LP version. Alice is a vocal harmony trio made up of three persons, joined by a cheap synth and limited virtuosity. Together, they craft a kind of future folklore that's part funny, part apocalyptic -- half-soft, half-harsh, half-sad, half-simple, half-complex, half-controlled, half-Yvonne Harder, half-Sarah André, half-Lisa Harder. Since their last album L'Oiseau Magnifique (BJR 091CD), Alice have spent time on the road -- in cars, in trains, out in the open. Accustomed to writing outdoors, they slowly stitched together a collection of new songs. After two years of performing in clubs, bars, stairwells, carpentry workshops, activist agricultural fairs and roadside shoulders, they took their Oiseau Magnifique just about everywhere. It felt like time to sew these new pieces together -- a quilt of humor and soft words, something we could really use in these half-sweet, half-fascist times. Les Châteaux Faibles is the name of one of their latest songs, and naturally, the title of their new album. It captures the group's ethos perfectly -- a search for refuge in fragility, in a weakness that's better when shared. A collective sensitivity to bring us closer, stronger -- united in Châteaux Faibles.

When asked about the title of her new record, Amor, Limpe Fuchs bluntly responded, "because it's everything." Being a Beatles fan from the very beginning, she's well aware that "all you need is love," but there's more to her sentiment than a corny pun. On the one hand, she's more than half a century into her musical career, and describes the relationship towards her instruments in terms of an ongoing and deepening love affair. So, it's about time for a love letter to her percussion instruments and the act of drumming and listening to her drums, which can be heard as "Trommeln" on the second to last track on Amor. Listeners also get to learn about "Verliebte Autos im Wald" -- a poem by Augusta Laar that Limpe recites during the closing track. What may come across as a goofy nursery rhyme at first is indeed testament to Limpe's longstanding animistic beliefs, her imagination towards everything around her. "It may sound wonky, but it's as simple as it's true, and it's important to love yourself and everything around you -- at least I try to do so the best I can, and sometimes I fail, sure." And, again, if you think about it, it's not much of a surprise, she's singing about cars, the vehicles that since decades get her and her instruments from gig to gig, all across Europe. But it's not all just about the material world around her, of course. So, on the other hand and for the most part, Amor reflects on love as an interpersonal and spiritual experience. Drawing inspiration from such different authors as Giordano Bruno, Hilde Domin, and Serge Kahili King, Amor is a record of compositions one could almost call "songs," although they're far from being performed in a conventional way. It is also Limpe Fuchs' most openly insightful and vulnerable record to date. As curious as ever, in her light-hearted yet thoughtful manner she explores the upsides and downsides of what it means to be loved or not loved.

After re-releasing 1982 and the double LP Froh zu sein and 8-EP-Sampler, play loud! now completes the Familie Hesselbach catalog (1980-1985) with the third vinyl LP Sueddeutschland & Der Untergang des Hauses H. Enjoy!

"40 years after six students from the prestigious university of Tübingen were latecomers to the German new wave, it is once again the turn for Familie Hesselbach, who have always been called 'The German Talking Heads,' something we could agree with, if we add to their sound the rhythm schemes of A Certain Ratio, the groovy bass of Bush Tetras, the skronky disco-esque of James White, and turn Byrne's voice to a more spastic and cons ice one. Berlin´s play loud! label reissued in vinyl this early '80s German new wave gem, and if you think of all the bands we've named, you know this is going to blow your mind!" --Tremendo Garage about the first LP 1982

Jim Coleman's NOW WAVE - Glowing: Beth B Exhibition features collected tracks that represent the sonic component of the "NOW WAVE - Glowing" exhibition by Beth B. This 2024 exhibition appeared at Silent Green in Berlin, featuring several live performances. Coleman collaborated with a stellar group of musicians and artists: Annie Bandez (Little Annie), Robert O. Leaver (This Wilderness, Birdthrower), Phil Puleo (Swans, Cop Shoot Cop), Jared Louche, Kirsten McCord, Paul Wallfisch, Vincent Dubuis, Nick Flynn, Evelyn Frantti, No Anger, Louise Hoffmeister, and Bliss Blood. The fusion of text, music, filmic image material, and performance create an immersive experience that is captivating and entertaining, but also confronts existential questions of human coexistence. The universal stories of the artists confront perceptions and assumptions concerning heartache, disability, mental illness, and addiction alongside the visceral music by Jim Coleman. Voicing the unheard and seeing the unseen are themes that have run through Beth B's films, art, and installation work with an eye to creating dialogue, community, and a place for self-knowledge and acceptance. Includes art exhibition catalog; 32+ pages, 17x24 cm.

LP version. In the weird world of Wevie Stonder, things are never straightforward. The four-piece collective headed up by Al Boorman have returned with their first album in 16 years -- and one reason it took so long is that they couldn't think of a title. The group are renowned for their outlandish electronics and humorous vocal performances, with a series of treasured releases on Manchester's eminent Skam Records, and their latest album Sure Beats Living ventures into unknown realms. Introducing a host of new characters, tall tales and bizarre scenarios to a musical backdrop as varied as it is striking, the record darts between ambient tranquility, strange soundtracks, bass-heavy beats and emotive R&B. Opener "That's Magic" features a magician talking us through a convoluted magic trick, to a mysterious synth theme that a celebrity conjurer might use to help the pyramids disappear. It's probably one of the only pieces of music to draw influences from Paul Daniels. "Carpet Squares" is a hefty slab of squirming machine bass, acid squidges and clanking industrial drums, its samples extolling the virtues of fitting comfortable flooring, with a voiceover recorded on a Canadian golf course. "Vanja & Slavcho" tells the odd story of twins who have an extraordinary ability to a bustle of spiraling arpeggios and comedic sound effects, while "Tiktaalik" has a glam rock beat, guitar twangs, wild synth runs and dance music drum rolls that build to nowhere, plus processed dolphin noises and a vocal about evolution. Then there's "Piccolo's Travels," a spellbinding mix of classical strings and -- is that a malfunctioning Clanger? "Album Titles" lists rejected names for the record to hilarious effect, with outlandish blips, accordion riffs and bubbling percussion setting the scene, "The 38th Parallel" is a wonky slab of electronica, while "Push It" has everything from rock guitar interjections to explosions and birdsong. If "Customer Services" imagines the bewildering experience of dealing with a sentient automated phone call, then the following "Nothing To Write Home About" is a waltz-time organ piece with a nostalgic, bittersweet air. "Ready?" lists practically every genre under the sun and gives you a burst of it, from drill to country and western, hardcore to Miami bass, and the final track, "The Void," is an AutoTune-laced R&B track with a deep, emotional core.

