer Kazuko Hohki from the group Frank Chickens, which Beresford and Toop had recently produced. The album Dancing the Line was released in France in October 1985. It is a subtle mix of ethereal pop songs, funkier tracks, a beautiful piano ballad, and a couple of free instrumentals. In the last years, the album has been rediscovered by a growing legion of new fans and has become an underground favorite with many DJs and collectors around the world. Dancing the Line was only released in France at the time.

"Love Rudiments is a meditation by Ty Segall on his first love: the drums. Known popularly as a singing guitar player, he generally starts the recording of his songs by laying down a drum track. Love Rudiments kicks off with drums and percussion, then adds a few other percussive and production aspects. It travels a great journey in this configuration. However, Love Rudiments wasn't written or performed to present as some kind of solo drums album -- it's just another music album, with vibes (figurative as well as literal), feels, a theme and a through-line. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Ty's made an instrumental album of percussive music that rides the wild surf of a waxing-then-waning love affair -- from the first blinding look, to the eventual recognition, that look back at love's rudiments, viewed from beyond and outside that seemingly infinite sensation. And why not? Drums are a melody instrument too. Ty plays them with precision and sensitivity, delving deep into the textures of timpani, vibraphone, xylophone, percussion and e-drums, all of them occupying space within the luxe stereo spread of the drumkit. In the process, a psychological space is opened -- a private emotional location where only two can meet. Love Rudiments reembodies the passion and compulsion that drives all of Ty Segall's music in a suite of moments played on orchestral batterie to explore the most delicate passages of human interaction -- playing on the bones of love."

Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records present the second LP from Tomoyuki Trio (Tomoyuki Aoki, Mike Vest, and Dave Sneddon) following their debut LP Mars on the esteemed Riot Season Record Label. Tomoyuki Aoki is the founding member and lead guitarist of the legendary Tokyo Psych Monsters Up-Tight. Of all the Japanese psych-rock groups that emerged in the late nineties and early noughties, Up-Tight are the most reverent, the most directly plugged into the source, from their name (Velvet Underground) with knowing referential song titles like "Sweet Sister" to their extended heavy, dark black clad acid fried one chord psych melters -- bands like Fushitsusha, White Heaven, Kousokuya, Shizuka, and the grandaddies of 'em all, the deservedly-legendary, Les Rallizes Denudes. Shitsuren if anything has got an even heavier, dronier edge than the last one. Super fuzzed guitars, sad ballads, grinding distorto epics and numbed, narcotic rhythms. This is one to play at maximum volume so that you can soak up its molten magik, as over two sides of Shitsuren's grueling guitar hypnotics you uncover the darker side of the ensembles personality to find them digging deep to drag the audience with them into the shadows of stoner psyche. If you can picture Okhami No Jikan, Asahito Nanjo, Musica Transonic, and Toho Sara then you're close to the outrageous levels of psychedelic excess captured here, a riotous concoction of ferociously brooding, locked down heavy bearing intensity of fierce/brutal speaker battering in the red levels.

Ever wondered what music would sound like if it was ripped from the space directly preceding sleep? The tracks within this album are your gateway to discovery. These recordings, which were laid down especially for the USA radio stations WFMU and WGXC, will melt your speakers and your mind. Released on the ever-excellent Feeding Tube Records (USA) and Cardinal Fuzz (UK). Bhajan Bhoy (aka Ajay Saggar) symbolizes boundless creative freedom in all the music he has produced to date. This LP is no exception to that rule -- in fact, this album showcases an even wider spectrum of sounds and ideas than could ever be imagined. From heavy lysergic guitar excursions, to dub inflected guitar pedal pop, to nu-age minimalism, to electronic experimentalism -- all the terms and descriptions in the world don't do justice to the originality that lies within. When USA radio station WFMU asked Ajay to contribute tracks to a session for the show 'Feelings' (co-hosted by Michele and Creamo Coyl), he turned in five tracks that received tremendous feedback from around the world on the station's live chatline when broadcast. In addition, a session for WGXC further showcased the songwriting talent of Ajay. The ensuing three-week tour of the USA cemented Bhajan Bhoy's status as one of the most innovative musicians around. This LP marks another giant leap forward in Bhajan Bhoy's musical development. He's brimming with ideas and the imagination runs wild. This music is for the listeners who want to follow a path of discovery and be mesmerized and blown away by what they hear. Be sure to be one of the listening party. Written, recorded, mixed by Ajay Saggar at Soundation Studio in the summer of 2023. Mastered by Helmut Erler. Sleeve design by Jake Blanchard.

Evening Air is the result Loren Connors and David Grubbs's first trip to the recording studio in the two decades since their first duo album, Arborvitae (Häpna). Arborvitae stood out for its spell-binding, utterly unhurried meshing of electric guitar (Connors) and piano (Grubbs). With this long-awaited return, Connors and Grubbs take turns trading off on piano and guitar, with Grubbs at the keyboard for the two gently expansive pieces on the first side and Connors taking over the instrument for three gorgeous miniatures on the flip, including an album-closing and perfectly heart-stopping version of Connors's and Suzanne Langille's "Child." The album's wildcard is "It's Snowing Onstage," which finds the two locking horns with two electric guitars before Loren blew the minds of all present in the studio by unexpectedly switching to drums. Loren Connors is one-of-a-kind, one of a handful of deservedly storied musical greats gracing listeners with their presence, and with Evening Air David Grubbs again demonstrates that he's a stellar musician who also ranks among the most simpatico of collaborators.

