The Early Years collection has been released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the music-theater company, Operating Theatre, by composer Roger Doyle and performer Olwen Fouere. Operating Theatre has been active in two phases: the first from 1981 to 1988, and the second from 1998 to 2008. This double-CD set celebrates the first phase, during which the company operated as both a theatre company, integrating music as an equal partner in the theatrical environment, and as a band releasing records.

"Over the past decade, the visionary musician Arthur Russell has entered something close to the mainstream. Sampled and referenced by contemporary musicians, his papers now open to visitors at the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center in New York, and his name synonymous with a certain strain of tenderness, Russell is as widely known as he's ever been. Thanks to Russell's partner Tom Lee and to Steve Knutson of Audika Records, who have forged several records from Russell's vast archive of unreleased material, the world now hears many versions of Arthur Russell. There's the Iowa boy, the disco mystic, the singer-songwriter and composer, and the fierce perfectionist deep in a world of echo. While all of these elements of Russell are individually true, none alone define him. Now, after ten years of work inside the Russell library, Lee and Knutson bring us Iowa Dream, yet another bright star in Russell's dazzling constellation. Blazing with trademark feeling, these nineteen songs are a staggering collection of Russell's utterly distinct songwriting. And although Russell could be inscrutably single-minded, he was never totally solitary. Collaborating here is a stacked roster of downtown New York musicians, including Ernie Brooks, Rhys Chatham, Henry Flynt, Jon Gibson, Peter Gordon, Steven Hall, Jackson Mac Low, Larry Saltzman, and David Van Tieghem. Musician Peter Broderick makes a contemporary addition to this list: more than forty years after Russell recorded several nearly finished songs, Broderick worked diligently with Audika to complete them, and performed audio restoration and additional mixing. Several tracks on Iowa Dream Russell originally recorded as demos, in two early examples of his repeated brushes with potential popular success -- first in 1974, with Paul Nelson of Mercury Records, and then in 1975, with the legendary John Hammond of Columbia Records. For different reasons, neither session amounted to a record deal. Russell kept working nearly up until his death in 1992 from complications of HIV-AIDS. At once kaleidoscopic and intimate, Iowa Dream bears some of Russell's most personal work, including several recently discovered folk songs he wrote during his time in Northern California in the early 1970s. For Russell, Iowa was never very far away. 'I see, I see it all,' sings Russell on the title track: red houses, fields, the town mayor (his father) streaming by as he dream-bicycles through his hometown. Russell's childhood home and family echo, too, through 'Just Regular People,' 'I Wish I Had a Brother,' 'Wonder Boy,' 'The Dogs Outside are Barking,' 'Sharper Eyes,' and 'I Felt.' Meanwhile, songs like 'I Kissed the Girl From Outer Space,' 'I Still Love You,' 'List of Boys,' and 'Barefoot in New York' fizz with pop and dance grooves, gesturing at Russell's devotion to New York's avant-garde and disco scenes. Finally, the long-awaited 'You Did it Yourself,' until now heard only in a brief heart-stopping black-and-white clip in Matt Wolf's documentary Wild Combination, awards us a new take with a driving funk rhythm and Russell's extraordinary voice soaring at the height of its powers. On Iowa Dream, you can hear a country kid meeting the rest of the world -- and with this record, the world continues to meet a totally singular artist."

Double LP version. Gatefold sleeve. For the third instalment of Detroit Love's acclaimed mix series, none other than Dirt Tech Reck label boss and Slum Village co-founder Waajeed steps up for a 20-track mix paying tribute to the margins of Detroit and beyond. Hot on the heels of mixes from Carl Craig (PEDL 002CD/LP) and Stacey Pullen (PEDL 001CD/LP), Waajeed's Detroit Love Vol. 3 tells a highly personal tale of the Detroit spirit, of someone living and breathing its culture since a young age. Having grown up to the sounds of Roy Ayers, Kraftwerk, and Funkadelic, cultivated his sonic profile alongside J Dilla as part of Slum Village, Waajeed launched his own Dirt Tech Reck label that veers towards more dancefloor-focused tracks. And even though Waajeed's sound has gone through a multitude of changes over the years, his cautious understanding of the symbiosis between soul and grit has always remained true to its Motor City roots. For the mix he calls upon a number of his most respected contemporaries, forging an authentic blend of genres spanning familiar grooves and a slew of unheard exclusives. From Patrice Scott and Doc Link to LADYMONIX and DJ Rimarkible, Detroit Love Vol. 3 blends the old and the new, the jazzy and the industrial, bound together by their idiosyncratic nods to the city's legacy. Detroit Love Vol. 3 offers, yet again, a detailed portrait of the sounds and personalities that lend to the city's rich musical heritage.Double-LP version includes an eight-track package featuring many of the new and exclusive tracks from the compilation; features Roddy Rod, 14Kt, D-Love Muzic, Teflon Dons, LADYMONIX, DJ Rimarkable, Matthew Law, and Damon Bell; Gatefold sleeve.