LP version. Unsent Letters is the weird cousin to songs on half a lifetime of albums. It has been living in the basement, in a box and is now emerging, blinking into the daylight. Even though it's a bit rough around the edges, it turns out to be a rather charming and likeable fellow for all that. And with stories to tell. Pete Astor is a musician, writer and educator. He led Creation Records' groups The Loft and The Weather Prophets, writing songs and releasing records that helped define the sound of the label and the emerging Indie genre. He has gone on to a lengthy solo career since then; writing, recording and releasing music on a range of labels including Matador, Heavenly, Warp, EMI and Fortuna Pop. He is Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Westminster. As well as touring extensively, he also makes records with David Sheppard as Ellis Island Sound and releases his spoken word electronic pop project as The Attendant with Ian Button (Go Kart Mozart, Death in Vegas) on his label Faux Lux. Since 2017, Astor has been signed to the estimable Tapete Records, home to Robert Forster, Lloyd Cole, and Comet Gain among many excellent others. Unsent Letters features songs that Astor wrote while in The Loft but which the group never played, along with songs from throughout his forty-year career that are now, finally coming out into the world.

Clear vinyl version. "Originally released in 2010, The Body's All The Waters Of The Earth Turn To Blood is a watershed album that changed the landscape of heavy music. Buoyed by the eclectic cast of musicians, from the undeniably potent collaboration with The Assembly of Light Choir as led by now longtime The Body collaborator Chrissy Wolpert, to guest contributors that include members of Dead Times, Fang Island, Lichens (aka Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe), Human Beast, and many more. The album's singularly bleak, yet beautiful atmosphere not only set the tone for The Body's career in breaking the mold, but set a new standard for what extreme music could do. All The Waters rightfully broke The Body, the duo of Lee Buford and Chip King, out from the underground and was met with acclaim from across a wide spectrum. Pitchfork's Grayson Haver Currin said of the record: 'The rare album that feels truly dangerous. As it crushes and collides doom metal, harsh noise, industrial rock, and gospel singing into one mean mess, it seems to obey no rules but its own. The result is a singular, explosive masterpiece.' NPR's Lars Gotrich put it in his 2010 Top 10 list, calling it 'the most surreal doom-metal record of 2010' and The Quietus called it the year's 'best record on the fringes of metal.' Following the album's release and subsequent tours, which sometimes included the entire Assembly of Light Choir, The Body established themselves as a permanent fixture of forward-thinking artists and a reliably overwhelming force, both on record and in live settings. All The Waters also helped spark the duo's penchant for collaboration, which they then solidified across dozens of releases, from collaborations with Braveyoung to BIG|BRAVE, Thou, Full of Hell, Uniform, and beyond. The new reissue for All The Waters is packaged as a double LP, including a whole new Side D, which is composed of bonus material never before pressed to vinyl. First edition pressings of the double vinyl reissue will be a deluxe poster edition."

"As the record continues, the beating just doesn't stop. The choral voices, returning here and there, are the only ray of hope: the Body's own singing amounts to weedy, apocalyptic howls, barely clearing the din of their processional stomps. It's an experience, this record, written in big riffs and celestial choirs and digital static." --The New York Times

2025 repress; remastered on 180 gram vinyl, expanded to double-LP, gatefold sleeve. One cannot hear a Tommy Guerrero song without immediately recognizing it as his -- and his only. The cult skater from San Francisco is globally renowned as one of the original members of the legendary "Bones Brigade" team. And as an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, his laid-back soul is beloved by all who've basked in its blissful glow. A Little Bit Of Somethin' is a quietly majestic gem. Brimming with Guerrero's horizontal "loose grooves", these brief but innovative instrumentals demonstrate a rich variety and, as such, comprise an LP that is aptly titled. An enchanting start-to-finish listen, it was instantly regarded as essential upon release via Mo Wax in 2000. It has aged remarkably well. Throughout this inspired collection, simplicity is key. In deploying it, Guerrero presents a beautifully crafted melodic soundscape. The distinctive, mellifluous approach of his guitar style, blending Brazilian, Cuban, Mexican, soul, and jazz motifs, is at once startlingly new and tantalizingly familiar. Set against unrushed percussion, the music releases a crystal-clear stream of healing frequencies to create a fragile, hypnotic atmosphere. Each track clocks in at around three minutes and, with a lack of studio polish or commitment to traditional song structure, it's a wonder how this enigmatic record demands your attention. However, through its gentle dynamism and impressive playing, it does just that. Whilst resolutely low-key, this lo-fi aesthetic feels genuinely organic and remarkably personal; its powerful intimacy truly connects. It's what makes this album so beloved of those lucky enough to be already familiar with it. From Margaret Kilgallen's truly iconic cover artwork to the music contained within, it's all brilliantly effortless. Guerrero's musical ideas are consistently compelling throughout, making it impossible to select highlights. The album's laconic drift touches upon jazz-fusion workouts and slow-mo hip-hop drums, Tortoise-style experimental post-rock, and cinematic sound textures. It's at once hazy, light and bouncy yet somber and bluesy. The Latin soul of El Chicano blends with the breezy jazz of Grant Green. By employing guitars and drum machines to create a stripped-down rhythmic tapestry of spellbinding, addictive songs, there are even traces of The Durutti Column. A little bit of country, a little bit of rock n' roll. A Little Bit Of Somethin', indeed.

