The long-running and infamous project known as Nurse With Wound -- essentially Steven Stapleton joined by a rotating cast of characters -- mixes the overly serious chin-scratching of the contemporary avant-garde with a healthy dose of absurdist humor and wit. Often unfortunately branded with the industrial's tag, Stapleton's music actually reflects elements of musique concrète, ambient, and free improvisation juxtaposed against more traditional forms. No one pigeonhole can adequately describe this diverse and immense catalogue: only by diving in can one truly appreciate the varied sonic possibilities of Stapleton's unfettered imagination. He's that weird, and he's that good. In the mid-1980s, Nurse With Wound existed as a live band for only eight shows, of which only five were in front of an actual audience. Live at Bar Maldoror, released in 1991, documents these various live incarnations. Having been remastered by Andrew Liles, the diverse and lengthy pieces (which were actually recorded in disparate locales, none of which are named "Bar Maldoror") sound rather contemporary. Sparse percussion, tape manipulation, loops, noise, dark drones, improvised semi-musical instrumentation and strangled glossolalia all expose the many facets of Stapleton's oeuvre. In 2023, as part of the silver editions, Rotorelief Records released Bar Maldoror as a double vinyl album, in a luxurious gatefold with four panels of artwork by Babs Santini.

Camizole's first unreleased album Erahtic, recorded in 1972, released 50 years later on vinyl by Rotorelief. These are the very first recordings of Camizole made in 1972 with a cassette recorder. The main instrument used is a self-built zither, a primitive lutherie supplemented from time to time by an alto violin and a flute. "The goal was to obtain new, dissonant, noisy sounds. The following year, when I bought my first synthesizer, I considered the instrument now useless and destroyed it. In 2016 I wanted to rework these recordings with tools that appeared later, asking myself a decisive question: if I had had access to this material at the time, what would it have given? That's why I didn't remove anything, nor add anything, the pieces are delivered whole and without any editing. I only ran the original sound through pitches, delays, harmonizers, harps, reverse, and then mixed the resulting new tracks." Dominique Grimaud - zither, viola, flute, electronic. Pre-mastering by David Fenech. Mastering by Andreas Lubitch. Artwork by Frédéric Tacer.

"On September 6th, 1993, I felt a stranger's presence flow through me. 'The end of material civilization is near. Man will soon transcend the physical realm. But when this day comes, many souls will be lost forever,' she announced and then swiftly disappeared. She has since visited me occasionally, and with her help I've witnessed stars align to form a cross, and a golden country filled with waves of tremendous rapture. She says I have a divine duty to impart through my music a sense of the waves of delight I have experienced, even if I can only reach one other person." --Shizuka, 7/23/94

Reissue, originally released in 1994. Few artists have left behind a legacy as enigmatic and captivating as Shizuka Miura. Amidst the Tokyo underground, she was a spectral figure, creating ghostly, childlike dolls and writing haunting, other-worldly songs. She formed Shizuka in 1992 with Maki Miura, known for his staggering guitar work in legendary groups Fushitsusha and Les Rallizes Dénudés. Their music bloomed with a fragile, yet explosive mystical power; an atmospheric alchemy of psychedelic rock, folk and noise with Shizuka's ethereal vocals invoking loneliness, yearning and dark providence. Since her passing in 2010, the group has steadily gathered a cult following. Black Editions presents their sole studio album, 1994's Heavenly Persona, a monumental, transcendent work originally issued by P.S.F. Japan on CD in 1994; Now newly remastered and in its first ever vinyl edition on double-LP with a laser etched fourth side. Presented in a deluxe tip-on tri-fold jacket with ink pigment foil stamping, gloss film laminate finish and printed inner sleeves and mounted booklet. It includes her extensive, heart wrenching final interview, translated for the first time to English alongside high-resolution archival images.

Double LP version. "In 1984, four years after the release of my first solo album Synthesist on Sky Records, I wanted to produce a new solo album. At the time I was operating on the fifth floor of a former backyard factory on Graefe-Str. in Berlin Kreuzberg with my Neue Deutsche Welle Band Lilli Berlin. We'd turned the space into a small music and rehearsal studio where we set up a Tascam 8-track tape recorder, a 12- channel MM mixer that roared like hell, a Mini-Moog and a Roland Jupiter-6 synthesizer. This is where the basic recordings for Oceanheart were made. Essentially sequences and chords, which I then added piano, drums, Indian tablas and solo voices to in Christoph Franke's (Tangerine Dream) studio in Berlin Spandau. It was then mastered on a Betamax video recorder -- at that time the non-plus-ultra of modern stereo recording technique. Oceanheart was released on Sky Records in 1985. At the beginning of 2022 Gunther Buskies, owner of Bureau B label, had the inspired idea to expand the planned re-release of Oceanheart with a remix album and to call it Oceanheart Revisited. Around the same time, I met Tobias Stock through my friend Chris Mick. Tobias, a qualified electronics engineer and musician, had put together a complex, top-class analog studio over 20 years of meticulous and passionate collecting -- bringing each of the numerous component parts back into the best technical state with his own hands. There are only few studios of this kind and quality in the world and it was here, in his 'On TAPE' Studio, we created the analogue mixes of Oceanheart Revisited on a NAGRA 2-channel tape machine. I really enjoyed working on Oceanheart Revisited and I'd like to share this experiment with you." --Harald Grosskopf, January 2023