"Black Magic Man is arguably the pivotal Joe McPhee release. It bridged the span between the regional and the international, bypassing the national altogether. Recorded in the same sessions that produced Nation Time, Black Magic Man consists of music not chosen for that LP. Like its much-feted sister, technically it falls under the domain of CjR, Craig Johnson's herculean effort in support of McPhee. An erstwhile painter, Johnson became a self-taught audio engineer, acquiring equipment expressly to document McPhee's music. In December 1970, five years after Johnson and McPhee had met, they recorded two days of activity -- a concert followed by an additional day of recordings -- at Vassar College where McPhee was teaching in the Black Studies department. About half of the material was used to make Nation Time. While they had planned to issue a follow-up, the money wasn't there, so the tapes sat dormant. Fast-forward five years -- Werner X. Uehlinger, a Swiss businessman who worked for Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, contacted Johnson while on a trip to the US, and over dinner with McPhee, they discussed putting out some of the unused tracks from the Nation Time sessions. With this casual encounter in 1975, Hat Hut Records was inaugurated. The new label's maiden release was Black Magic Man, dubbed Hat Hut A, the first in what would become Hat Hut's letter series. Along the way, the series would feature seven Joe McPhee records, including the first four in a row." --John Corbett

"Joe McPhee's first international release, Black Magic Man, was issued on the newly formed Hat Hut imprint in 1975. It was a watershed moment for the 35-year-old musician. Based in Poughkeepsie, New York, he was too far away from Manhattan to have participated extensively in the Loft Jazz happenings of the decade. European exposure, however, would give McPhee an alternative circuit, something of an escape route from the trappings of American cultural myopia. In support of the new record for this Swiss label, McPhee invited John Snyder on a European tour in October 1975. Snyder was a synthesizer player with whom McPhee had made the duet LP Pieces Of Light, released a year earlier on CjR. The two musicians developed an extensive repertoire, playing diverse spaces in the Hudson Valley. Geographically close gigs were a plus, since it took extra energy to hoist Snyder's ARP 2600. McPhee and Snyder were invited to play at the Willisau Jazz Festival in Switzerland. If you compare this live record with Pieces Of Light, a studio effort, it's considerably more open. South African drummer Makaya Ntshoko is rolling thunder on the choral 'Voices,' shuffling under Snyder's bubbly beat on 'Bahamian Folksong.' It is quite a special combination, enough so that Hat Hut chose to release it as their next LP, Hat Hut B in their alphabetical series. The Willisau Concert represents the sound of Joe McPhee opening up, opening out, expanding his field of operations to include new figures, fresh experiences, new continents of sound." --John Corbett

"There are lots of outstanding Joe McPhee LPs. Nation Time being chief among them, but there's also Pieces Of Light, Oleo, and Topology. The Poughkeepsie, New York-based multi-instrumentalist, by now an international star of free music, has amassed a daunting discography, no doubt. If you want to peer deeply into the soul of Joe McPhee, however, there's no way around it, you need to spend some quality time with Tenor. Tenor is McPhee's first solo record. He did not set out to make it. It was an afterthought, quite literally, born of a gathering of friends at the Swiss farmhouse of cellist Michael Overhage. A beautiful meal, some drinks, warm conversation, and, why not, an impromptu recital. Hat Hut producer Werner X. Uehlinger was there and a year later issued it as McPhee's third LP for the label (Hat Hut C in their famed letter series). The existential blues 'Knox' sets the stage, indicating that this will not just be a toss-off postprandial singalong. 'Good-Bye Tom B.' carries on with aching melancholy, through burred notes and hushed harmonics. The relatively jaunty 'Sweet Dragon' is also emotionally loaded with Ayler-esque vibrato, slurs, wipes, and blasts of tone. The side-long title track comes without a theme, as a kind of pure investigation of the horn, its potential, its limits, its expressive capacity. There have been few solo sessions as comprehensive and devastating as this spontaneous after-dinner diversion in rural Switzerland in 1976. We're very lucky someone pressed record." --John Corbett

WRWTFWW Records is continuing its fruitful and blissful collaboration with New York ambient/jazz/downtempo musician Danny Scott Lane with the first-ever vinyl release for his 2021 cassette album Caput. The 12-track beauty is available as a limited-edition LP (500 copies worldwide) housed in a marvelously designed heavy 350gsm sleeve. The album is also available digitally. Originally released on cassette only, Caput is desert music inspired by the city, a serene and cozy soundtrack of contemplative synth, mini pleasure-grooves, and botanical ambient jazz, sure to gently pacify the emotionally conflicted and make small moments the best moments. Scott Lane's smooth downtempo is like a cushiony bubble of simple life, protecting the mind from noise and stress. It's the comforting hand on the shoulder, the blanket that keeps warm, the easy Sunday morning breakfast -- caring chillout music to escape from the brouhaha. Caput follows the adorable, so comfy, and beloved soundscapes Home Decor (WRWTFWW 077LP, 2023) and Shower (WRWTFWW 086LP, 2023), and thus marks the third Danny Scott Lane release on the label -- and surely not the last! Complete the collection now and feel the joy of being alive.