Erik "Keysie" Ritfeld and Arp Frique's Improvised Suites For Analog Machines celebrates the most influential analog synthesizers of the '70s and '80s. Each track is uniquely dedicated to a different synth, experimenting with the variety of sounds each is capable of producing while telling a story of the past. The whole album is a mesmerizing improvisation demonstrating what each instrument can do, while maintaining a wonderful fusion of old and new. Performed and composed by Erik "Keysie" Ritfeld and Arp Frique.

On the front cover of Saharawi singer-songwriter and activist Aziza Brahim's new album, Sahari, a young girl poses in ballet shoes and a glistening white tutu. It's a common childhood scene, but it's tipped upside down. She's an exile, living nowhere near her homeland, and behind her stand the tents and buildings of a refugee camp. There's a desert on the ground and a burning sky above. Yet even in this bleakness, she has optimism. She believes in a better future. The music Aziza Brahim makes reflects both the sorrow and the hope of these people. She grew up in one of those camps in the Algerian desert, along with thousands of other Saharawi who were removed from their homes in the Western Sahara. Her grandmother was a famous Saharawi poet, her mother well-known as a vocalist, and they passed their strength and fearlessness to her. Now, as one of North African most lauded singers, Brahim uses her position to make the plight of her people known -- and of the refugees across the world who have no choice but to exist in the camps. Sahari is for them as much as it's for her own family. The political remains intensely personal for Brahim. She lives in exile, in Spain, and the music for Sahari -- her third album for Glitterbeat -- was written there. And while her songs remain grounded in her homeland, her gaze is increasingly global. To achieve that, Brahim worked with the acclaimed Spanish artist Amparo Sánchez of the band Amparanoia on the album's pre-production, and the collaboration has made a transformative impact on the music. The focus is broader, with programming and keyboards a vital part of the new sound. The different approach extends to the very root of Brahim's music, the tabal drum that's been the heart of Saharawi music for centuries. The process was made smoother by having a sympathetic band who've been with her for years. All the members played a part in framing the new material. When Brahim began as a composer, her work reflected her own reality, growing up in the far, rocky desert known as the hamada. These days she's become a voice for refugees across the globe, and what she sees every day on the news has inevitably affected her writing. Perhaps Aziza's empowered, healing music, can help refuel our sense of justice and compassion.

"The band-authorised 6-CD set At A Point Between Fate And Destiny features all surviving recordings, with much-loved studio albums Mighty Baby and A Jug Of Love joined by rehearsal sessions, a complete and previously unissued alternative version of the first album, audio from the band's only TV appearance and other studio outtakes."

Rabih Beaini's Upperground Orchestra (Beaini, Alvise Seggi, Tommaso Cappellato, and Piero Bittolo Bon) are back with their first studio material since 2008. Upperground Orchestra is the hybrid jazz band of Rabih Beaini and his fellow musicians Cappellato (drums), Bon (woodwinds/electronics), and Seggi (bass/oud). The band returns with a new LP, seven years after The Eupen Takes (DOSER 013LP, 2012). Euganea is a five track LP recorded during their Musica Veneta residency, promoted by FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano) in the great setting of Villa dei Vescovi. Working around Veneto music, the band developed pieces that merge the deep roots of original fusion (tape music, electronic synths, and processing) with the free spiritual jazz sound of Upperground Orchestra.

Subtitled: Heavy Psychedelic Ballads And Dirges 1968-1974. 2019 repress, originally released 2009. 2LP version. "Deluxe gatefold jacket containing extensive and detailed liner notes and annotation by Egon, rare photos and other ephemera." Artists: Top Drawer, Sensational Saints, East Of Underground, D. R. Hooker, Shin Jung Hyun & The Men feat. Jang Hyun, T. Zchiew & The Johnny, The Strangers, Damon, Ellison, Morly Grey, Shadrack Chameleon, Ofege, Ana Y Jaime, Kourosh Yaghmaei, Baby Grandmothers.