Double-LP version. The British producer μ-Ziq has been an inspiration to label co-founders Albert Salinas and Philip Sherburne since the 1990s. In fact, his album-length remix project The Auteurs Vs μ-Ziq was one of the very first pieces of electronic music that Philip bought, way back in 1994. To have the opportunity to release his music now feels like a real full-circle moment. Paradinas, of course, needs no introduction. Under a slew of aliases, chief among them μ-Ziq, the British artist revolutionized leftfield electronic music in the 1990s -- coincidentally, this year marks the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Tango N' Vectif, for his friend and sometime collaborator Aphex Twin's Rephlex label -- and his label Planet Mu has built up a formidable catalog of visionary, forward-looking records, mapping virtually every corner of the electronic spectrum. With 1977, he turns the clock backward in a sense, and not just with the album's title: Rooted in classic ambient and electronic sounds, these 15 tracks evoke the anything-goes spirit of the early '90s, before the tools and tropes had calcified into cut-and-dried styles. There's no shortage of familiar sounds on 1977. There are echoes of raves and chillout rooms and transmissions from the fringes of techno; there are detuned synths and glistening reverb tails and, above all, gauzy vox pads, the eerie glue that holds it all together. The title, he says, is meant to invoke a general sense of nostalgia, bookmarking a year in his boyhood when he became more self-aware. More than anything, 1977 sounds like μ-Ziq distilled: Stripped of his signature breakbeats and customary chaos, Paradinas's first-ever strictly (well, mostly) ambient album presents the essence of his music in a whole new light. Along the way Paradinas touches on dark-ambient drones ("Marmite"), horror-film themes ("Belt & Carpet"), jungle breaks ("Mesolithic Jungle"), and even house music ("Houzz 13"), which marks the first bona fide dance-floor moment on Balmat to date). Yet the album never feels expressly retro. Rather, Paradinas plucks timeless sounds out of the ether and gives them a gentle tap, spinning them into unexpected new orbits. At times, 1977 feels like an experience of extended déjà vu: When we first listened to it, we had the sense that we already knew this music. It was as though we had heard it years ago, perhaps on a battered cassette tape lent to us by a friend, and been searching for it ever since. "1977" features Meemo Comma.

Sold out. "By the late '70s, Alice Coltrane had largely gravitated away from jazz, incorporating Hindu chants and hymns into her music to reflect a newfound sense of creative omnipotence. However, in April 1978, she would return to her roots, performing at University of California, Los Angeles to make her first and only live album. Transfiguration, featuring drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Reggie Workman, showcases Alice's many compositional talents and fierce improvisatory abilities. Throughout this double LP set, her playing evokes the time spent in her late husband John Coltrane's band and the avant-garde music of her earlier years. As biographer Franya J. Berkman writes, 'Her up-tempo keyboard work here is the most exciting of her commercial career. With its rapid-fire transpositions of short figures; its long modal passages, rhythmic play, and timbral inventiveness; its sustained energy and burning pace; and the unrelenting support of Haynes and Workman, she takes leave of the jazz business with a truly breathtaking swan song.' Alice Coltrane would not revisit jazz on record for another 26 years, turning instead to spiritual music made with students at her Vedantic Center and self-releasing a series of cassettes under her Sanskrit name, Turiyasangitananda. It is hard to imagine a better farewell than the intense and spellbinding Transfiguration."

The two-volume collection Fruko Power is not an homage, career overview, greatest hits or "best of" collection showcasing the evolution of Fruko (Julio Ernesto Estrada Rincón), the Renaissance man of Colombian tropical music. Instead, this compilation series shines a light on a lesser-known side of the bassist and band leader's work during the early 1970s with Fruko y Sus Tesos, reissuing in physical form many of his rare or hard to find salsa 45s as well as a few deep album cuts from the first half decade of his career, assembled in chronological order. There are interesting cover versions as well as originals, some of which never appeared on an LP. All of Fruko's classic vocalists are represented, from early collaborators Humberto "Huango" Muriel and Edulfamid "Píper Pimienta" Díaz to golden-era stars Joe Arroyo and Wilson "Saoko" Manyoma. Fruko Power is less for the newcomer and more for the serious salsa collector, DJ, and dancer who may have a few of the maestro's albums or hits but wants to dig deeper and have all these obscure rarities in one place. However, it also serves as an excellent compendium of powerful Latin dance tracks by Fruko y Sus Tesos that have stood the test of time, so even those who do not know much of his work will be sure to feel the power of Fruko. Includes insert with photos and liner notes by DJ Bongohead (of Peace & Rhythm).

First time vinyl reissue. Originally released in 1976.

"The human voice is more than just a musical instrument; it is ally to the thought. Vocal art is one of the most beautiful forms of musical expression and an endless resource. It's a shame that so few devote themselves to it in our popular music. I would therefore like to congratulate Aquarius and Continental for the release of this LP and may it be received by all with the same affection and attention than those who dedicated themselves to making it" --Paulinho Tapajos.

These notes, originally printed on the back cover of this 1976 beauty, are a perfect introduction to the vocal harmonies and arrangements and excellent guitar work that are masterfully combined creating a joyful journey that features the undisputed talent of Raymundo Bittencourt, Octávio Burnier, and Paulo Moura. An amazing bit of Brazilian samba funk that also touches on MPB, bossa nova, jazz... This sought-after gem opens with the beautiful version of Burnier & Cartier's "Só Tem Lugar Prá Você" (one of the two B&C versions included on this album, with a pitched-down "Europanema" sparkling on the B-side), building up a mellow, airy vibe that stays throughout the entire album.

WRWTFWW Records announce Ar Ais Arís, the third album by Irish producer Gareth Quinn Redmond, following his amazing Satoshi Ashikawa-inspired Laistigh Den Ghleo (WRWTFWW 039CD/LP) released in 2019 and 2023's ambient-meets-Irish-traditional-music soundscape Umcheol (WRWTFWW 069LP). Ar Ais Arís is Gareth Quinn Redmond's fortuitous love affair with the art of tape loops -- a practice he discovered while performing with Ross Chaney and Myles O'Reilly in late November 2020. Fascinated, he spent months experimenting with the technique: "By cracking open the shell of a cassette, cutting the tape and splicing the ends together, I created repeating sound loops of varying lengths. After reassembling and slotting the cassette into the Tascam Portastudio, I recorded and played back the sounds of the tape loop. These sounds were then manipulated using the pitch wheel to make subtle and warbly inflections to the recordings. This is achieved by speeding up or slowing down the playback speed of the tape, which offers dynamic contrasts in both mood and texture." The result is eight deliciously enchanting minimalistic tape loops creating a very rare kind of daydreaming environmental music full of accidental miracles and dusty soothing backdrops. It's a very pleasant listening experience inspiring a feeling of enveloping warmth and gentle coziness, with an uncanny touch of spellbinding magic. Artwork by Dublin artist Barry Gibbons. Liner notes from Gareth Quinn Redmond. Edition of 500.