2024 repress. Bahamadia's 1996 debut album Kollage is rightly regarded as one of the greatest rap albums of the 1990s. For the first time ever, Be With presents the definitive double LP version of this eternal hip-hop classic, including the legendary "Path To Rhythm" which never appeared on the original LP or on vinyl, anywhere. An indelible vibe from start-to-finish, Kollage presents Bahamadia's swirling rhymes delivered with an irresistibly butter flow and razor-sharp assuredness over a steady slew of smoothed-out, jazzed-up, blunted beats. Achingly cool and effortlessly funky throughout, it's an absolute must for true '90s hip-hop fanatics. The entire Kollage project was recorded at D&D Studios and the ties to Gang Starr are keenly felt, with DJ Premier producing five tracks in addition to the killer songs Guru had already produced with her. Working with the cream of the mid-'90s East Coast sound, Kollage is, accordingly, a record that demonstrates a varied musical taste with disparate influences. With intelligent, poetic lyricism and a laconic verbal style bursting with both warm texture and deceptive energy, Bahamadia's flow was as inspired by Aretha and Nancy Wilson as it was Q-Tip, Schoolly D and Lady B. Incredibly, only the European and Japanese CD versions of Kollage were released with the brilliantly breezy "Path To Rhythm," featuring Ursula Rucker. Whilst ostensibly a "bonus track," it's anything but. Very much in sonic conversation with KRS-One's stretched-out sleeper classic "Higher Level," it's absolutely essential. Somewhat predictably, whilst Kollage was released to significant critical acclaim, it suffered from disappointing sales. In the intervening years -- and for far too long -- it was a criminally underrated record, an increasingly hidden gem. This Be With double LP reissue has been mastered for vinyl by Simon Francis, cut by Cicely Balston, and pressed at Record Industry. It's too bold and beautiful to remain overlooked and underserved.

Carving an unlikely and elaborate niche in the stoney academic landscape which she once shared with the likes of Phill Niblock, John Cage, and Sorel Hayes, the excitable proto-punk poèmes sonores of the linguistic loose cannon known as Beth Anderson first rolled through New York in the mid-1970s (from Kentucky via San Francisco) like a jumbled tumbleweed of lost Letterism, face paint and threadbare drummy funk to astonish gallery floors, lecture theatres and loft apartment stages. One thousand leagues under the radar of the commercial music industry, with a sense of humor that elevated way above her highbrow peer group, the music of Beth Anderson has successfully evaded the pressing plant for most of her creative career, and not unlike fellow New York gallery actionist Suzanne Ciani, it has taken decades to successfully collect and contextualize these early recordings -- expanding her elusive discography beyond the rare and mysterious solo single entry in the process. In 1980, the 45rpm single "I Can't Stand It" combusted into the consciousness of adventurous participants with its deep rhythmic backbeat (courtesy of future Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr producer Wharton Tiers, member of the new wave band Theoretical Girls), climaxing with two colorful and commanding linguistic tantrums before disappearing in a puff of smoke leaving would-be fans dumbstruck without so much as a label name or distribution contact to explain what they had just heard. For those who have spent the subsequent years on the edge of that same seat, it might come as some comfort knowing that somewhere out there is also a contrasting world of gallery patrons and experimental sound poetry enthusiasts that similarly didn't know that their regular performance poet Beth Anderson even made the ambitious pop record. For the uninitiated, the enigmatic Beth Anderson has straddled both sides of the art/rock fence placed between two equally niche pastures. Hopefully this first-ever vinyl compendium will succeed in joining the dots, loops, yelps, squeaks, beats and repeats!

"Remastered and reissued, Girl Talk's (aka Gregg Gillis) third album on Illegal Art! Night Ripper is focused less on beat-fuckery and more on bringing heat to the party than previous outings. Hip hop hits, soft rock radio standards, party classics, grunge masterpieces, R&B singles, glossy club-shakers and rock anthems are all layered and placed together into one nonstop celebration of pop and excess. Night Ripper was awarded 'Best New Music' by Pitchfork, and has made many proclaim Girl Talk the next Danger Mouse."

"One endlessly entertaining mega mash-up." --Rolling Stone

"Los Yesterdays are a Chicano soul band from Los Angeles based around the creative collaboration between Gabriel Rowland and Victor Benavides. They began working together when Rowland -- a drummer by trade, then creaky and exhausted from waking up at dawn to work construction -- decided to channel those struggles into song. He contacted Benavides, a former bandmate of Rowland's deceased brother, to record the soul ballads that Southland Chicanos call 'oldies.' Los Yesterdays filter love-struck R&B crooning through guitar-strumming Mexican balladeering; the result is something that sounds like the Los Angeles of yesterday and today -- the indelible, immovable Los Angeles of cruising Whittier Boulevard, of cold drinks on the porch on blazing summer nights, of watching a blue-orange toxic sunset and wondering if they are thinking about you. Los Angeles changes; Los Angeles stays the same. Los Yesterdays have changed, outgrown their childhood barrios and the bands of their early 20s and their private garage hermitude; Los Yesterdays are Frozen In Time."