2019 repress. "David Axelrod delivered one of the great psychedelic albums with 1968's Song Of Innocence, based around the poetry of William Blake. It is considered by many his masterpiece. Song Of Innocence is this weird hybrid that no one, not even Axelrod himself, could ever really describe. The listener is pulled in by his melodies, simplistic at first blush, but colored by odd chord progressions and turn arounds, grounded by the drummer Earl Palmer and Carol Kaye's funk, torn between the juxtaposition of musical elements -- a jazz vibraphone solo here, a fuzz guitar tear here, a nod to the baroque in Don Randi's clavichord comps -- and put at ease, always, by Axe's arrangements, which utilize brass and strings in a way that no 1960s arranger did. It's worth noting that there are really count-on-your-hand examples of anything that might even be compared to Song Of Innocence. Perhaps Arthur Verocai's self-titled and only artist album, issued on the Brasilian Continental label in 1972, or the collaborations between Serge Gainsbourg and Jean Claude Vannier, which found their epitome in 1971's Histoire de Melody Nelson. But even these albums, superb, in any thinking music fan's canon of the best from this era, perhaps in their lives -- and perhaps in line with Song Of Innocence -- are one-offs. Axelrod's Song Of Innocence set in path a series of artist albums on Capitol and other labels and influenced the world countless times over, from The Verve to DJ Shadow to Madlib to J.Dilla. Remastered from the original tapes in a new transfer, with extensive liner notes and unpublished photos."

"The original soundtrack for the cult film, Lucifer Rising, by Underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Composed by Bobby BeauSoleil who is joined in the performances by his prison band, The Freedom Orchestra, recorded 1975-1979 at Tracy Prison. The music of Lucifer Rising is closely linked with the occult elements with dark psychedelic mystical sounds. Bobby composed electronic sounds interspersed with interesting slow trumpet fanfares, keyboard wizardry and fine guitar solos. For sure one of influential soundtracks ever and one of the most important psychedelic ambient album of music history. Magical & essential. Artwork by Malleus. Limited edition digipack."

Double LP version. Freedom Engine's A Box Full Of Magic is experimental work from Mathew Jonson. Worthwhile albums tend to be as much about the process of making them as they are about the end products themselves. One can almost hear formal, technical, even philosophical questions being asked and answered on them in order to arrive at something personally and politically new for the artist. A Box Full Of Magic is at once sprawling, cosmic, and psychedelic in the best of ways, follows in this album-making tradition. It is a record steeped in off-kilter percussive time, live recording, occasionally summer cloud-paced tempos, and lush, emotional, melodic instrumentation. "A Sunrise On the Front," the final track of the record (and a composition crushing in its beauty), encapsulates much of this: recorded live on a Rhodes, the melody gives voice to the paradoxical sense of hope even during the pathology of war. Such conceptual ambition fits perfectly well within the capacious vision of Jonson's Freedom Engine, a project whose name explores the conceptual paradox and complexity of approaching freedom through the engine of technology. In a fundamental sense, this tension between freedom and machine informs much of the album. Desiring to break out of his old ways of production, the album abounds with fresh fascinations in things like the sound of mathematical equations, quirky time signatures, and experimental phrasing through intuitive timings. There is likewise an interest in the liberating potential of deconstructing old sounds to make new ones, as Jonson applies techniques like innovative noise gating on classic drum samples to create space-age percussion. At other moments, air itself is sampled in field recordings to create unnatural percussive patterns. An encyclopedia of machines and synths are employed in the making of A Box Full Of Magic but what is perhaps new here, and in keeping with the dialectic he traces between freedom/engine, is a non-mechanistic, spontaneous impulse. While it is not a live album, it has an at-times spiritual and organic inclination despite or perhaps because of the way his panoply of gear attempts to capture dream-like tonalities that reach poetic heights on a track like "Sunrise" or morph into an almost diabolical, Lynchian dimension on "An Evil Charm (Where Is the Forest)." A Box Full Of Magic helps to expand the sonic vocabulary of contemporary dance music.

Yet another luxurious spectacle from the Saraswati Series. Ex-Sun City Girls master guitarist Richard Bishop teams up with Cul De Sac's long time Girls live collaborator, Ed Yazijian. Two grand seigneurs of underground deliver a unique album, deeply Western-rooted, filled with the musical spirit and structures of Indian music at the same time. Elegant interplay, brilliantly arranged, using mostly guitar (lap steel, tenor) and strings (viola), and an Indian stringed instrument, and some piano. A classic Saraswati Series sonic adventure. A contemporary classy polaroid, state of the art in today's underground music. Three untitled pieces which came up right Unrock's alley. 140 gram vinyl; one-time pressing.

Soundway presents the unique results of a one-off 2018 meeting in Marrakech between Belgrade-based tribal/techno/industrial outfit Tapan and the nomadic Tuareg electrified desert-blues group, Generation Taragalte. Tapan is not an ordinary "techno" project, rather it escapes easy categorization. It is the Belgrade-based production duo of 20/44 club resident Nebojsa Bogdanović (Schwabe), and Goran Simonoski, a producer behind music projects such as Belgradeyard Sound System, Piece of Shh, and more. Both have been active in the Belgrade music and nightlife scenes since the 1990s, and since 2015 have brought together their diverse musical experience under the collaborative moniker of Tapan. While performing at the Atlas Electronic festival in Morocco in 2018, they encountered Generation Taragalte of southern Morocco, and recorded the initial music for the Atlas EP in an improvised studio on the festival grounds, followed by final production on returning to Belgrade. The result was the four-track EP Atlas, a dark, desolate, and potent collision of the electronic drone-jazz of Belgrade and the windswept, desiccated psych-guitar riffs of the Moroccan Sahara. RIYL: The Bug, The Comet Is Coming, DJ Khalab, Mala, Clap! Clap!, Burial, Tolouse Low Trax.