2025 repress. Black Truffle announce a new solo album by Eiko Ishibashi, her first for the label, following on from the duo recording Ichida alongside bassist Darin Gray (BT 039LP, 2018). Hyakki Yagyō (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons) was produced for the "Japan Supernatural" exhibition at The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney focusing on ghost stories and folklore from the Edo period onwards. As with The Dream My Bones Dream (Drag City, 2018), the album is a response to troubling questions about Japanese history, and the influence of the past upon the present, but finds Ishibashi shifting further away from her earlier piano-led songwriting and showing a deepening interest in electronics and audio collaging. The two side-long parts of Hyakki Yagyō feature layered synthesizers, acoustic instrumentation, recited verse, and field recordings, at times densely mixed but always with a subtle interplay of changing elements. The influence of European and American forerunners as diverse as Alvin Curran, David Behrman, and Strafe Für Rebellion can be traced, yet at the same time Ishibashi evokes the flute and string sounds associated with Japanese storytelling, and draws directly on the subversive literary tradition of Kyoka ("mad poetry") with a verse by the 15th-century poet Ikkyū Sōjun repeated throughout the album. Revisiting what has gone before, re-thinking what is possible musically, as a way of articulating what else might be possible in the future. As Ishibashi's liner notes make clear, the album reflects an attention to persistent dangers, myths and evasions in Japanese culture -- as well as the lurking uncertainties that might threaten positive change. This would seem to be manifested in the emerging melodies soon met by dissonance, erratic collisions, and near silence, as well as the eerie manipulation of the double-tracked vocals. Ishibashi's underlying concerns ring true more widely of course. Hyakki Yagyō is a work of multiplicities, and mystery, a landscape where nothing is as it seems at first, and everything is vulnerable to sudden violent interruptions. The album was produced with regular collaborators Jim O'Rourke (double bass) and Joe Talia (percussion), and features dancer and choreographer Ryuichi Fujimura performing Ikkyū's satirical tanka. O'Rourke's immersive mix creates a three-dimensional effect, with Ishibashi's various sound sources enmeshing and interacting in captivating ways. White vinyl; inner sleeve featuring artist portrait and liner notes from Eiko Ishibashi. Cover and label design by Shuhei Abe. Back cover design by Lasse Marhaug. Mixed and mastered by Jim O'Rourke.

2025 restock; LP version. During the legendary Forst years, Roedelius had a private workspace with a Farfisa organ, a Revox-A77 tape machine, an echo device and a synthesizer which he borrowed from the Cluster studio next door now and again. Here he experimented, practiced, allowed his imagination to flow, at any hour of the day or night, whenever he was not in the studio with Dieter Moebius and/or Michael Rother at work on new Cluster or Harmonia material. Roedelius always let the tape run, in order to analyze the ideas thus captured more effectively on repeated listening. For the first time ever, this Roedelius audio sketchbook had been digitalized and available to the public in 2014 on a limited three-LP box set called Roedelius Tape Archive 1973-1978. The recordings offer a deep insight into the creative process of his music. Fleeting notes, slivers of ideas, so to speak, moments of inspiration. Finger exercises, experiments in harmony, studies in rhythm are also preserved on these magnetic tapes. Since the box set has been sold out for a long time, Bureau B decided to release the essence of those three LPs on a one-disc compilation: Roedelius Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978.

2025 Repress in plain white disco sleeve. Forest Drive West returns to Livity Sound with the Dualism EP, a tour de force of stripped dub aesthetics and swirling psychedelic rhythms. One of the finest breakthrough UK producers of recent years, in a short space of time Forest Drive West has created an enviable catalog across labels such as Livity Sound, Rupture, Echocord, Whities, and Mantis. This new EP marks some of his best work to date. The final track on the EP, "Scorpion", features Melbourne based percussionist Lucky Pereira whose frenetic but tightly locked drums add a fizzing energy to Forest Drive West's deep atmospheric rhythm track.

2025 restock. On May 28, 1969, four American musicians -- reed/wind players Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, bassist Malachi Favors, and (accompanied by his wife, singer Fontella Bass) trumpeter Lester Bowie -- boarded the ocean liner S.S. United States, bound for Le Havre, France. After landing five days later, they moved on to Paris, where they got to work. On August 22, 1970, in the waning days of their stay overseas, the group, with Bass on vocals, would record their second release for EMI's Pathé Marconi: the movie soundtrack Les Stances à Sophie. The record, an exciting, eminently listenable combination of soul, classical, and jazz strains that survives as the Art Ensemble of Chicago's most stylistically diverse album, has long been admired by a devoted cult. Its durability is largely due to the popularity of its "hit": Over the years, "Theme de Yoyo" has been covered repeatedly, essayed by acts as varied as German funk band the Boogoos (and the offshoot Deep Jazz, both featuring singer Julia Fehenbeger), British nu-jazz combo the Cinematic Orchestra, Polish jazz man Wojtek Mazolewski, Norwegian rockers Motorpsycho, French dance music artist Étienne Jaumet, and London-based remixer, Shall I Bruk It. More than half a century later, "Theme de Yoyo" and Les Stances à Sophie still bring it. Limited-edition LP reissue from play loud! Productions, supplemented with new notes by U.S. music journalist Chris Morris.

Restocked. Keith Hudson's Nuh Skin Up Dub is a deep, heavyweight dub album that stands as one of the most potent statements in the genre's history. Released in 1979, this sonic masterpiece showcases Hudson's signature dark, almost mystical production style, where heavy basslines, echo-drenched drums, and ghostly fragments of vocals swirl together in a hypnotic haze. Unlike the more polished, accessible dub records of the time, Nuh Skin Up Dub is raw, unfiltered, and experimental, pushing the boundaries of rhythm and space. Tracks like "Nuh Skin Up" and "Felt We Felt the Strain" pulse with an eerie, almost menacing energy, while Hudson's masterful use of reverb and delay creates a soundscape that feels simultaneously expansive and claustrophobic. Often referred to as the "Dark Prince of Reggae," Hudson had an uncanny ability to craft music that was both deeply meditative and unsettling, and Nuh Skin Up Dub is a prime example of his genius. It's a record that rewards deep listening -- every spin reveals new layers of sonic detail, hidden textures, and dub wizardry. For fans of heavy, atmospheric dub, Nuh Skin Up Dub is an essential listen, a landmark recording that solidifies Keith Hudson's status as one of the most visionary figures in reggae history.