"Of the plethora of touted 'private press hard rock monsters' out there, very few live up to the swaggering riff-fury of west coast blasters ODA. Commonly known as the 'Black Album,' the first clobbering platter by the quartet was released on their own tiny Loud Phonograph Records imprint and now commands large sums -- but is actually worth the heavy hype. The band naturally centered around Randy Oda, a multi-talented ax shredder and keyboardist, and the lineup was filled out by his brother Kevin on drum assault, Art Pantoja on lead bellows and rhythm guitar, and galloping bassist Kyle Schneider. ODA was influenced by hard UK rockers like Deep Purple, Zep, Free, and the Who, and they gigged all over the Bay Area, with Randy garnering comparisons to Jeff Beck's molten six-string mastery. This 1971 self-titled LP (aka the 'Black Album') fully displays their blistering talents, but despite some local airplay on KSAN radio, the band packed it in by '73. This would not be the end of the Oda story, as Randy joined CCR's Tom Fogerty in the outfit Ruby afterwards, laying down his licks on two LPs that flirted with the mainstream, while staying true to his highly electric guitar muse. In the 2000s, Randy would start another band with his brother called OPO which means 'to lay a foundation' in Hawaiian, and ODA would reform to play a benefit in 2015 along with other obscure and heady/heavy Bay Area rockers like Savage Resurrection and Country Weather (some live footage of the event shows the band still rocking hard). At last, Riding Easy is legitimately reissuing ODA's first smoking, gargantuan LP with bonus tracks, so crank this one up in the '70s Camaro with the windows open, and some dirt weed joints a-blazin'."

2024 repress. The historical origins of cumbia in Colombia are nebulous and imprecise. The mythology surrounding it suggests an ancient past when Amerindian, African and European musical sounds were mixed together. The main record companies in Colombia such as Discos Fuentes, Discos Tropical, Sonolux, Zeida-Codiscos, Silver, Ondina, Discos Atlantic, Vergara, and Curro were created between Barranquilla, Medellín, Cartagena, and Bogotá from 1936 to 1954. All of them, without exception, recorded Colombian tropical music that over the years was given different names such as porro, gaita, fandango, paseaito, merecumbé, mapalé, bullerengue or, of course, cumbia. This first volume in the series Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!! comprises 24 Colombian cumbia bangers for the dancefloor from the deep vaults of Discos Fuentes, the most emblematic and best remembered label in the golden age of the genre. This is complemented by a selection of cumbias recorded by the label Discos Tropical, which sold most of its catalog to Discos Fuentes in 1990. Discos Fuentes concentrated on recording cumbias played on the accordion and by orchestras and ensembles. The label produced a prodigious number of albums devoted to cumbias between 1962 and 1979, which served to define ambiguous stereotypes, rooted as much in authenticity and modernity as in demure sensuality and joyful nostalgia. Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!! combines well-known classics and rarities that are difficult to find in their original formats. An invitation to enjoy and be amazed, above and beyond ethnographic and academic concerns. Features Juan Piña Y Sus Muchachos, Los Corraleros De Majagual, Aníbal Velásquez Y Su Conjunto, Cumbia Cipote Vaina, Calixto Ochoa Y Su Conjunto, Lucho Campillo Y Su Conjunto, La Sonora Del Caribe, El Sexteto Miramar, Pello Torres Y Sus Diablos Del Ritmo, Combo Los Galleros, Los Guacharacos, Combo Sampuesano, Conjunto Típico Vallenato, Pedro Laza Y Sus Pelayeros, Andrés Landero Y Su Conjunto, Los Golden Boys, Orquesta Nuñez, Los Candelosos, Morgan Blanco Y Su Conjunto, Pacho Galán Y Sus Sabaneros, Los Gavilanes De La Costa, Las Estrellas De Tolú, Los Warahuaco, Rodolfo Aicardi Y Su Tipica Ra7.

LP version. "London based singer-songwriter Rollo Doherty releases his debut EP on Lewis Recordings. Frontman for the indie guitar band ISLAND, his solo work is a radical departure from what fans would previously have known him for. As the title suggests, Rollo began this new DIY project from the tranquility of his own home and drew inspiration from the many small, subtle occurrences happening just on the other side of his bedroom window. '90s hip-hop, movie soundtracks, and shoegaze are just a few of several influences explored across this diverse piece of work. Out of My Window features some scratching from the infamous DJ Yoda as well as crossing the pond, landing in the hands of Brooklyn based duo The Still Brothers, who provided new life through their brilliant analogue production and arrangements alongside the expertise of producer Mike Hill (Arlo Parks, ISLAND) at Lemontree Studios, L.A. The circle became complete when by chance the LA mastering legends Becker Mastering (Doja Cat, Tyler The Creator, Harry Styles) happened upon the unreleased music when mixing engineer Mike visited their studio and asked to hear his latest work. The EP's duration serves as a metaphor for a single day, as it spans over approximately the duration of 24 minutes, each representing an hour of the day. Ambient soundscapes are heard in-between each track, all moments captured at corresponding parts of the day on Rollo's handheld microphone which he poises from his window. For fans of Mount Kimbie, Damon Albarn, Beach House, King Krule."