Editions Mego present the latest addition to the compelling discography of Thomas Brinkmann. Throughout his career Brinkmann has focused on the human operating amongst industry alongside rhythms that manifest as a result of technological advancement. With this new release Brinkmann makes a U-turn, looking back to the early industrial age. Comprised of recordings of various looms, Raupenbahn investigates the sonic properties and consequences of the first automatic loom as constructed by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1745. Thomas Brinkmann once again adheres to his tendency for clarity and simplicity whilst further investigating not only the sound and rhythms of the machines (looms) but also what role they serve in society and what consequences they have on the environment. Raupenbahn presents 21 tracks in total, 11 featured on the vinyl, the remaining ten as digital bonus tracks. The majority of recordings were undertaken by Brinkmann in 2017 with a Neumann KM 184 stereo set. Additional recordings were sourced with permission from Monika Widzicka recs. from 2014 Central Museum of Textiles Łódź, Poland. Each piece presents a diversity of material which borders on the breathtaking and beautiful in richness and complexity. The various looms unravel rhythms and patterns unexpected from machines of the early industrial age. The loom holds a significant role in shaping our world being the catalyst for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine which, alongside the subsequent work of Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace, paved the way for modern computing. There is a linage of the loom that fits succinctly in Brinkmann's overall argument. Here we encounter a parallel between machine driven economies and the music that rose from such places, consider the Sheffield steel industries, the Manchester weaving industry or the Rhineland/Düsseldorf loom and machine industry. Is it a coincidence that the practice of such machines in the environment gave rise to today's predilection for electronic dance music, in pop, soundtracks, etc. Raupenbahn features no treatment or processing and explicitly displays varying tempo and timbres which ascertain a wide range of acoustic structures. The artwork features Ingrid Wiener, Rosemarie Trockel, and Alexandra Bircken, three different generations who would with ideas of fabric weaving, looming, and the like. This exceptional release works on a number of levels alongside it's striking sonic palette. The digital bonus tracks (and the LP tracks) can be redeemed with download card that comes with the LP.

The Elbow Is Taboo was Renaldo & The Loaf's fourth and last album of their initial phase prior to their return in 2010. Released by Ralph Records in America and Some Bizzare in the UK in 1987, this work represents a development in the overall sound as they utilize an 8-track recorder along with early digital effects. A large arsenal of acoustic instrumentation gives the record an additional unsettling atmosphere. Recorded over a three-year period this remains the definitive statement by the group in this early period. As clarified by Brian from the band, the themes remain as obtuse and alluring as ever with each song containing its own story: "be it a child's desire to control ('A Street Called Straight'), the ridiculous purdah of an innocent part of the body ('The Elbow Is Taboo'), a call for help in times of angst ('Here's To the Oblong Boys'), the rigours of a bread fetish ('The Bread Song'), the anger of a dance teacher to the terminally inept ('Critical/Dance') or a ritual call to prayer, somewhere ('Extracting The Re-Re')". Disorientating and delightful, this is a must for all fans of the Loaf and for those tickled by the more deranged spectrum of song. Remastered for vinyl and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, Nov 2018. Original album recorded Chez Struvé 1984 to 1986. Cover design & layout by Nik Void. Original cover concept by Renaldo & The Loaf.

Limited repress on clear vinyl. Double LP version. LPs pressed on premium audiophile-quality vinyl at RTI from Kevin Gray Lacquers; Presented in a textured gatefold Stoughton "laserdisc" jacket with a cover painting by Lisa Alvarado. Jackets, retro-audiophile sleeves and record labels hand-screen printed by Alan Sherry at Siwa Studios, Northern New Mexico. Mandatory Reality, the new album by Joshua Abrams and Natural Information Society, is here. Setting aside (for the moment) the electric instrumentation of Simultonality (GB 048CD/MTE 068LP, 2017) and Magnetoception (MTE 063-64LP, 2015), Joshua Abrams conceived Mandatory Reality for an eight-piece acoustic manifestation of NIS, consisting of himself on guimbri, Lisa Alvarado on harmonium and gongs, Mikel Avery on tam-tam and gongs, Ben Boye on autoharp and piano, Hamid Drake on tabla and tar, Ben Lamar Gay on cornet, Nick Mazzarella on alto saxophone, and Jason Stein on bass clarinet. A double album, Mandatory Reality is comprised largely of two performances, both Joshua Abrams compositions, 24- and 40-minutes in length. While new to the band's records, long duration pieces are familiar to those who've heard Joshua Abram and NIS in concert in recent years, where elaboration on a single composition for an hour or more is not unusual. Gradual tempos dominate Mandatory Reality. Recorded two months before the 2017 solar eclipse, Mandatory Reality is the sound of Joshua Abrams and NIS taking its time. Merging methodical compositions with sonically voluptuous orchestration, Abrams heightens the immersive and hypnotic qualities Abram and NIS music is known for, taking the band and the listener deep into a collective meditative space. A grand realization of long-form psychedelic music, Mandatory Reality is a dispatch from a sound world that is increasingly unique to itself. All performances on Mandatory Reality are full takes recorded live to tape by the full ensemble, magnificently captured by Greg Norman at electrical audio, Chicago -- the first true "audiophile" recording of Joshua Abrams and NIS. Mastered by Helge Sten at Audio Virus, Oslo.