2025 repress. Black vinyl. "With one foot in the past but their eyes firmly set on the future, El Michels Affair are among the leaders of a resurgent funk & soul movement from New York City that's sweeping both the music community and the charts. Led by saxophonist/organist Leon Michels and producer/engineer Jeff Silverman, El Michels Affair began as a loose collaboration of session musicians (including members of top-selling acts Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, the Budos Band, and Antibalas) that looked to blend some of the vibrant quality of soundtrack records with the recording aesthetic of early reggae, and the rawness of 60's rock -- they called it 'Cinematic Soul.' This delicate balance was evident on their 2005 debut album Sounding Out the City, which earned critical acclaim and acted as the inaugural full-length release for Michels and Silverman's burgeoning label Truth & Soul (also the moniker for the duo as a production team). The buzz generated from the album and a series of moderately successful 7" vinyl singles from Truth & Soul led to an invitation by Toyota's Scion division for El Michels Affair to accompany the rapper Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan for a promotional concert. As avid Wu-Tang fans, not only were the band leaders thrilled with the opportunity, but Michels found that the 'Cinematic Soul' sound was consistent with the moods of RZA's gritty soundscapes on the classic Wu-Tang releases. The concert was such as success, El Michels Affair went on to play several more concerts nationwide backing Raekwon and other members of the Clan, and the shows led to the recording of two smash 7" singles featuring instrumental reinterpretations of the Wu-Tang classic songs 'C.R.E.A.M.' and 'Bring Da Ruckus.' The singles combined to sell an extraordinary amount of over 7,000 units worldwide, and their success led to a contract in 2007 with indie hip hop powerhouse Fat Beats Records to record an entire album of Wu-Tang Clan interpolations entitled Enter the 37th Chamber. Since the contract was inked, a worldwide explosion of retro soul led by Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings has transformed the pop music landscape, and the Truth & Soul production duo have been in strong demand, recording with everyone from breakthrough Grammy-nominated artist Adele to punk rock innovator Iggy Pop. They've been commissioned for official remixes of Amy Winehouse and Dinah Washington (for the popular Verve Remixed series), and produced for Australian multi-platinum acts Jet and Gabriella Cilmi. Despite the eclectic group of clients for the Truth & Soul production company, El Michels Affair continued to build an audience within the hip hop community. A track from Sounding Out The City was sampled for Ghostface Killah's 2007 track 'Shakey Dog Lolita,' and a horn part written and performed by Michels (for Menahan Street Band) was famously lifted for Jay-Z's smash single 'Roc Boys.'"

Paperbound, 407 pages. "Edited by Lawrence Kumpf, Charles Curtis. Text by Éliane Radigue, Dagmar Schwerk, Daniel Sillman, Anthony Vine. A detailed look at the elusive work of a French pioneer of musique concrète and electroacoustic composition. This volume is an exploration of the early electronic work of French composer Éliane Radigue (born 1932), whose radical approach to feedback, analog synthesis and composition on tape has long evaded straightforward interpretation. Combining key texts, newly translated primary documents, in-depth interviews and commissioned essays, this compendium probes her idiosyncratic compositional practice, which both embraces and confounds the iterative nature of magnetic tape, the subtleties of amplification and the very experience of listenership. Chief among these entries is an in-depth overview by cellist Charles Curtis examining the composer's earliest experiments in feedback techniques and analog synthesis, her eventual turn to works for unamplified instruments and live performers, and her unique aesthetic of time and presence. Detailed conversations provide crucial windows into her working methods at different points in her career. Sketches for unrealized work, contemporary reviews, programs and ephemera are collected together for the first time. The anthology concludes with a roundtable discussion working out the knotty paradoxes of Radigue's continued 'ethos of resistance.'"

Volume 2 of the absolutely infamous (and highly sought after) Cult Sounds compilation, comprised of music done by fringe religious cults around the world. Oh, boy! Volume 2 of Cult Sounds is here, so it's time for another bad trip through the music produced by weird, extreme cults all over the world. From hypnotic Manson Family recordings to the catchy '80s pop manufactured by The Family, to jazz, psych jams, country music or plain out-there musical experimentation, this second volume gets as weird, dark and mesmerizing as its predecessor, amazing. Featuring Zendik Farm Orgaztra, Church Universal and Triumphant, Gabriel of Sedona's Bright & Morning Star Choir, Otto Muehl, The Lyman Family, Lisa Kindred, Aun Shinrykio, Joe Pass, Dr Malachi Z. York, Unification Church, and Unarius.

LP version. Black Truffle presents Spilla, the second album from Nantes-based Ensemble Nist-Nah, 48 minutes of music for Gamelan, drum kits, wood and metal percussion instruments, and plucked strings that will surely count as one of the most electrifying records you hear. Founded by the Australian drummer/percussionist Will Guthrie in 2019, continuing the explorations begun in solo form on Nist-Nah, the ensemble (eight or nine core members with occasional guests) has been consistently active in the half-decade since: composing, rehearsing, recording and touring Europe (with a mass of equipment in tow) to great acclaim. Spilla tracks the continuing evolution of the project since the recording of their first album, Elders (BT 086CD). The two sides of this record document two different iterations of the group, and the members' compositional input has increased: each side contains one piece by a member other than Guthrie. It has become clearer than ever that Ensemble Nist-Nah is not an attempt at a European Gamelan ensemble but rather a hybrid percussion ensemble that uses instruments from a Javanese Gamelan alongside other percussion to perform original music informed by a variety of South East Asian music but also by everything from free jazz to contemporary hip-hop: while Nist-Nah and Elders both featured traditional Javanese pieces, on Spilla the only tune not generated by a member of the group is by Guthrie's long-time musical hero and occasional collaborator Roscoe Mitchell. The epic closing track presents a take on Roscoe Mitchell's "Uncle," performed by the Art Ensemble of Chicago on their classic Urban Bushmen live album. Where the Art Ensemble used Mitchell's dirge-like melody as a jumping off point for virtuosic improvisational flights, Ensemble Nist-Nah rethink the piece as a near-static dialogue between the monumental, slow-moving sequence of unison tuned percussion notes and a textural cloud that grows in richness and intensity from whispering cymbal rolls into a mass of gong overtones and bowed metal. Beautifully recorded and mixed, Spilla arrives in a sleeve decorated with core member Charles Dubois' drawings of cymbals and gongs. Against the backdrop of a wider musical landscape dominated by over-produced electronic slop and bland harmonic wallpaper, Ensemble Nist-Nah stands out as a reminder, vital and unpretentious, of the joys and possibilities of human beings playing instruments together.