LP version. "An alloy is a mixture of chemical agents which forms a new substance that retains the characteristics of a metal. The mechanical properties of alloys often differ significantly from those of its individual constituents. It has been more than two years since ShrapKnel's debut album, during which time the duo of Curly Castro and PremRock have individually released successful solo albums with Backwoodz Studioz. Fittingly, these two albums were nothing alike; Castro's incendiary Little Robert Hutton is a high octane soundclash, a stark contrast to the knotty intimacy of PremRock's Load Bearing Crow's Feet. A new ShrapKnel album means a return to foundry and forge, the alchemy of turning two into one. Carbon and Iron make steel, rest assured, there will be no sophomore slump. Metal Lung is the evidence. The bulk of the production is provided by Steel Tipped Dove, who has worked with Nosaj, billy woods, SHIRT, R.A.P. Ferreira and just put out an incredible album of his own on Backwoodz last year (Call Me When You're Outside). Additional production comes from Child Actor (ELUCID, Serengeti, Armand Hammer) & Olof Melander (Moor Mother, Project Mooncircle). Mixed and mastered by the incomparable Willie Green."

Berlin-based Peruvian musicians Alejandra Cárdenas, AKA Ale Hop, and Laura Robles present their debut album together, released via Buh Records. With a foundation informed by decolonialism and organology, Agua Dulce is a radical deconstruction of traditional rhythms of the Peruvian coast, in which the cajón instrument plays a central role. Agua Dulce is named after the most popular beach in Lima, near where both artists lived during their childhood, houses apart, without ever meeting one another. Now, years later, the pair have joined forces, with Robles on a self-built electric cajón and Cárdenas on electric guitar and electronics. Together they explore rhythmical structures that form the backbone of the complex Afro-Peruvian music and dance traditions -- a broad term used for the various musical developments that occurred in the last two centuries, at the shores of the Peruvian Pacific. The cajón originated in coastal Peru as a percussion instrument that the black slaves created from wooden fruit boxes, when foot drums were banned at the end of the Spanish colonial-era, in the 19th century. From its birth the cajón was a symbol of resistance, experimentation and transformation, so Robles and Cárdenas strive to maintain the instrument's spirit and qualities by pushing the boundaries of its sound into the future. However, although buzzing with an intense voltage and proffering a fresh contribution to modern experimental/noise/lo-fi/percussive music, the duo's mission isn't merely capturing something sonically futuristic, but is primarily concerned with shaking off the dust: "These rhythms have become ossified nowadays, heard in Peruvian folklore shows, and on the 'global music' circuit, but our desire is to experiment and do something more radical with them, connecting to the instruments more radical past", comments Cárdenas. The two musicians take the pulses of dances like Landó, Zamacueca, Festejo, Alcatraz, Lamento and Son de los diablos, electrifying and mutating them into pure textures, or reinforcing the physical character of the cajón through repetition and distortion. Cover art by Eduardo Yaguas. Edition of 300.

2023 repress. LP version with bonus 7"; one of the great Drag City releases (and one of the great American music solo albums) finally on vinyl again. "In 1970, Mayo Thompson (once-and-future leader of The Red Krayola) recorded an album entitled Corky's Debt To His Father. Walt Andrus' Texas Revolution label released the record -- but just barely, selling a few hundred LPs with no promotion to speak of. The copies that made it into shops became the treasured objects of taste-makers around the globe -- which made Corky's Debt To His Father an influential record down the years. As punk rock, new wave, post-punk and all the rest came along, it was inevitable that this lost classic of independent music would be discovered by a wider audience. In 1988, the album was reissued on the UK Glass Records imprint but went out-of-print again in short order. Then in 1994, Drag City brought Corky's Debt To His Father back to the USA, as well as to the CD format for the first time. Additionally, a third pressing of the vinyl was made. The CD has been a perennial favorite ever since -- but after just a few months of robust sales, the LP artwork and jackets were destroyed in a fire, thus putting the end to the life of Corky's Debt To His Father on vinyl once again. Wrapped in a jacket that recalls the halcyon days of solid LP dominance, this new pressing comes with a 7" single featuring the instrumental 'Woof,' which was recorded at the same sessions but not released until The Red Krayola's 2004 compilation CD Singles. The B-side of this single is a never-before heard take on John Cage's '4'33"' played by fellow traveller Sergei McUgly."

Born Jephté Mbisi in Genève, Varnish La Pisicine is a 25-year Swiss rap author, composer, and producer. After his former works under the name Pink Flamingo who made him work with Sébastien Tellier and Philippe Zdar, Varnish La Piscine also became a movie director and realized his first film Les contes du Cockatoo whose original soundtrack enhanced with bonus tracks was released by Color Records under the name Metronome Pole Dance Twist Amazone. After they met, Pedro Winter signed him on Ed Banger Record for his next works. This Lake Is Successful is the brand new seven song mini-album. Features Snubnose Frankenstein.

MAG has been, since its foundation in 1953, an essential label in the music scene of Peru, allowing the development of the careers of both tropical artists and musicians of other genres. At the head was Don Manuel Antonio Guerrero, its founder, whose name comes from the acronym of the label itself (M.A.G.). In 2021 MAG was acquired by the Spanish company Distrolux SL, owner of the Munster and Vampisoul record labels, after years of previous collaborations in which some of the most emblematic titles in the catalog were already reissued for the international market: Nils Jazz Ensemble, Sonora Casino, Traffic Sound, Al Valdez, Pax... Following 14 MAGníficos Bailables (VAMPI 260LP), comprising some of the best tropical music on MAG, this new compilation brings together 12 songs recorded between 1971 and 1976, reminiscent of sunshine pop, folk psych, and soft rock but with Peruvian touches. The lyrics range from youthful reflections, environmental awareness, paradigm changes to all shades of love that the youth of the day experienced. Unusual instruments and exceptional vocal play also feature in the ten original songs and two cover versions, all performed by Lima-based groups. In chronological order, the earliest song comes from Telegraph Avenue, who recorded their debut album on the MAG label in 1971. Next comes "Tiempo de sol" (1972), by the Peruvian-Argentinean band Tarkus, which included in its line-up the bass guitarist and drummer of Telegraph Avenue. Again from 1972, We All Together (WAT) is the project that Saúl and Manuel Cornejo started after their last album with Laghonia, together with Carlos Guerrero, the son of MAG's owner. WAT originally intended to cover McCartney, taking advantage of the fact that the Wings records took a long time to be released in Peru. The female vocals on this album are provided by Monik, the artistic pseudonym of Mónica Guerrero, MAG's A&R director and Carlos's sister, who encouraged her to record some "test" songs that were soon released, including the anguished "The World Is Getting Worse", written by Carlos. "Estoy Brillando" is a gem of sunshine pop in Spanish recorded by FE 59 in 1973. Grupo Amigos also recorded an LP that year with their own songs in English and Spanish, again with the collaboration of the Cornejo brothers. "Mujer" is a nostalgic slow rock song accented by a melodious synthesizer. "Cariño Grande" is a blistering huayno-milonga with Moog synthesizer by Miguel Ángel Ruiz Orbegozo, known as Zulu. And the list goes on and on... Also features Innovations, Sudamérica, Traffic Sound, Telegraph Ave, Monik, Illicit, Grupo Amigos, and Cerro Verde.