"For over half a century, Takehisa Kosugi was one of the most unique and enduring figures in the Japanese underground. As an art student in Tokyo in the early 1960s, he joined the Fluxus-styled performance unit Hi Re Centre and founded the improvisational ensemble Group Ongaku, but his most legendary project was The Taj-Mahal Travelers -- a multicellular organism that included Kosugi, Ryo Koike, Yukio Tsuchiya, Seiji Nagai, Michihiro Kimura, Tokio Hasegawa and sound engineer Kinji Hayashi. With a penchant for long psychedelic jams (some lasting 12 hours or more) The Taj-Mahal Travelers lived up to their name. Touring in a Volkswagen van across Europe and Asia in the early '70s, they eventually reached the actual Taj Mahal in India. Upon their return to Japan, they held a concert to raise more touring funds and released their very first recordings. Their debut album, July 15, 1972, would extend the band's matter-of-fact titling: all the tracks were named precisely for the times they began and ended. With a grab bag of instrumentation (electric violin, double bass, santoor, vibraphone, harmonica, radio oscillators, sheet iron, etc.), The Taj-Mahal Travelers weave together mesmerizing waves of sonic texture. Featuring long tone concepts that Kosugi discovered while working with sound generators in New York in the mid-'60s, July 15, 1972 remains just as much a collective tone poem as psych workout. These leader-less sounds coalesce into a unified whole that feels both subconscious and sublime, as if the waveforms bypass the listener's ears and land directly inside one's synapses. This first-time vinyl reissue is limited to 750 numbered copies. Comes with poster."

"Yoshi Wada's Lament For The Rise And Fall Of The Elephantine Crocodile, originally released in 1982 on India Navigation, remains one of the most remarkable flowers to grow in the rarefied air of American minimalism -- akin to Terry Riley's Reed Streams and Pauline Oliveros' Accordion & Voice, yet with a wild, liberated energy all of its own. After graduating from Kyoto University of Fine Arts with a degree in sculpture, Wada moved to New York City in 1967 and quickly fell in with the community of artists known as Fluxus. In the early '70s, he began building his own instruments and writing musical compositions, studying with La Monte Young and Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath. Recorded during an epic three-day session in an empty swimming pool in upstate New York, Wada's first album brings together two of the oldest drone instruments -- the human voice and bagpipes -- to simple and glorious effect. A visit to the Scottish Highlands spurred Wada's interest in bagpipes, which the composer integrated into these sparse, otherworldly sounds heard on Lament. 'That swimming pool was quite hallucinatory,' recalls Wada. 'It was another world. I felt it in terms of resonance. I slept in the pool, and whenever I moved, I woke up because of the reverberations... The piece itself is an experiment with reeds and improvisational singing within the modal structure.' This first-time vinyl reissue is limited to 750 numbered copies. Comes with poster."

This collection of scarce and sought-after recordings was originally released by Louder Than War and sold out pretty much straight away. Girls In Synthesis have quickly forged a fearsome reputation as one of the most exciting and volatile live acts in London. In equal parts frantic, considered, ear-splitting and melodic. Pre/Post sees Girls In Synthesis compile their three previous EP releases and also sees inclusion of their debut single The Mound/Disappear, never released before on vinyl. Experimentation has seen them transgress the punk bracket into something more original and unique while stage shows present a complete and controlled spectacle, with the group moving from playing on stage to dragging equipment into the audience, desperately trying to remove the group/audience barrier. Their explosive shows have seen them hand-picked for support slots with bands as disparate as Bad Breeding, Slaves, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Wolf Alice, Warmduscher, and Damo Suzuki. The lopsided, fuzz groove of "Disappear" rubs shoulders with the bass-driven, future crowd favorite "The Mound" to add up to a frantic and stripped-back, stunning calling card. Follow up EP Suburban Hell saw the group develop the sonic aspects of their music, with the harshness ramped up and subtle but powerful production aspects pushing songs like "Suburban Hell" and "Phases" into harsh, noise-punk territory. Second EP, We Might Not Make Tomorrow, added a slight melodic edge to the previous aural bludgeon, whilst the lyrics to songs like the title track, "Sentient" and "Tainted" explore deeper issues such as the threat of nuclear war, animal cruelty and the outcome of the USA presidential election. The third EP, Fan The Flames, further presses into deeper lyrical territory, with songs focusing on government neglect, anxiety, and mental health issues. The production receives even further toughening up and also features the group's first foray into spoken word in "Howling", albeit with a glitchy, unmusical, harsh noise backdrop.