Archaic, infernal, radical, consistent, courageous. Following the release of his LP The Lovers And Destroyers with Caspar Brötzmann Bass Totem in autumn, 2024, renowned guitarist Caspar Brötzmann and his band Caspar Brötzmann Massaker present a collaborative release between Corbett vs. Dempsey and Exile On Mainstream (Berlin). The record features two different live versions of "All This Violence," recorded in Vienna and Dresden, with Saskia von Klitzing (drums) and Eduardo Delgado Lopez (bass). Founded in 1986, Caspar Brötzmann Massaker became a significant force in the 1990s alternative rock scene. The band's albums The Tribe (1987), Black Axis (1989), Der Abend Der Schwarzen Folklore (1991), Koksofen (1993), Home (1995) and Mute Massaker (1999) are heralded underground classics, having a profound influence on bands and artists like Sonic Youth, SUNN O))), Faith No More, Neurosis, Sumac, and Helmet, to name a few. The band's music is textural, visceral, arresting, and urgent, marked by repetitive, hypnotic intensity, and Brötzmann's signature guitar sound. The legacy lies in his fearless experimentation, dissolving boundaries between classical music structures and amplified instrumentation in rock music. Since the mid-1980s, Caspar Brötzmann has been shaping an unmistakable sound -- infernal, radical, uncompromising. He unwaveringly pursues his own path, beyond clear genre boundaries. As the son of a famous saxophonist, he found his artistic identity early on and developed a unique sound language that discharges in brute catharsis. His music is not an adaptation to trends, but a sensitive, passionate, almost obsessive approach to despair and anger -- and yet full of hope. With his virtuoso independence on the instrument, he is an exceptional phenomenon. An atonal Hendrix, made in Germany.

5LP box version. Includes art book. Over the decades, the image of Kompakt as a pirate ship has taken root in our minds, braving the dangers of the seven seas of the music market. Sometimes it glides with a tailwind through calm waters, sometimes it has to survive violent storms. In the label's fast-paced business, the 500 mark is rarely reached, so Kompakt wants to celebrate it. In a democratic process, the label has selected 50 pearls from the thousands of tracks released over the last 33 1/3 years. Alongside many Kompakt evergreens, there are also some real rarities from the early Kompakt Sound of Cologne, which have been lovingly remastered here to shine in new splendor. The 5LP box set version (KOM 500LP) also contains a 144-page book that tells the story of Kompakt from 1993 to today with detailed texts and images. In addition to the manifold musical and graphic achievements of Kompakt, the multidisciplinary links to the visual arts are also highlighted here. The magic of groovy loop minimalism and the "art of omission" are once again brought to the proverbial point. Featuring Tocotronic, Kaito, Terranova, Justus Köhncke, Heiko Voss, Leandro Fresco/Thore Pfeiffer, The Bionaut, Ada, Raz Ohara, Superpitcher, Rex The Dog, Dettinger, The Field, Robag Wruhme, Saschienne, Max Würden, Gas, Triola AG, Thomas Fehlmann, Scsi-9, Jürgen Paape, The Modernist, Aril Brikha, T.Raumschmiere, Reinhard Voigt, Schaeben & Voss, DJ Koze, The Orb, Michael Mayer, Laurent Garnier, Anna & Kittin, Mike Ink, Reinhard Voigt, Forever Sweet, Wassermann, Sven Väth, Blank Gloss, Michael Mayer / Matias Aguayo, Wighnomy Bros., John Tejada, Sam Taylor-Wood, Pet Shop Boys, Gui Boratto, Jürgen Paape, Matias Aguayo, Voigt & Voigt, Gui Boratto, Kölsch, GusGus, Closer, Wassermann, Jürgen Paape, Superpitcher, and Markus Guentner.

Limited repress. Recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris and one and a half a year after releasing his magnum opus Music For Animals -- described by PopMatters as "a musical waterfall of monumental proportions" -- Nils Frahm shares a new live album on his Leiter label. In what's becoming a tradition, it follows 2013's Spaces, a Pitchfork Album of the Year taped at shows over the preceding 18 months, and 2020's Tripping With Nils Frahm, also released as a film. Paris is Frahm's first live album from a single night, March 21, 2024, and contains ten tracks over a running time of 84 minutes. Frahm's performances have always been known for expanding upon his studio recordings, and Paris is no exception. Drawing on his substantial catalogue, the German composer and producer reworks tracks from Music For Animals ("Right Right Right" and "Briefly") before less recent material from 2009's The Bells ("Some"), and 2012's Screws ("Re," originally recorded with just nine fingers after Frahm broke a thumb). There's also "Spells" from All Encores and "You Name It" from Day, while the brand new, luxurious and strangely gripping "Opera" sets the stage for "On The Roof" from his heart-rending, award-winning score for 2015's widely acclaimed, one-camera, one-take German thriller, Victoria. Frahm's instrumental range has expanded to include a mountain of vintage synths and keyboard instruments. These include a custom-made organ as well as the final glass harmonica constructed by Gerhard Finkenbeiner, a master glassblower who, in the 1980s, resurrected the instrument -- first invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761 -- and then died in 1999 in mysterious, still unresolved circumstances. Frahm's grasp of dynamics and tension has likewise expanded, and not only does he reinvigorate his work during concerts for this wider range of possibilities, but he also keeps developing it as he tours. If he leaves the stage to the same uproarious jubilation with which he was initially greeted, Paris makes it clear why he's been so in demand. Paris is a vital document of this ingenious, gifted musician's endless pursuit of fresh perspectives.

Originally published by Tomlab in 2001, Seleya is the second full- length issued by Kristian Peters' Novisad project. Twenty-four years after its initial release, the album's thirteen loop-based arrangements continue to resonate with striking clarity. Keplar presents Seleya with a previously unreleased bonus track from 2004 and a fresh vinyl cut by LUPO. These evocative miniatures feel haunted with the passage of time, bearing traces of the exploratory studio workflows, tactile imperfections, and emerging technologies that would have given birth to them: plain DAW manipulations, aliasing digitalia, the tones and timbres of the "misused" equipment ambient musicians utilized before Ableton, Eurorack, and the rise of the boutique electronics that have streamlined electronic music production. In our present epoch, these compositions feel almost eerily nostalgic, documenting the sort of trembling, wide-eyed spirit and enviable naivety that characterizes cultural production as it ventures into new waters, unfettered by the sediments of established methodology and trend. This tendency to avoid aesthetic orthodoxy results in music that refuses to settle into predictability. Subtle frequencies drift and collide, counterpoint loops run in quiet opposition, and elegant dissonance gives rise to unexpected harmony. The album's emotional power lies in these tensions, in the way it balances melancholy with beauty and familiarity with complexity.