Reissue, originally released in 1967. In the '60s, in Chile there were two styles of pop music that were very popular: one was the "new wave", something like the descendants of the Anglo-Saxon pop soloists; the other, naturally, were the groups that, under the influence of the British invasion by the hand of the Beatles, played rock and roll. With Juegos Prohibidos, Beat 4 begin to detach themselves a little from that current that was limited to copying and covering especially British hits, and began to sing in Spanish, and to risk more in the production of their songs, approaching psychedelia and experimentation. With its own personality and a fresh sound, Juegos Prohibidos is a key piece to understand the first steps of Chilean rock, an album that although it keeps winks to the greats of rock, especially the Stones ("Encontrarás otro amor"), also gives original steps ("Quiero fugarme con ella a una isla solitaria (donde haya paz)"), and mystical experimentation with psychedelic touches already influenced by the hippie generation ("Viaje fantástico"). One of the jewels of a pioneer band of the Chilean rock of the '60s. The band was at first called Los Electrodos and they started playing "nueva ola" songs. With the arrival Beatlemania they changed their name to Beat 4 and began playing song of their idols, The Beatles, The Kinks and The Animals. Soon the band began to write and play their own songs in Spanish. By the beginning of the ´70s they have already released 4 albums with great success, but as key members quit the group, Beat 4 was over. From the original IRT masters.

Reissue, originally released in 1967. Los Mac's were formed in 1962 in Playa Ancha, initially as a cover band. In 1965 they moved to Santiago, with their experience on their backs, and with their own songs they attracted the interest of RCA, who quickly signed them. In their career the band would record six albums, four in their heyday in the '60s, and two more after their reunion in 2010. Kaleidoscope Men is the most important and successful of this Valparaiso quartet, and was produced at RCA by Carlos Gonzalez. Kaleidoscope Men is a psychedelic album clearly influenced by the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's, and by the groups of the then called Californian sunshine pop. A mature album, with excellent vocal and instrumental arrangements that flies from the confines of the world to a universal sound with fluidity and elegance. The elegant "Degrees" shines with its own light, psychedelia with vocal touches of great bands of the '60s like The Turtles, The Association, or the incomparable Byrds. "El evangelio de la gente sola" is a progressive instrumental cut with the peculiar sound of a church organ, while "Dear Friend Bob" uses the technique that George Martin used with the Beatles in their most experimental stage of using the tapes in the opposite direction, with which the sound of the instruments "upside down" gives the special touch popularized by the four from Liverpool but used assiduously by bands of the time. The acid baroque of "A través del cristal" is close to "Strawberry Fields Forever", while "La muerte de mi hermano" enters the anti-war current of the Vietnam War era; a poignant song structurally supported by the Byrds' guitar sound. Originally released in 1967, Kaleidoscope Men is the penultimate and most respected album by the Mac's, who would record their last album in 1968 and then move to the United States. A jewel to rediscover through this careful release that honors the original with an excellent remastering and artwork. From the original IRT masters.

"Del Jones, a poet, and proto-rapper, recorded Court Is Closed in 1973. It was underground Philadelphia's response to Amiri Baraka's and Gil Scott-Heron's indictments of the Black American experience -- a call to action not just for his city, but for the nation. Court Is Closed, equal parts psychedelic rock and deep funk, had a limited release of 500 copies and was rarely heard before Jones overdubbed horns on the album, remixed and augmented it with additional music, and issued it as the better-known Positive Vibes. Here we present both versions of the album on the 23rd release in the deluxe Now-Again Reserve Edition series. Jones' story, and that of his family, is like his music: a loud, vital voice long silenced. Understanding it now is not just a visceral musical experience, but an essential dissection of racism and classism in America. The set includes an oversized ten-page booklet by Jeremy Cargill, with contributions by Now-Again founder Eothen "Egon" Alapatt which delves into Jones' music, milieu and life as an author, activist and orator, shining a light not only on his prescient awareness of hip-hop, but also on the struggles he confronted, and his urgent, current mandate."

LP version. 180 gram vinyl. On his debut album, Childish Mind, guitarist Jonathan Bockelmann presents a series of light, serene acoustic guitar vignettes. The Munich-born musician has studied classical guitar for about two decades, perfecting his technique and gaining mastery of the instrument. Childish Mind sees him explore a new compositional path by crafting delicately interwoven melodies for the acoustic guitar. From the gentle webs and patterns Jonathan creates, there's a sense of meditativeness throughout the album -- his music radiates out, filling moments with a sense of ease and calmness.