2024 limited restock. Solid green, 180 gram vinyl. Due to continued demand, the fourth and final Spacemen 3 studio album Recurring; the much-anticipated follow-up to their seminal Playing with Fire album, is being repressed. By the time the album was recorded, relations between the band had soured to the extent that the record is essentially in two parts; the first five tracks on side A written and performed by Pete Kember aka Sonic Boom, Spectrum, and E.A.R., and the last five tracks on side B written and performed by Jason Pierce (Spiritualized). The lead track "Big City" recently featured on HBO's hugely successful show Succession, as well as being used on an episode of The Simpsons. The track "I Love You" has also enjoyed success on the screen having been used in a recent episode of Reservation Dogs, a successful US TV drama. The artwork looks as good now as it did over 30 years ago, the solid green vinyl only complimenting the overall design. An essential album for any old or new fans of Spacemen 3. Printed card inner sleeve.

2024 restock. Garden of Shadows and Light is the first collaboration between Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Toop, presenting the entirety of a concert performed in London in August 2018. With their collective musical experience encompassing collaborative work with figures as diverse as Evan Parker, Akiko Yano, Arto Lindsay and Christian Fennesz, in contexts ranging from pop session work to film scores to sound installation, no one could be sure how Sakamoto and Toop would approach their first concert together as a duo. From the opening moments, in which Sakamoto's delicate inside-piano work is paired with distant scrapes and moans from Toop's prepared lap steel guitar, it became immediately clear that a subtle, at times hushed, form of free improvisation is being practiced here, one in which space, pause and silence often take on heightened importance. The album's title takes inspiration from the aesthetics of Japanese gardening, and the spatial metaphor this suggests is apt, as listeners can imagine themselves wandering through a subtly changing environment, chancing on beautiful details and admiring them before moving on. You are led through a series of discrete moments, each uniquely shaded, whether by highly amplified small percussive sounds, austere electronic tones or the mournful tones of Toop's bass recorder. The course of the music follows a non-teleological drift, in which Sakamoto and Toop seem less concerned with establishing an overarching structure than in allowing each moment the space it needs to develop and breathe. When Sakamoto eventually turns to the piano's keyboard in the performance's second half, the music becomes lushly enveloping, as his jaggedly lyrical lines float against a backdrop of prepared guitar and field recordings. The music takes a radical, unexpected turn when Sakamoto picks up an electric guitar, with both players turning up the volume for a passage of distorted roar and shuddering feedback -- bracing evidence of the unfettered, exploratory approach shared by these two uncategorisable musicians, beautifully documented here.

Limited restock, last copies. "April 30, 1967 recording of a performance at The Gymnasium (424 E. 71st St) in New York City. So its Velvet's White Light/White Heat period in full gloom. In fact, it contains the first public performance of 'Sister Ray' (it clocks 19:10"! ) and the previously unreleased songs 'I'm Not a Young Man Anymore' and the R&B number Booker T. Mastered form recently sourced tapes not comparable with any previous versions. Black vinyl edition. Gatefold sleeve audiophile vinyl bags."

Restocked. Dead Moon were a lo-fi garage/rock n' roll band from Portland, Oregon, active for almost 20 years between 1987 and 2006, during which time the band gained a mythic and legendary iconic status. Off the Grid is a "dizzying oral history" about this most stubborn, idealistic and arguably wildest band in the world -- a saga about love itself and the love of rock and roll, about DIY and about an improbable career. The biography of singer and guitarist Fred Cole (formerly of The Weeds, Lollipop Shoppe, and The Rats before Dead Moon) is like a rollercoaster ride through countless bands and musical styles beginning in the Teenbeat era of the '60s driven by an invisible force and one big love. Dead Moon cultivated their DIY code built around Fred's superstitions and avoidance of conventional music industry pitfalls. They toured around the world, played in live clubs between Oregon, Europe, and New Zealand. They cut their own records and ran their own music store and label -- Tombstone Music. Their story is completely unique in the pantheon of rock music: a group who never sold out, never gave in and built a legacy of art and community in a sustainable way almost unheard of. The book is a tribute to their unique aesthetic, unbelievable twisted path of a story and role as pioneers of the Portland music scene. Off the Grid is a declaration of love to Dead Moon, to music in general and to rock n' roll in particular. The documentation tells the entire Dead Moon saga in the words of the band itself. Close friend, author and editor szim spent three summers (2013-2016) in Fred and Toody Coles's attic sifting through photos, flyers and tour diaries, collecting posters and T-shirts and conducting extensive interviews. This fourth revised and updated edition contains 16 more pages than the third and 36 more pages than the first one. The already extensive photo section now holds even more historical material, posters, flyers as well as an extended and completed discography and gig list. Exclusive to this edition is an interview with Edwin He. Softcover; 336 pages. 9.49x1.06x12.6 inches; 3.59 pounds.