"Julius Smack engages in a dialogue with a fictional AI assistant to create an album using the prompt, 'Make an album that tells the story about the origins of Julius Smack.' Starlight emerges as the imagined response, envisioning a world where beauty and violence intertwine, and memories and dreams are excavated to craft stories. In a near-future Earth, where artists are among the planet's last inhabitants, a symbiotic relationship has formed between humans and AI -- each relying on the other for nourishment and healing. At the sight of a shooting star, artists mine their memories and dreams with generative AI to produce art, which sustains them but generates toxins that must be expelled upon the next shooting star by creating more art. To compose Starlight, Julius Smack drew inspiration from all facets of life, with the album's 'dataset' serving as a kind of diary. It weaves together old demos, bookmarked TikTok clips of AI-generated content (such as a deepfake of Biden and Trump singing in Mandarin alongside Kamala Harris' laughter), 2000s dance music, and '90s cyberpunk anime, including Ghost in the Shell and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Everyday experiences also became part of the dataset: learning Yaqui in online classes with fellow diasporic Yaquis, riding the train, walking the dog, and dreaming. These disparate threads coalesce to question AI's role in creative and labor economies, forming a counterfactual narrative where everything -- and nothing -- is art."

Editions Mego reissue the 2001 release Asuma by Finnish artist Ilpo Väisänen. Originally released on CD this is the first ever vinyl issue, remastered by Rashad Becker. 2001 is a landmark year for the artist following a wave of success from the notable outfit Väisänen formed alongside Mika Vanio, Pan Sonic (as they were now known then). Following a string of highly acclaimed and influential releases such as Vakio, Kulma, A, and Aaltopiiri, Pan Sonic had toured the globe extensively leaving a trail of blown expectations and rumors of all manner of objects in venues cracking or falling apart due to the immense sound the duo concocted with their unique instruments. Taking a break from the ecstatic cacophony of Pan Sonic, Väisänen retreated to work on a solo release which conjured the spirits of the former outfit whilst simultaneously carving out a more personal take on these new electronic forms. Asuma is a precise study of drones, rhythms, clicks, ambience and gentle confusion. Whilst inhabiting a zone of abstraction the results also move in a natural field as Väisänen's native Finland permeates these recordings as much as the idea of experimentation itself. "Autioitu 1" opens the album as delicate pinball rhythms bounce across the spectrum as a hairy drone hovers underneath. The mood is both intriguing and unsettling. "Tukahduttaja" is a delightfully disorientating sound sculpture that is hard to pinpoint what it actually is. "Klikki" is comparable to a microscopic version of Pink Floyd's "Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict." "Asumaton" is a foreboding miniature acting like a segway to "Vallitseva" which embraces the icy clicks that punctuates much of the Pan Sonic output. "Arvioimaton Ongelma" is an audio riddle whilst "Jaettu" jitters around a dancefloor crawl. "Autioitu" closes proceedings as a gentle ambient thumper. Asuma is awash with contradiction and mystery. This is time wrapped in twisted turns and rewards a neat payoff for those interested in the absolute fringes of electronic 'dance' music.

New Environments & Rhythm Studies finds Andrew Pekler returning to the humid zones he explored on previous albums such as Sounds From Phantom Islands and Tristes Tropiques. Split between longer immersive compositions and shorter glimpse-like sketches, these 12 tracks feature new juxtapositions of Pekler's familiar palette of synthetic field recordings, warm, undulating electronic textures, shifting percussion patterns and serene melodies. As with much of his recent work, Pekler's compositions here are structured around the beguiling effect of synthetic and non-synthetic sounds mirroring, mimicking and modulating one another. The teeming atmospheres within tracks such as "Globestructures," "Cymbals In The Mist," or "Globestructures: Option II" are, despite their seemingly anthropogenic nature, entirely synthetic. Elsewhere, the lopsided grooves of "Cumbia Para Los Grillos" or "Fabulation For K" are derived from recordings of crickets and other insects which Pekler loops and uses to trigger electronic percussion -- producing a pleasantly skewed rhythmic base for the fragments of melody which are layered on top. The six "Rhythm Studies" also follow the same principle -- a playful interweaving of the organic and synthetic. New Environments & Rhythm Studies is a further attempt to re-describe past tropes which laid claims to authentically represent music and sound from beyond the Western world (exotica, ethnomusicology, field recording) as undertakings of the imaginary. Written and produced by Andrew Pekler, mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, artwork by Morgan Cuinet, graphic design by Dmytro Nikolaienko.

2025 restock. Manic fuzzed out instrumentals, mind blowing high-energy rock´n`roll, mysterious exotica, and more in this wild compilation of ass-kicking biker movie soundtracks. 14 gems taken from 14 greasy biker movies filmed between 1966 and 1971. An eye-opening collection of mostly forgotten treasures. Get ready for a wild ride with this compilation gathering a bunch of amazing '60s/early '70s biker movie soundtracks. Starting with the classic that defined the whole genre (Davie Allan & the Arrow´s "Blues Theme") this record is, of course, drenched in delicious fuzz madness, but it doesn´t stop there: from the mind-blowing high-energy bust that is "Changes" by the East-West Pipeline, to none other than the king of exotica, Les Baxter, this is a fascinating and roaring trip filled to the top with gasoline fueled hits! Featuring Mike Curb, The Man-Eaters, The Sidewalk Sounds, Simon Stokes And The Nighthawks, Jeff Simmons, Eddie And The Stompers, Lenny Stack, Harley Hatcher, The Sunrays, The Other Side, and Stu Phillips.