LP version. "La Monte Young was born in Bern, Idaho in 1935. He began his music studies in Los Angeles and later Berkeley, California before relocating to New York City in 1960, where he became a primary influence on Minimalism, the Fluxus movement and performance art through his legendary compositions of extended time durations and the development of just intonation and rational number based tuning systems. With wife and collaborator, artist Marian Zazeela, they would formulate the composite sound environments of the Dream House, which continues to this day. Seeing reissue for the first time since its initial 1969 release, Young and Zazeela's first full-length album is often referred to as The Black Record due to Zazeela's stunning cover design, complete with Young's original liner notes in magnificent calligraphy. Side one was recorded in 1969 (on the date and time indicated by the title) at the gallery of Heiner Friedrich in Munich, where Young and Zazeela premiered their Dream House sound and light installation. Featuring Young and Zazeela's voices against a sine wave drone, the recording is a section of the longer composition "Map of 49's Dream the Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery" (begun in 1966 as a sub-section of the even larger work The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys, which was begun in 1964 with Young's group The Theatre of Eternal Music). According to Young, the raga-like melodic phrases of his voice were heavily influenced by his future teacher, the Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath. Side two, recorded in Young and Zazeela's NYC studio in 1964, is a section of the longer composition Studies in the Bowed Disc. This composition is an extended, highly abstract noise piece for bowed gong (gifted by sculptor Robert Morris). The liner notes state that the live performance can be heard at 33 and 1/3 RPM, but may also be played at any constant slower speed down to 8 and 1/3 RPM for turntables with this capacity." "La Monte Young is the daddy of us all." --Brian Eno

First time vinyl reissue of this awesome Latin jazz-funk gem by Venezuelan guitarist Alex Rodríguez -- originally self-released in 1978. Rodríguez is a classical and jazz trained guitarist who in the early days of his career joined some of the best orchestras in Venezuela, including Aldemaro Romero's Onda Nueva. He put together a brief project, La Retreta Mayor, in 1976 which only released one album and would later move to New York where he had the opportunity to record his own songs with renowned musicians of the city at that time, like Víctor Paz, Charlie Camalliari, Sam Burtis, Mario Bauza, Guillermo Edgil, Bernard Purdie, Jorge Dalto, among others. It took him a little more than a year writing the songs and preparing the material for Búsqueda but in 1978 Alex Rodríguez would return to New York City. Jorge Dalto had spoken with Dennis Davis (drums), Stanley Banks (bass) who played together with George Benson, and Víctor Paz contacted Alex with Ronnie Cuber (saxes), an excellent saxophonist, who later recorded "Cumana" on his own album The Eleventh Day Of Aquarius. Before going to the recording studios they did a rehearsal to review the music, and the next day Dalto, Banks, Davis, Cuber, and Alex Rodríguez were recording in the CBS studio on 52nd street in Manhattan. The production and mixing of the album were finished in Caracas, at Sono 2000 studios, with the participation of excellent Venezuelan musicians such as Nené Quintero, Lucio Caminiti, Edgar Saume, Carlos Acosta, Alberto Naranjo, Rolando Briceño, Leo and Frank Quintero, among others. The resulting album contains quite a few heaters for the dancefloor, like "El Mercado", and tight, keys and guitar punctuated fusion jams! (just check the groovy opener "Cumana".) Búsqueda was then self-released and distributed in tiny quantities, becoming over the years a very sought-after collectors' item, probably one of the most obscure albums from Venezuela. It now gets reissued on vinyl for the first time, including notes by Alex Rodríguez. 180 gram vinyl.

First time reissue. Aníbal "Sensación" Velásquez is one of Colombia's most innovative and prolific Costeño musicians, known as "El Mago del Acordeón" and "El Rey de La Guaracha". Velásquez grew up hearing Cuban music as well as the local rhythms of his region, and this led him to tinker with and transform the beats and melodies of the regional music encountered in his home city of Barranquilla during the 1950s and '60s. By 1960, after being a sideman in several groups, Velásquez formed his own conjunto with his elder brother Juan, a talented musician in his own right, and his younger sibling José. Aníbal Velásquez En Tremenda Salsa is a perfect example of the musician's wanderlust and restless creative spirit. A pioneer of the adventuresome mixing of rhythms, genres, and styles that was happening at the time in Barranquilla and the rest of coastal Colombia, in retrospect one can say that Velásquez was quite daring in combining the music and instrumentation of his native country with other Caribbean forms. In 1968, when he made this album, very few Colombians were attempting to record an accordion-led session of descarga, guaracha, boogaloo, guajira, guaguancó, and mambo, and for that Velásquez should be recognized as a forerunner of various other records by Lisandro Meza y su Combo, Los Corraleros de Majagual, Los Caporales del Magdalena, and Chico Cervantes y su Conjunto Internacional. The album kicks off with an intense and mesmerizing descarga featuring the guaguancó bass line, hot Cuban style piano and a heavy timbales solo, reminding one of the Tico-Alegre or Fania All-Stars jam session records. And yet, the accordion and caja are there throughout the tune, giving it plenty of "sabor colombiano" and distancing it from the New York or Havana sound. It bears repeating that for this album Velásquez and Fuentes added a crucial ingredient in salsa, the piano. Overall, the feeling on the album is of the loose, improvised jam session implied in the genre term descarga. Although En Tremenda Salsa is just one of many such records that Velásquez cut with his Cuban and Puerto Rican influences writ large on his sleeve, it is perhaps his most consistent and well-recorded, certainly only one of a few of his featuring prominent piano played in a salsa style, and this is why it is a highly sought after record by collectors in the know. Remastered from the original tapes, with original artwork intact. Includes two bonus tracks. 180 gram vinyl.

Splatter vinyl. Back in 2004, Vampisoul played a role in the return to recording of the legendary Joe Bataan, which fully materialized in the acclaimed album Call My Name, written and produced by Daniel Collás (The Phenomenal Handclap Band, Incarnations). Now, the song that marked the return of Joe Bataan finally makes it into a 7" single for the first time. "This whole project grew out of a song called 'Cycles of You', which I had written around 2000-2001 with the guitarist and bassist of my band at the time, Easy. The chord progression and vocal melody really reminded me of Bataan, and it occurred to me that it wouldn't be impossible to get him into the studio to do a guest vocal if we ever recorded it. I had met Bataan a few years before at a small, family-reunion style show at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in my neighborhood, where he not only still sounded great, but was also gracious and easy to talk to. By the time we got around to recording with Easy, the band was about to break up but we still had the studio booked. We all agreed that we didn't want to continue as a band, but at the same time, it would be a shame to never record what we had been working on. Around this time Bataan was playing out again, so I went to the show to see him and find out if he'd be interested in doing some vocals with us. He was agreeable, so we decided to turn it into a Joe Bataan session and do 'Cycles of You' . . . The rhythm section was a band called TransLove Airways that I formed in 2002. We got really tight and developed a great sound that was, to me, equal parts Heart, Shocking Blue, Brian Auger, and Rare Earth. To this core group I added pieces from a few other local bands: The Middle Initials, who are a great Temptations/Main Ingredient-style vocal group, and members of an incredible Latin band called Grupo Latin Vibe, who were responsible for almost all the percussion. There was also some fine trombone playing by Aaron Johnson of Antibalas and great flute work by Neal Sugarman and my cousin Sonny . . . The 'Call My Name' sessions took place when Daptone had just moved to Bushwick, its classic location..." --Daniel Collás, producer of "Call My Name".