2024 restock. "Charley (a.k.a. Charlie) Patton was the most powerful blues recording artist of all time, considered by many to be the single most important figure in the history of traditional blues. He was a profound shaper and a giant figure in early Mississippi Delta music. The combined power of his vocal and guitar dynamics is unparalleled and he was the Delta's first blues celebrity." This reissue reproduces the front and back cover of Yazoo's original 1970 release. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl.

Delphine Dora is a prolific composer, improviser and musician who has released on a plethora of labels including Recital, Morc, Sloow Tapes, Feeding Tube, Okraïna and more. Le Grand Passage is a stunning set of songs for piano and voice, recorded in one take without overdubs or edits, contrasting gilded piano motifs with improvised and abstracted vocal expressions, channeling the divine. Delphine Dora was nearing the end of a three-day prepared piano residency when a technician stepped in to tune her grand piano for her final performance. He removed the objects from the strings and fixed the pitch, leaving Dora with a freshly tuned instrument. Mesmerized by its new sound, she proceeded to switch on her recorder and pour out her soul, channeling, in her own words, "something greater than myself." The result is some of the most unusual but elevated material the prolific composer, improviser and multi-instrumentalist has ever recorded, rooted in a deep understanding of European musical history but willing to push at its boundaries, questioning the earthly logic of life and death, asceticism and impiety. Baroque paradigms bleed into fragile, introspective mantras, expressed through a made-up language of existential yearning and channeled through piano and voice. It's music that caresses the sublime, made without any premeditation. Dora conjures affecting, plainspoken poetry, like a bedside diary written in a hypnagogic, delirious state: a stream-of-unconsciousness, channeling the beyond. The album title connects to a book dedicated to French philosopher and activist Simone Weil, who famously pored over global religions to ascertain spiritual truths. To Weil, meditation was a passage to access mystical experience, or a bridge between humanity and divinity. In Dora's hands, this idea is a corridor between herself and the listener, a liminal place where she's able to address feelings without making anything explicit. The title, of course, also refers to life, its impermanence, finitude, and fragility, presenting the complex, multidimensionality of being through one of the most undiluted, unbridled set of songs imaginable. RIYL Andrew Chalk, Virginia Astley, Dominique Lawalrée, Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru. Mastered by Rashad Becker.

The fourth solo album from Jonnine Standish of HTRK, her debut for Modern Love. A beachside fever-dream in 11 parts, mixed and mastered by Amir Shoat and cut by Rashad Becker. Recorded in Woollahra, Eora/Sydney and Dandenong Ranges, Naarm/Melbourne. Additional percussion by Maria Moles. Comes with four postcards.

"An apartment by the suburban seaside. A pact with the ocean, popping candy, night trains, the lethargic limbo of summertime from Boxing Day to New Year's Eve. Trinkets are dainty, delicate, pretty, and cracked. Sunned sand and chilly bay winds, daytime sex, gothic teen photo shoots at a cliff's edge. Scratches of the beach scrub, cozy after-hours clockmakers, a purring cat and the faint melody of distant piano lessons floating behind the sounds of washing dishes. As much a series of sensory snapshots of the past and impressions of a peculiarly peaceful present moment." --Jonnine, 2024

The very first commercial release of two legendary remixes of Arthur Russell's In The Light Of The Miracle. Both are widely regarded as transcendent masterpieces and very much befitting of the title "holy grails." At last, these jaw-dropping mixes are widely available to every Arthur fan in the world. This is musical perfection. The deep Loft classic "In The Light Of The Miracle" remained unreleased during Arthur's lifetime, finally discovered when Phillip Glass included the original version on Another Thought on Point Music in 1993. The story goes that Gilles Peterson heard the remixes on a visit to the Point Music offices and wanted to release them on Talkin' Loud. These remixes both extend and undeniably enhance the original, elevating it to new heights. The 13-minute remix on the A-side is by Danny Krivit and Tony Smith with editing duties performed by Tony Morgan. The "Ponytail Club Mix (Part 1 & 2)," produced by Tony Morgan in the mid-'90s, is in a more up-tempo style, with vocals higher in the mix, the BPM upped to 120 and the addition of a housey 4/4 kick drum. A 14-minute epic, you could say this is a more straight ahead "club-friendly" mix. It also has some really interesting vocal parts not used in the other versions, including some vocals from guest poet Allen Ginsberg. These remixes are part of the same original project that also produced the Another Thought album so it seems only right that they have a sleeve that matches. Simon Francis remastered the original audio for both tracks and Cicely Balston's precise cut for Alchemy at AIR Studios ensures this 12" well and truly slaps. The immaculate Record Industry pressing will ensure this incredibly sought-after treasure finds a home in many more collections, this and every year.