14 tracks from the Louisville late '60s/early '70s garage-psych scene. These cuts (all of them previously unissued, except for one originally released on a rare 45) were found in the archives of the city's well known Allen-Martin Studio, after the owners retired and the place closed down. Including some rather well-known names, such as The Rugbys, The Illusions, The Keyes, and The Oxfords, as well as more obscure local heroes like Free Reign, The Premieres, Roc, and Conception. Highlights include fabulous psych rockers by The Rugbys and The Oxfords; fuzzed-out garage by Blues and The Illusions; psychedelic hard-rock by Babylon and Free Reign; jangly teen beat by JB and The Young Wheels; killer psych covers of The Beatles and Traffic by The Keyes and Company Front. Also features Brothers Pride, The Waters, and Copperfield. Master tape sound and insert with liner notes and photos.

2019 repress. Recital present the newest record by Canadian composer Sarah Davachi. Currently working on her PhD in Musicology at UCLA, her trajectory has been unorthodox. Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, which, if you've never been there, doesn't really scream "avant-garde" (Calgary is the rodeo capital of the world). It is important and interesting that she chose to study esoteric music; as Sarah could have easily been a cowgirl or a concert pianist had her ingrained love of synthesis and sonic phenomenology not taken the wheel. There are few people that have the diligence and resolve to take their time with music... especially in a live context. Recital label head Sean McCann: "The first time I saw Sarah perform, I presumptuously told her that her music reminded me of my favorite Mirror albums (the exceptional project of Andrew Chalk and Christoph Heemann). Sarah was not familiar with Mirror, so the compliment was initially lost on her. Years back I was in the same situation when a review compared my music to Andrew Chalk, who was unknown to me at the time. So I felt a kinship in our magnetic drift towards unspoken and clustered beauty." Let Night Come On Bells End The Day follows the release of her "sound-wheel" LP All My Circles Run, which examines the isolation of different instruments. Let Night Come On, recorded mainly with a Mellotron and electronic organ, feels like a return to the nest. Burrowed in the studio, Davachi was the only performer on this album. She both splays her compositional architecture and re-contextualizes the essence of her early output. She chiseled careful and shadowed hymns; anchors of emotion. Two pillars of this album are "Mordents", which may hints of her love for progressive rock music -- and "Buhrstone", comparable to a somber funeral march of piano and flutes. These two examine punctuations of early music, gently plucking melodies and movements. The three other compositions are tonal works, blowing slow jets of lapping harmonics..

Sean McCann: "I find it hard to separate 'At Hand' from filmmaker Paul Clipson, who made a melancholic film for this piece of Sarah's. A fitting title for Sarah and Paul's relationship -- frequently working in orbit of each other, meticulous and tactile. I cherish this track as a memory of Paul."

Sorcerer Records present the reissue of Why Not Now?... Alan!, the debut LP from 1987 by Milwaukee space-rock gods, F/i. Available for the first time on vinyl since its initial release, it remains a holy grail item for lovers of cosmic rock n' roll sounds from underground Amerika in the 1980s. F/i had been churning out tape upon tape of experimental electronics since the early '80s. Influenced by krautrock (particularly Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel) and the harsh noise of industrialists Throbbing Gristle and early SPK, by the mid '80s they morphed into a fully-fledged "rock" band, albeit one incorporating all of the above. This LP is the perfect synthesis of these sounds: grimy, lo-fi "rock" with elements of industrial clang and extended, Hawkwind-ish space-rock jams; from the two-step cosmic churn of "Electric Waltz" to the 'Neubauten-style bang and bash of "Zombie Theme". Remastered by Mikey Young. The sleeve replicates the original. Includes download card; edition of 500.

"Clipping -- Los Angeles's radical hiphop trio tap into the power of noise and the narratives of Afrofuturism as they talk to Emily Pothast about horror, destruction and the redemptive power of science fiction on new album There Existed An Addiction To Blood. Plus: Once Upon A Time In Glasgow -- Stewart Smith revisits the crucible of free and improvised music at Tom McGrath's Third Eye Centre when Duke Ellington, Derek Bailey, Julius Eastman and others came to Scotland in the 1960s and 70s; Jahtari and friends -- Leipzig's longrunning digi-dub collective talk to Chal Ravens about 8-bit riddims, the Euro-sound system network and their new label Zonedog; Howe Gelb -- the Giant Sand mastermind takes the Invisible Jukebox test. And much more!"