Lusty, urbane, should've been-top 40 pop from NPR classical critic/secret genius Tom Manoff and master vocalist Jill Talvé. Thought to be lost in the wake of epic legal acrimony, this 1983 collection, rescued from safety copy cassettes, easily qualifies as one of the most incredible musical discoveries of the 21st century. It can be left to some intrepid music reporter to uncover the whole sordid mess behind the making of this incredible album. Yoga Records just wants to share the music. It's incredible and it's a hit. Listen to ten seconds of "I'm A Nobody" and understand that it's a mainstream pop music hit almost too good to actually exist. It's that good. Marvel at tossed off verses like "you just crossed the line/ from being snake/ to being slime" or the casual brilliance of the way the last chorus glitches in "Delayed Reaction". In the overfished world of music reissues stuff like this does not come around every day. Like any great musical discovery, the record seems to point a way to an escape hatch to an alternate, better dimension where this got the release it deserved, and Manoff and/or Talvé made a dozen more records. Naked In The Park is that good. RIYL: Pat Benatar, Madonna, Blondie, The Motels.

LP version. The first two pieces "Cleveland "and "Akron" were recorded in 2022. These dark, long form, hypnotic drone pieces reflect the current state of America. The third piece "American Landscapes" was commissioned and performed by Stephen Petronio Dance Company in New York. According to the New York Times "the piece is a spare, almost soothing composition by Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch -- it's a combination of lute, acoustic guitar and electric guitar. Jim Jarmusch and Jozef Van Wissem met on the streets of New York in 2006. They shared a lot of interest and background so a collaboration and a friendship was born. Jarmusch was looking to have Van Wissem compose a score for a film he had been trying to make for years, what he described as a "crypto-vampire film" about two lovers, outsider types who have been in love for hundreds of years. Van Wissem's work comes from a tradition of avant-garde minimalism and lends itself well to the director's stark cinematic works. Jarmusch has played guitar in bands on and off since the late '70s. Van Wissem's compositional style involves hypnotic circular musical phrases that allow for a lot of contemplative space between the notes. Their first live performance was in Issue Project Room in Brooklyn in October 2011, where they appeared together for a Van Wissem curated concert program called 'New Music for Early Instruments.' The idea for their first album, Concerning the Entrance Into Eternity (Important Records) developed from their live performance. Jarmusch has said that he considers these songs as Van Wissem's compositions, and sees himself as someone filling in the background to Jozef 's foreground, like the 'scenic' on a film shoot, the one who paints the backdrops. The sound of the lute is as bright as the sun, a beautiful red color and my stuff sounds sort of like the moon, more like blue, like mercury." Jozef Van Wissem - lutes, condensator drones, electronics; Jim Jarmusch - acoustic and electric guitars. All compositions by Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch. Produced, mixed by JVW. Front cover by Robert Longo.

2020 release. Lost two-song 7" jazz EP by NYC session drummer Tee Holman. Holman allegedly got his start sitting in on "Heat Wave" by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, and eventually landed the drummer's seat on Eddie Gale's legendary Ghetto Music LP for Blue Note. These songs, commissioned by Holman with some of New York's best emerging jazz cats including Sonelius Smith, the Arkestra's Ahmed Abdullah, and singer Joe Lee Wilson whose B-side interpretation of Gershwin's "Summertime" is a hazy, soulful, psychedelic masterpiece. A-side "The Rudie" is a jazz funk workout only the five boroughs could produce. 7" with pocket sleeve; handstamped and numbered; edition of 300.

"Reggay Undercover is an exciting musical kaleidoscope of Jamaican and Reggae music from the early '60s through to the mid-70s. In the 1950s, Jamaican dancehall regulars were crazy about the haunting sounds of American Rhythm & Blues. But in the mid-1950s, Rock n' roll began to replace R&B in America, and Jamaican dancehall owners like Duke Reid and Clement Dodd turned to local musicians to record their own versions of American R&B. The trend of covering foreign hits exploded during the Ska heyday of the early '60s and continued through the Rocksteady and Reggae eras. Jamaican musicians have covered virtually every genre of music, from jazz and rock to film scores, television soundtracks, pop, classical music and more. Over the years, they have also recorded many 'versions' of already existing covers. Cover of cover of cover... Admittedly, some of these covers were futile but many were sublime as this new and eclectic collection of Ska, Rocksteady and Reggay nuggets, compiled by the very competent and very charming DJ Helea, brilliantly demonstrates. Attention we are here 'undercover', there are no well-known covers. Some of the tracks selected are rare, others unknown or forgotten - but all are excellent and blended in an impeccable mix, in line with previous Harlem Shuffle compilations... All killer, no filler!"