With Time, We Learned To Ask Less is the first duo album by Giuseppe Ielasi and Riccardo D. Wanke after decades of friendship and the occasional artistic collaboration. Working with only electric guitar and electric piano as well as a gentle dose of reverb, these improvisation-based recordings showcase the rapprochement of two artists whose interests are perfectly aligned. Their carefulness, attention to detail, and shared desire to sculpt space through music instead of just occupying it create a unique harmony between these two exceptional musicians who consistently stay mindful of the old adage that music is the space between the notes. Following up on solo albums sees them seamlessly combining the sparse but lush aesthetics of those experiments throughout these 44 minutes. Having lived close to each other in Northern Italy, where the prolific mastering engineer Ielasi still resides to this day, he and Wanke were members of the group Medves together with Andrea Belfi, Renato Rinaldi, and Stefano Pilia before Wanke relocated to Lisbon. When Ielasi, who had mastered Wanke's recent solo albums including 2023's i for electric pianos, was invited to play a concert in the Portuguese capital in the summer of that year, the two took the opportunity to go on stage together. Infatuated by the results of this fully improvised set, they organized a two-day session in Ielasi's Monza studio shortly thereafter and edited the recordings over the course of the following months. The resulting album shows them moving slowly through sonic space and time, complementing and counterpointing each other's playing. They leave each other room in which to unfold and let short moments of silence speak for themselves. With Time, We Learned To Ask Less is the closest you will get to hearing the air sing.

Nils Frahm presents the follow up to Day, the collection of solo piano music he released in 2024. Night, which contains five new tracks, will be released on vinyl as well as via all digital platforms. A CD version, Night & Day (LTR 050CD), including all eleven tracks from both Day and Night, will also be made available. These follow Frahm's latest live album, Paris. Frahm recorded the pieces on Night on the Klavins M450 piano, installed in his studio at the renowned Funkhaus complex in Berlin. It was built by German-Latvian piano maker David Klavins for the first Piano Day in 2015, a celebration that will mark its 10th anniversary. At 4.5 meters tall and weighing over a ton, the model was the largest upright piano in the world at the time. The record is a reminder that, though he's since become celebrated for the complex, intricately arranged approach of his most commercially successful, multi-instrumental albums, Frahm first made his name with similarly meditative piano compositions on albums like 2009's The Bells, 2011's Felt, and 2012's Screws. Night, like Day, confirms that Frahm remains a prolific master of affecting simplicity, tenderness and romance, and as capable as ever of unforgettable, epigrammatic succinctness.

Laetitia Sonami was born in France, where she studied with Eliane Radigue. She moved to the United States to study electronic music, first with Joel Chadabe at SUNY Albany, then at Mills College where she was mentored by Robert Ashley and David Behrman. Laetitia Sonami is not only a gifted composer/designer of electronic music, but a compelling presence on stage. This collection of early works covers a period when Sonami transitioned from live mixing with cassettes, homemade analog synths and objects in the early eighties, to working with MIDI, MAX software and "off the shelf" synths and samplers. At the same time, she begins a long collaboration with Melody Sumner Carnahan, using her dramatic texts to evoke characters and behaviors to inhabit musically and visually. All but two of the works on this release utilize Sumner Carnahan's stories, and all but one use Sonami's famous invention, the lady's glove, an arm-length tailored glove fitted with movement sensors allowing the perform to fluidly control digital sound parameters and processing, as well as motors, lights and video playback. Sonami has since moved on to works for another of her inventions, the Spring Spyre, which applies Machine Learning to real time audio synthesis.

Pancrace is an ensemble comprising French, British and Austrian performers. The members being Prune Bécheau, Arden Day, Julien Desailly, Léo Maurel, and Jan Vysocky. Pancrace has "a unique, fully formed vision that combines improvisation, composition, eclectic instrumentation and a church's massive pipe organ." Pancrace's latest double LP Papotier is the third panel of a tryptic after Pancrace (2017) and Fluid Hammer (2019). The ensemble knew at some point from their previous LP they would have to go back to church and repent confronting a Silbermann 18th century baroque organ with their custom-made modular midi pipe organ: the "Organous". After nearly 18 months of lockdown the quintet finally met in Bouxwiller Alsace a few miles away from Dangolsheim where Pancrace first formed in 2015. During a residency Pancrace had full access to the Protestant church with its humongous Silbermann pipe organ famous for its "human voice" stop. Ironically the album title Papotier came up before the covid era. Ironic because a "papotier" is a mask or to be very specific a grotesque face carved in wood, initially rigged to the lower part of the organ casing. There are only very few of these fancy oddities left in France and around the world. After months of feeling gagged during lockdown having a "papotier" as an amulet was somewhat liberating and greatly contributed to opening up the Pancrace sessions to the exploration of human voice. Relearning how to breathe, listening to the human membrane, questioning the nature of air all within the confined space of a 14th century church were the essential acts that compose the pieces. One can consider this album as a phenomenological investigation into voice articulation trying to emulate the birth of a vocable like von Kempelen's speaking machine who also used rudimentary organ modules to mimic human babbling. Essentially understanding what a mouth is to us to the point where, when all the pipes are blowing, they make a hell of a noise.

Dan Melchior has a wild history, brain and catalogue. Penultimate Press adds to it. This is Melchior's first piano recording. The reverb is natural, as the piano sits in a large, mostly empty room. Hill Country Piano is the result of a human music box mind brimming with many a corner somehow aligning with chambers still being told. Melchior does not play the piano in any formal way, as you can probably tell. He played and recorded the piano, with simple repetitive parts, whilst listening to previous recordings on headphones. Then the magic happens. The gentle introduction of a banjo on " "Sparrow Song" paints the reality of an America now lost. The percussion on the self-titled track unravels a psychedelic gamelan piano duo residing in the now. It didn't start out that way, it never does, but this slow burning trip around a mind/world happened to come into formulation just as an interest in Pascal Comelade was coming into play. All original piano was recorded in Austin. Dan Melchior is from London, England. He has lived in various cities in the USA for the last 24 years. Melchior's resume is as unique as it is exciting and diverse. Having cut his teeth in the land of garage rock as a collaborator with Billy Childish and Holly Golightly his vision takes sharp twists landing on Graham Lambkin's strange and beautiful experimental label Kye with two records which broke not only the mold of himself but that of the song itself. Melchoir is a musician with a voluminous discography which embraces many different forms of expression, from song-based rock to pure textural explorations. His music has evolved significantly, to become a distant entity from some of his earlier blues-based work, showing a definite influence of more experimental bands such as The Homosexuals and The Fall, and some absurdist elements which have led to comparisons to compatriot exponents of that genre, Vivian Stanshall and Syd Barrett. Always experimenting with form in an original manner avoiding any inherent genre anchor. Blues is referenced and extended, musique concrete is found embedded in the song.