2019 repress on purple vinyl. Originally released to much acclaim in 1981 by Rough Trade, Heartbeat was the first in a long line of groundbreaking albums by Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti. This early example of Chris & Cosey features cut-up sampled voices, Cosey's disto-guitar, industrial sequences, melodious synths, and cinematic sweeps. Includes a 12" B/W double-sided insert of archive photos, clippings, and texts.

"There are moments of great beauty like 'Moorby' and, equally, many moments of sheer depravity all performed with Kraftwerk's cultured class and the hypnotic charm and deadly grace of a synthesised cobra." --Steve Sutherland (Melody Maker, 1982)

"All the world loves a love story... but Heartbeat still has an edge of evil among the extensions of the pair's established scenarios." --Sandy Robertson (Sounds, 1981)

Dengue Dengue Dengue! continue expanding their carefully created aesthetic on Zenit & Nadir by diving into the deep and rich musical history of Afro-Peruvian music, already hinted in the first single "Ágni", which is the inversion of the traditional Afro-Peruvian rhythm, Ingá. The ongoing exploration of the vast and rich musical heritage of the descendants of the former African slaves in Peru has become the main focus of their new album. Their interest in Afro-Peruvian music has led them to meet and record extensively with several members of the Ballumbrosio family, a renowned musical dynasty in Peru that has kept Afro-Peruvian musical traditions alive, masters of rhythms like landó, festejo, and crioullo music, with traditional dances and instruments such as the iconic quijada -- a rattling percussive instrument made out of a donkey's jawbone. The introduction of live recordings with the Ballumbrosio brothers has given a whole new dimension to their always-expanding sound, and they feature extensively all throughout the album. The marriage between the traditional and organic percussion of the Ballumbrosios with DDD's hypnotic electronic production has created a whole new chapter for the band Features Kalaf, Sara Van, Mikongo, Prisma, and Martin Boder.

Dedicated "to the United Nations and especially young people", this is slow-burning, steeply screwed, early-seventies Atlanta funk by James Conley and company, spun out of a line from Eliza Hewett's nineteenth-century hymn, "When We All Get To Heaven". The flip is deadly, too: a super-soulful blend of Sly & The Family Stone with Kool & The Gang, movingly confused and sincere in its pleading (without threats or machismo) to be loved back. Both sides come with instrumentals. Check part two of "Get Together". Beautifully sleeved.

The rarest of all Vatican Shadow's tape releases (only 25 were made), Kuwaiti Airforce now appears on double vinyl alongside obscure cuts and previously unreleased collaborations with Silent Servant and Demdike Stare in the fourth vinyl collection of early, hard-to-find VS editions. Back at the start of this decade the underground conversation between noise, techno, and ambient music manifested definitively through Vatican Shadow's eerily evocative glut of tape releases for Hospital Productions. Clad in militaristic imagery and titled after phrases lifted from media articles about the War On Terror, the project became one of very few to contemporaneously attempt to musically reflect the state of international geopolitics, and did so in a manner that resonated with the subversive post-industrial music and politics of Muslimgauze and Whitehouse -- who were both key touchstones for Dominick Fernow (Prurient, Vatican Shadow, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement). The Kuwaiti Airforce tape which lends this set its title was only available in edition of 25 copies at Vatican Shadow's September 29, 2012 show in LA with Silent Servant, Demdike Stare, Andy Stott, and Kangding Ray. Its two bombed-out blasts of rhythmic noise are now available on the first disc here, backed with two previously unreleased works written in 2012: a deep, rolling techno collaboration with Juan Mendez, lodged somewhere between his Silent Servant output styles for Sandwell District and the seminal Negative Fascination LP (HOS 357LP); and a more messed-up, sub bass-mired rework by Demdike Stare, who were still clearly in the mood surrounding their classic Elemental LP (LOVE 1077CD). The second disc however highlights cuts from earlier and more obscure releases, rounding up two powerful, even darkly romantic pieces of sturm und drang from 2010's Around The Dragon's Broken Neck... double-cassette, plus his opiated half of a split with Contrepoison and a cranky grinder that was only found on the White Eye Of Winter Watching compilation, both issued by Hospital Productions in 2011. Mastered and cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.