LP version. "Blisteringly groovy collection of completely off-the-radar songs by Libyan composer/producer Najib Alhoush's group The Free Music, circa 1976. Releasing an astonishing ten albums, all impressively strong and equally infused by soul, funk, disco, and reggae, The Free Music created a distinctly infectious groove that unfortunately didn't make an impact outside of Libya due to the complex political situation at the time. There is a reason it says 'Part 1' in the title. Avid Habibi Funk listeners may be familiar with Libyan composer/producer Najib Alhoush, who's track 'Ya Aen Daly' -- the Bee Gee's 'Stayin Alive' cover -- was included in our second compilation. While the original track never excited us, Najib's version managed to strip it from its pop approach that had taken over disco during the genre`s peak. At that time, disco tracks mostly were aiming to appeal to the widest audience possible. Najib had turned the original track into something different and very unique. Upon further research we found that Najib was actually the singer and founder of The Free Music band alongside Fakhreddin, Salim Jibreel, Abdulrazzak 'Kit-Kat', Mukhtar Wanis and Mohameed Al Rakibi. Initially, we only licensed Najib Alhoush's "Ya Aen Daly" from Yousef Alhoush, Najib's son, who was pleased to hear that there was interest in his father's music form someone abroad. In the process of exchanging and learning about Najib's music and career, our understanding was that The Free Music only recorded the one album. This couldn't be further from the truth, in fact, there were ten albums produced by the group, all impressively coherent with a clear influence from disco, soul, funk and reggae. The Free Music album was probably the longest it ever took us to gather information, photos and musical source material in a good enough quality to be reissued. This is largely due to the complicated political situation in Libya, compounded by the fact that Libya is still largely cut off from international payment systems, so getting an advance payment to the right person can be a process that takes weeks. The same goes for getting master tapes to a studio abroad and afterwards back to Libya. When we look for music that works under the umbrella of Habibi Funk, we often come across albums where bands experimented with influences from soul, jazz, funk, disco and more, usually on a single track or two but then they often go down to a different path for the rest of the album. This was not the case for The Free Music. All their albums are fully dedicated to their unique blend of disco, reggae and funk and it feels that when we made the selection for this album, we could have chosen a completely different number of tracks and the album would be been equally strong."

Cover variant 2. WRWTFWW Records announces the first ever vinyl release for the remarkable soundtrack of HBO® hit series The White Lotus by Chilean born composer, arranger, music producer, multi-instrumentalist Cristobal "Cristo" Tapia de Veer (Utopia, Smile, Black Mirror, and more). This limited-edition release is packed with 28 tracks, showcasing the complete music score of the cult series' first season. Shamanic, feral, mysterious, sexual, sometimes very danceable, sometimes slightly frightening (in the best ways), and always insanely enjoyable, The White Lotus soundtrack is a roaring beast of its own and one of the most visceral listening experiences in recent memory. Tapia de Veer's haunting score sensually blends tribal percussion with charango, bass, atmospherics, and organic vocals from humans and animals, bringing to life the tension, the wildness, as well as the rare but precious serenity and romance felt throughout the guests' adventurous stay at The White Lotus Resort -- with grace and a just the right amount of insolence. It's big, wonderful and audacious music, sure to captivate a wide array of melomaniacs, from soundtrack collectors to exotica adventurers, library diggers, ambient dreamers, sorcerous dancers, and experimental pop bon vivants. Included in the release is the series' iconic theme song (S01 version), a bonafide hit and spellbinding sensation. Cristobal Tapia de Veer's work has been celebrated with numerous award wins, including two Emmy Awards for The White Lotus.

Available in three sleeve variants, each based on the series' brilliant opening sequence concept by Plains of Yonder and illustrator Lezio Lopes (WRWTFWW 076-1LP, WRWTFWW 076-2LP, WRWTFWW 076-3LP). 180 gram white vinyl; heavy 350gsm gatefold sleeve; inside out sleeve printing; Obi; 12x12" art print inlay.

Metropolis Metropolis three vinyl set is an abbreviated version of the most recent Electronic Music soundtrack for Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) by the Techno music producer and cultural icon Jeff Metropolis Metropolis album is an abbreviated version of the most recent electronic music soundtrack for Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) by the techno music producer and cultural icon, Jeff Mills. Unlike his first soundtrack where tracks addressed specific segments of the film in a track listing form, which was created and released in 2001, this version is more a symbiotic mix of compositions that proposes a nuanced representation of the plot and storyline. As an electronic symphonic music creation, Mills proposes a few interesting points in the schematics of this album: 1. the positioning and role of the listener as the soundtrack is based on the environment of the scenes, rather than pure transcription; 2. as a storyline that takes place in the year 2000, the choice of sound elements refer to some future commonality and foresight between the genres of classical and electronic music -- between man and machine; and 3., in many parts of the soundtrack where sounds are played in unison. This is symbolic of the hopefulness the storyline works towards.

From the back cover of the album: "Creating music for Fritz Lang's masterpiece film Metropolis over the many years has been and continues to be a great experience. The film is a story about 'man vs man' with the help of a machine. Its dramatic theme is as relevant now as it was when the filmed debuted in 1927. A film to enjoyed, but also noted and examined." --Jeff MillsMills. Unlike his first soundtrack where tracks addressed specific segments of the film in a track listing form, which was created and released in 2001, this version is more a symbiotic mix of compositions that proposes a nuanced representation of the plot and storyline. ---------------------------- Metropolis Metropolis three vinyl set is an abbreviated version of the most recent Electronic Music soundtrack for Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) by the Techno music producer and cultural icon Jeff Mills. Unlike his first soundtrack where tracks addressed specific segments of the film in a track listing form, which was created and released in 2001, this version is more a symbiotic mix of compositions that proposes a nuanced representation of the plot and storyline. As an electronic symphonic music creation, Mills proposes a few interesting points in the schematics of this album. 1- the positioning and role of the listener as the soundtrack is based on the environment of the scenes, rather than pure transcription, 2 - as a storyline that takes place in the year 2000, the choice of sound elements refer to some future commonality and foresight between the genres of Classical and Electronic music - between man and machine. And 3, in many parts of the soundtrack where sounds are played in unison. This is symbolic of the hopefulness the storyline works towards. "Creating music for Fritz Lang's masterpiece film "Metropolis" over the many years has been and continues to be a great experience. The film is a story about "man vs man" with the help of a machine. It's dramatic theme is as relevant now as it was when the filmed debuted in 1927. A film to enjoyed, but also noted and examined." - Jeff Mills

Reissue, originally released in 1971. Another underground folk masterpiece back on the map. Forerunner of the British revival Ian A. Anderson licensed the album on his own The Village Thing on December 1971. Besides a couple of excellent cover -- "Black Uncle Remus" penned by Loudon Wainwright III and a minor Bob Dylan classic as "One Too Many Mornings" -- the album shows a more forward-thinking production, with several bucolic progressive arrangements.