Limited 2024 repress. Holy grail hip-hop alert! Superstar Quamallah's Invisible Man was never released on wax so, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of this astounding record, Be With presents the first ever vinyl edition. A stunning record which gained accolades upon its initial release, such as a prominent feature on Gilles Peterson's renowned Best Of 2009 show, it's one of the most essential jazz rap albums of all time. Cut across double vinyl, it's exceedingly limited, with just 500 pressed for the world. Deep jazz rap on that mellow-melodic tip, Invisible Man is an unforgettable album with nothing but dope beats and dope bars. It supremely captures the essence of a golden age classic without being slavish to the past. Perfect to chill to, Invisible Man is profoundly jazz-oriented and captures with simplicity and sincerity the essence of hip-hop circa 1983-1994. Brooklyn-born, California-based emcee, DJ, and producer Superstar Quamallah was active in the West Coast underground scene throughout the '90s and recorded extensively with such revered names as Defari and Tajai. His parents were some serious artistic heavyweights, too; his father was soul organist Big John Patton, a giant in the jazz world known for his releases on Blue Note whilst his mother was an active designer. However, he remains relatively unknown. Invisible Man, named ostensibly after the classic Ralph Ellison novel, could also refer to how he is viewed by the public at large. With a laidback flow and deep, relaxing presence on the mic, Superstar Quamallah is equal parts Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, and Guru. Invisible Man is refined, soulful, feel-good hip-hop of the old school. Its wise, spiritual and literate sound, combined with the summertime vibes projected by the smooth beats and the nostalgia-inducing samples and vocal scratches, created jazzy boom-bap rap reminiscent of prime De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and Gang Starr. This album was mastered for vinyl by Simon Francis, cut by Cicely Balston and pressed at Record Industry. Finally available on the format it should always have been on, it must never be rendered invisible again. Featuring restored artwork.

2024 repress; LP version. 180 gram pressing. There are times when the name of a musical project is in perfect harmony with the sounds emanating from it. And there are times when it is not. Take the 1981 album Deutsche Wertarbeit by keyboarder and composer Dorothea Raukes, which is rather an example of the latter. No stomping of military marches, as the title may imply, but six beautiful synthesizer treasures gathered together on the only solo album she would release, artfully unifying the so-called Düsseldorf School (Kraftwerk, etc.), the Berliner School (Tangerine Dream, etc.) and elements of Jean Michel Jarre's music with the sounds of the inceptive 1980s. From the hypnotic to the cosmic, sometimes pulsating, sometimes evincing saccharine melancholy. The cool, almost technical artwork does not really fit the warm, sensitive music, either. Dorothea Raukes was not exactly an unknown quantity when the album appeared. She had been playing keyboards and writing for the Düsseldorf rock band Streetmark for years. The group -- as was typical of the period -- operated on democratic principles, which meant that she was never quite able to follow through on her own musical ideas one hundred percent. A solo album, however, would allow her to do just that. One of the reasons why it turned out to be a purely electronic album was Raukes' sponsorship deal with Korg, giving her access to the full range of the company's gear. Listening to Deutsche Wertarbeit, those familiar with the history of Streetmark will find themselves reminded of Wolfgang Riechmann's solo LP Wunderbar (BB 027CD/LP), which appeared three years earlier and traced a similar musical pattern. Wolfgang Riechmann himself had been a member of Streetmark not all that long ago. Nonetheless, the two projects were entirely separate and had no immediate influence on each other.

"For those of you who've mislaid your history goggles, this archival release recalls an ancient time in the world of recorded music. Yes, back in the dinosaur days of the 1990s, a creature known as Aerial M walked the earth, before evolving into Papa M and PAJO and beyond and back. Even then, the music of M had a next-wave vibe, walking upright among the knuckle-draggers (and having drinks in the evening with others of its genetic detachment). It was too much to last very long, of course -- but some things end up lasting forever, don't they? Fuck! So it is today that Drag City, an organization largely set up to bring you the best of all available M recordings, is proud to be there for the release of the only Aerial M session ever recorded for John Peel's BBC Radio One show, as it was originally recorded on March 3, 1998 and broadcast on April 2 of the same year. The studio versions of these songs, which appear on Aerial M's self-titled album and Papa M's Hole of Burning Alms comp, were played by "M" himself (now revealed to be David Pajo!), which makes this album a rare alternative view of the canonical M, played by an actual Aerial M band who, all too briefly, embodied the sound for a year or so before Papa brought a brand-new bag. This session found them fortuitously roadburned from several weeks in the European Theatre. OG-M's signature minimalist long-fuse sizzle is thrillingly intact here; in fact, even more so, as the tunes are jammed out past the studio versions' originally delineated borders, reaching rudely across the table in moments of liveness that the studio-bound project might have decided against when conferring only with the walls. For fans of their epic version of 'Turn Turn Turn,' this is more sweetmeats from that raucous old skull -- but if you've not been down this road before, be prepared: the taste will set you slowly aflame. And then, before you know it, the band is dined and dashed -- just like the band that Aerial M was, all too briefly amok on the earth that was too. Salute!"