Karma Sutra had already been a band for five years when they released their elusive one and only album, released on their own Paradoxical Records label in 1987. The Daydreams of a Production Line Worker came towards the end of the bands life span and all they had to show prior was a few demos and some tracks on compilations on Mortarhate. By the time the band entered the studio Karma Sutra was spreading their musical wings, moving from a straight ahead anarcho sound to a more-dense and thoughtful place, adding flourishes of post punk and moody atmospheres to their agit-prop political stance thus creating one of the most idiosyncratic concept albums of their time, where situationist politics meet the most ambitious anarcho punk sound. The album was recorded in Sheffield at Vibrasound Studio and co-produced by Spon of UK DECAY, which added yet another layer to the already complex album. When released The Daydreams Of A Production Line Worker had little fanfare due to the rigid approach to punk of the time. But as time passed, so did this album's importance. The Daydreams Of A Production Line Worker reissue comes with a reproduction of the originally included 28-page booklet, which the band viewed as an inseparable part of the album to understand the concept. Dense at times and intended to be thought provoking it covers class oppression, gender, culture brainwashing, prison struggle et all the capitalism society illnesses written from an anarchist perspective and aligned with the situationism theory of revolution of every day life.

Paul Wallfisch has played in bands like Firewater and Little Annie, while Dana Schechter has logged time with American Music Club, Angels of Light, and her own Insect Ark, among others; both spent time touring and recording with SWANS. They've been friends since meeting in New York in the 1990s. Years later they forged a stronger connection as bandmates in Botanica. They renewed their artistic partnership in 2021, when Paul invited Dana to Vienna to develop the music for a theatrical spectacle called Die Politiker written by Kleist prize winner Wolfram Lotz. The music from the production provides the foundation for the duo's first album, The Heart of A Whale. Across its six intense tracks one can detect a subtle homage to storied Berlin musical traditions, as the pair puts a raw, often brutal veneer on songs steeped in Weimar cabaret (a la Tom Waits) but updated with a visceral mixture of noise, post-punk, and industrial elements. Performed on a panoply of instruments from bass, organ and lap steel to SOMA Synths, Guitaret, a variety of electronics and a grand piano hammered with a shoe, the music reflects the New York/Berlin nexus they've both been part of for decades. Echoes of Swans, Einstürzende Neubauten, and The Birthday Party, but also hints of Throbbing Gristle, Eno and even William Basinski and Michael Gordon. The music can't be contained by any single tradition, with a decidedly experimental bent that ruptures the fixed rhythm of rock for something more theatrical and emotionally harrowing. Lap steel guitar, bass, electronics: Dana Schechter. Piano, organ, soma pipe, guitaret: Paul Wallfisch. Performed live in the spring 2022.

2025 repress; LP version. Agree to disagree: A selected Krautrock discography. Krautrock, what is it anyway? A genre, a derogative term, a song by Faust, or: a welcome (and recurring) opportunity to talk about all of this. The music associated with the term in question has eagerly been canonized. From the enthusiastic and idiosyncratic ramblings of Julian Cope's "Krautrocksampler" to encyclopedic approaches like Alan and Stephen Freeman's "Crack in the Cosmic Egg", there are plenty of books to read and lists to discuss: Who's in, who isn't? The quarrels and disputes surrounding the terms "Krautrock" and "Kosmische Musik" are a testament to their enduring relevance and fascination. The book Krautrock Eruption by Wolfgang Seidel addresses some of those questions. In this book, you will find an annotated discography of fifty albums. Out of these fifty, Bureau B are presenting an even narrower selection of tracks from twelve albums on this compilation. Lists and compilation track listings inevitably see tracks missing and being left out. The list is meant to inspire repeated or further listening, to spark discussions and -- potentially -- to provoke new lists, perhaps your own! It's all part of the fun. Music is made for enjoyment in the first and for friendly debate in the second place, after all. Featuring Conrad Schnitzler, Eno Moebius Roedelius, Harald Grosskopf, Cluster, Moebius & Plank, Roedelius, Pyrolator, Riechmann, Kluster, Günter Schickert, and Asmus Tietchens.

Under the influence of The Beatles, the Group Sound Movement swept Japan in the mid '60s. This compilation collects some of the finest cuts made by several of the leading band of the time. Featuring The Mops, The Golden Cups, The Spiders, The Beavers, The Carnabeats, D'Swooners, and The Jaguars.

Hypnotic polyrhythms play a central role on Fera, creating the pulse for a sound that's rich in acoustic tonality and lively energy. Louca uses custom-made, microtonal guitars to explore nuanced phrasings, and his languid interplay with violin, synthesizer, and other instruments lead to moments of vivid beauty. This wild and adventurous album that Egyptian artist Maurice Louca wrote over a four-year period takes its title from the Latin root for the word feral, and has its origins in a solo set that Louca first developed in 2019; the compositions eventually took their final shape when he recorded them in a Cairo studio in 2024 with a group of longtime collaborators and guests. The violinist Ayman Asfour, percussionist and drummer Khaled Yassine, double bassist Rosa Brunello and co-producer Adham Zidan all play critical roles on the album, and they're joined on two tracks by multi-instrumentalist Nancy Mounir (who plays violin and theremin on "El Taalab") and oud virtuoso Hazem Shaheen (on "Sahar"). Fera is some of the most composed and thoughtfully-crafted music Louca has ever made, but of course it's guided by the dynamic experimentation and collaborative spark that have become central to his work. Fera's artwork was created by another long-time collaborator, visual artist Maha Maamoun, using the Decalcomania ink transfer technique, to create dream- like natural forms that emerge through both deliberate manipulation and chance. Residue elements photographed from 6,000-year-old rock art paintings found at the Cave of Swimmers in Gilf Kebir (an area on the Egypt-Libya border) can be seen in the Fera "painting", which was digitally manipulated for color and other effects along with original typography and graphic design in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist and designer Hussein Nassereddine.