2023 restock. In Last Blues, De la Catessen Records presents a mysterious folio of sonic snapshots, as much recaptured as composed, by Jon Dale's project, Moth, in Adelaide in the late '90s and early '00s. We're invited to tune in to these liminal frequencies, to observe and inhabit them, and relish the glowing sensual overdrive of their manifestation. From the ready means and at-handedness of guitar, amp, and tape, a congruous but diverse selection of unnamed tracks emerge -- musical moments borrowed from oblivion with the as yet unfulfilled good intention of returning them. Their sounds evoke abstract Polaroids of winter seascapes flecked with spare, brittle detail, or the scaly-winged flutterings of elusive nocturnal insects. Here, a homely hum like a vacuum cleaner on sunny childhood's weekend morning; there, suburban power lines buzzing gently in the mist. The last track of Last Blues is like a reverent vision of lava-flow for harmonium, the slow-motion eruption of a single chord, which echoes in the mind for hours. Last Blues comes from somewhere that doesn't exist anymore, and shows us something that may never have happened there.

"Jon Dale collapses old dichotomies (such as organic vs. inorganic and heavy vs. light) into a pure horizon of tone with only guitar and a little harmonium. Sonically, it makes me think of a middle point between if Organum snuck into the studio to remix Glenn Branca, and what I imagine the electric synapses firing off in Raymond Roussel's brain would've sounded like if committed to wax cylinder. Which is to say, it sounds rad." --Ben Chasny, Six Organs Of Admittance

"On a hot night in Philly -- Saturday August 9, 1998 -- Brooke Sietsons's backyard hosted the No More Bush tour. The line-up that evening was Zaïmph, Jack Rose, MV+EE, Tom Carter & Willie Lane, 50 Foot Women with Axolotl, and the sole known appearance of the Mike Watt/Charles Plymell duo. Plymell and Watt had met a year earlier at the Festival Ecstatique in Western Mass, and they hit it off like crazy. So, when this tour was coming together, and Charley agreed to reprise the work he did on the More Hair Less Bush tour in '94, we noticed Watt's path with the Stooges might intersect around the Philly area. As always, Watt was chuffed to not have to take a day off, and excited to team up with one of his literary heroes. Plymell was stoked as well, and the two were spieling and laughing from the moment they hooked up. When it was time for them to perform, they were ready to fucking rock. Watt starts things with a couple of his own poems (which were published as a booklet for this appearance) then Charley rolls into it, with Mike shifting to bass. Starting with classics -- "Song for Neal Cassady," "Was Poe Afraid?," etc. -- Plymell adds a couple of new ones at the end, while Watt pulls spectral bass lines from the aether, and the dark hot night soaks it all in. The whole event was pretty amazing, but this meeting of the minds, was really the high point for most of us. You might not have been there, but thanks to the recording made by Laki Vazakas and the pics taken by Dan Cohoon, you can now lie and say you were! Just remember -- we were all sweating. Even Charles Burns!" --Byron Coley, 2023

Reissue. In 2010, electronic composer Arandel quietly released his first album In D on the then young InFiné label. At the time, the artist was strictly anonymous, put in the forefront its strict methodology of composition, and unleashed to the world what was destined to eventually break ground as a classic debut. The original pressing of that record sold out more than ten years ago, and at long last is finding new life on gold limited edition vinyl (including an enamel pin of the doodle that adorns the album cover). The record covers immense ground despite the strict "sonic dogma" put in place (every song in the key of D, and no samples allowed beyond what Arandel played himself). With these limitations aside, the record traverses a wide sonic map that covers classic, pristine leftfield house, ambient experimentalism, and even mind-expanding psychedelia. As stated by The Line of Best Fit in 2010, "In Dis an exciting, occasionally intoxicating and spirited album that owes as much to the spirit of its influences as it does to the desired mystery of its creator."

"At last! The long-promised duo LP by two undisputed masters of post-tongue instrumental gesticulation and invention. Augured by their eponymous 7" from 2019, Off Motion is a full-length exploration of the previously unknown aural destinations these two guys continually discover as they move beyond the borders of music-as-it-is-played. Often, when writing about music, it's possible to draw comparisons to players' stylistic relationships to what has gone before. But the music on Off Motion (to quote a William Burroughs chestnut), 'buggers comparison.' Nace's style on electric guitar may have its roots somewhere in the playing of Keith Rowe, but the sonic scapes he conjures are so nimbly freaked, I can rarely figure out what the hell he is doing (if anything) to generate what I'm hearing. And White's avant garde approach to the jaw harp (as well, I think, nose flute and maybe even bird call) has so few precedents apart from random Fluxus events, it's impossible to make any inferences as to possible influences. This duo lives up to the promise of ESP-Disk's motto as much as anyone I can think of. You have never heard such sounds in your life. The seven pieces on Off Motion are hard to unravel. Chik sent recordings to Bill. Nace added his own bits. Then he and Emily Robb screwed around with everything until it pulsed with sheer mystery. I took a lot of notes on the tracks, but the best ones are hard for even me to decode. For 'Pathways' -- starts with pixie twinkle guitar, then evolves into a duet for Taishōgoto and nose flute that sounds as though it was designed to drive dogs nuts while they search for phantom, mocking squirrels. For 'Erasing' -- like a troubled pigeon visiting a guy who uses an electric razor while bouncing around on Slinky-shoes, before switching into carillon-based boots and breaking into a human pinball routine he's been practicing since he was a boy. I repeat these descriptions only to show how entirely Bill & Chik's music resists easy categorization. There is a sense at times the studio/mixing board itself is being used as an instrument, which is very cool. But I am still jonesing to see these guys do some live shows. Both Bill and Chik have the ability to mix jocularity and seriousness into a strangely compelling whole. Their music is bizarre as hell without being off-putting or sterile, and anyone who has a taste for weird thrills is gonna love Off Motion to death. Tell Alice Cooper the news." --Byron Coley

Reissue. Crucial set of dubs from Scientist. Barry Brown Meets The Scientist features twelve extra-heavy Scientist mixes of Barry Brown tracks originally cut and played at King Tubby's by the legendary Roots Radics. Six vocal mixes and a further six dubs, where the peerless Scientist really cuts loose on the mixing board, nudging the EQs and royally dubbing Brown outta sight.