LP version. Having plied his trade around the world for more than three decades, German guitarist, bandleader and musical explorer Jan Whitefield has always instilled in his craft a natural aesthetic of authenticity, a key component which has seen him amass a sizeable and varied catalogue of material which has remained timeless where some of his contemporaries have faded away. In the early '90s, as various UK bands were signed up by sizeable labels and enjoyed even mainstream chart success in the acid jazz and rare groove boom, Jan and his brother Max formed the Poets Of Rhythm, self-releasing their own uncompromisingly hard-edged take on '70s street funk on the then completely unfashionable 7" single format, forerunning the deep funk scene by almost a decade. 30 years on, in spite of a legion of retro-focused bands having followed in their wake, few have yet to come close to matching the energy and spirit of those early Poets 45s. Since then, Jan has applied himself to all manner of new incarnations and innovative side-projects, releasing further funk surveys as the Whitefield Brothers before leading his own band under the pseudonym Karl Hector, with releases on labels such as Stones Throw, Daptone, Ninja Tune, Mo'Wax, Strut and more. An avid music lover, explorer and record collector extraordinaire, Whitefield's music has effortlessly absorbed his expanding interests along the way, particularly drawing influence from Ethiopian jazz and West African funk and highlife, as well as Kraut-rock and ambient via his Rodinia alter-ego. More recently, Whitefield has begun to venture into the astral planes of what's now commonly referred to as "spiritual jazz," and this is very much where he is manifesting on The Infinity Of Nothingness. A set of mature, delicate and meditative orchestrations, like much of Whitefield's best work the album is studiously true to its key influences -- and in this instance the twin figureheads of Sun Ra and Pharoah Sanders are particularly preeminent -- but also completely avoids falling into a trap of mere tribute or facsimile. With subtle yet diverse accents of hip hop, library and the avant garde appearing wholly unobtrusively, the album is unified by a marked trance-like feel. With The Infinity Of Nothingness Whitefield achieves that exceptionally rare feat of creating music that is not only worthy of sitting alongside that of his overarching influences, but will also stand up with it against the tests of time.

"140gram 2LP color-in-color vinyl. Gatefold jacket with photos, liner notes, and credits in resealable collector's bag. Since its release in 1988, Dreamtime Return earned its reputation as a genuine classic. The magnum opus is one of the most important, widely known and highly respected release in Roach's vast body of work. It serves as an essential benchmark within the electronic-ethno-atmospheric genre. Roach's travels in the Australian outback, along with studies of the Aboriginal Dreamtime, and his desert walkabouts in California were the lifeblood for this recording which even today sounds like a transmission from the near future and the very distant past. With new vinyl-manufacturing-metal sourced from the 2018 high-definition remaster, the true expansive depth of this iconic masterpiece has been meticulously unveiled, revealing a refined listening experience. Mastering engineer Howard Givens utilized an extensive array of analog and digital tools and his passion for this seminal work to restore the original sonic nature and visionary intention, taking the listener deeper into the dreamtime."

LP version. US singer-songwriter legend Amy Rigby presents her new album Hang In There With Me through Tapete Records. Eleven up-to-the minute songs written by Amy and recorded by Wreckless Eric at the couples' home in upstate NY, Hang In There With Me is a bracing look at life inside the vortex of the last few years. Rigby's distinctive voice bluntly traverses love, loss and DIY projects gone wrong over guitars cranked or shimmering, indelible bass lines, a raft of synthesizers, keyboards, beat boxes and the occasional drummer allowed into Amy and Erics rustic mid-century echo chamber. Like some people turn to the moon and stars for inspiration, Amy Rigby looks to creative heroes like Bob Dylan and Mike Leigh. She finds poetry in haircuts, live chat boxes; bartending and bookselling. Her music is the sound of everyday people getting by, just like the country artists she loved and learned to write songs from. The recording of Hang In There With Me was bookended by Amy performing in the round alongside Nashville compadre David Olney when he died onstage in January 2020, and the demise of Amy's dad. Along with Eric's near-fatal heart attack, it could have all made for heavy going in the studio, but Amy says: "There was nothing to hide in the few years when no one could see each other. And with my dad losing his mind and passing away, there's not much left to prove anymore. Watching key figures in our lives die just makes it clear that getting older is a gift and brings a new kind of freedom. Writing songs, making records and touring has been my life and I'm lucky I have the energy and will to keep at it. I still just want to share stories and rock out on guitar. The world is such a mess she says. Writing songs and working in the studio is a small way to make order out of the chaos. It keeps on giving me hope. Hang In There With Me looks at the impossibility of life and living it anyway, with abandon." Amy Rigby has established herself one of Americas enduring underground/cult/indie artists, combining the insight and humor of country and folk songwriting with classic rock craftsmanship and punk DIY spirit. She formed pre-Americana country band Last Roundup (Rounder) and Richard Hells' favorite girl group the Shams (Matador) in downtown NYC before launching a solo career with '90s classic album Diary Of A Mod Housewife.

2024 repress; this pressing is on "Thor" Color Vinyl. "The Argument is the sixth studio album from Fugazi released on October 16, 2001 through Dischord Records. It was recorded at Don Zientara's Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA and the Dischord House between January and April 2001. Upon release it was met with critical and commercial success. It was the band's last release (simultaneously with Furniture) before going on indefinite hiatus in 2003, until the release of First Demo over thirteen years later."