"Punk music, at its most effective, its most important, exists at a nexus of a few simple but important ideas. Punk needs to be youthful, it needs to be reactionary, it needs to be short-lived and it needs to be controversial. So for a group of twenty-something Australians, excitable as the frontline first wave of kids responding to both the Ramones and the Sex Pistols (yet still influenced by the New York Dolls and Stooges and Flamin' Groovies), who existed for but barely for a year from 1977-1978 and wrote songs about serial killers, high school girls and hating disco... well, I'd argue they are the most perfect punk band ever. The band was Dave Flick (aka Dave Faulkner later of the Hoodoo Gurus) on guitar and vocals, Rudolph V (Dave Cardwell) on bass and James Baker on drums. Best known for their classic 'Television Addict', that song is but the tip of the iceberg of the band's powers. Having self-released two godhead 7-inches during their brief existence, the seven songs on those singles are absolute cannon at this point. Quintessential, pure, unfuckwithable. And all that is just side one of the LP. Side two contains a bounty of unreleased-for-decades demos of nine otherwise undocumented Victims originals. Demos in name alone, these properly recorded songs brim with all the identifying marks of the known Victims classics... irreverence, taking the piss, murderers and an invigorating youthful attitude. The last thing to remember about punk as a theory, an aesthetic, is that its 'ideas' are all bullshit anyway." --Ben Blackwell

LP version. Tapper Zukie still asks the questions and stating the facts that few artists of his caliber would attain to. His classic Dee-Jay style has been copied by many but bettered by few. Over some of his killer rhythms that he previously worked up while producing fellow roots groups such as Prince Allah, Knowledge, and Junior Ross and the Spears. Alongside some fresh rhythms, he has taken these as a backbone to some further questions and biblical reasoning that needed answering. Tapper tells it as it is on this mighty collection of tunes under the name X Is Wrong. This is the first time this set has seen a proper release only previously being available as a download from Tapper's website. A remarkably great set of songs that finally get the release they deserve.

"Experimental trio Giraffe crystalize time on Desert Haze, their new LP on Marionette. Giraffe is the musical project of Sascha Demand (guitar), Jürgen Hall (keys), and Charly Schöppner (percussion). Sascha Demand is a composer that comes from a contemporary and improvised musical background, collaborating with the likes of Ensemble Integrales and Vinko Globokar. Jürgen Hall works in electroacoustic experimental projects, theatre and film scores, with releases on Staubgold and Edition Stora. Charly Schöppner is known for his popular music releases such as Boytronic on major production companies in the 1980´s and composes for theatre, dance, and film scores. With only a couple of releases to date on the wonderful Meakusma imprint as well as an EP on Marmo, little is known about Giraffe. After letting go of other artistic projects, the trio now focuses solely on Giraffe by continuously searching for and finding their own unique language. Sascha, Jürgen and Charly have quite diverse musical backgrounds, though morphing into Giraffe they tower into one single composer. Their music is a critical statement, not in a political sense but rather an artistic one. Being mindful about what it means to create and how to position themselves as artists nowadays (without the constant hassle of being en vogue and short-lived trends) shaped their rather rare and stoic artistic stance. It is refreshingly honest to see their expression develop so naturally. On Desert Haze, they've created a vibrant and minimalistic tribal sound that feels inspired by the Saharan traditional music of the Tuareg, Jazz, and German psychedelic krautrock. Giraffe themselves also list the radical music of the Viennese School (Schoenberg along with his pupils Berg and Webern) as well as the Köln School with its early electronic experiments as their main influence and inspiration. More precisely the composition process and the organization of musical material within space and time, where a conceptual and intellectual approach melds with an experimental yet expressive sound searching method. Side A focuses on the trios studio work; it is built around tone color and pitch analysis of resonating prepared guitar sounds. Through a unique mixture of free improvisation and a serialism "rule set", they develop instrumental layers and structures to form their tracks. Side B sees Giraffe playing more freely with a reduced setup - representative of what you may hear when listening to them live. Desert Haze, along with its track-titles, showcases an almost mimetic approach to art. The haptic music grabs the listener not as a passive recipient but as an active resonant body to vibrate through. One can almost feel the Elements, pressure and heat forming a diamond, hypnotic overtones ringing through windy caves, shamanistic rhythms conjuring up mysterious and ancient landscapes -- where the constant cycle of sedimentation and erosion reveals structures of fragile beauty -- always gentle to the hand's touch and the mind's eye."

Repressed. Otoroku present the first vinyl reissue of Louis Moholo Octet's Spirits Rejoice!, originally released in 1978 on Ogun Recordings. One of the most legendary free jazz records ever produced, Spirits Rejoice! is a high achievement in the movement of the era as it soars beyond oppression with a raucous and spiritually uplifting surge of movement and melody. Featuring Harry Miller, Johnny Dyani, Keith Tippett, Evan Parker, Nick Evans, Radu Malfatti, and Kenny Wheeler, this is former Blue Note artist Louis Moholo's first album under his own name and is a classic example of the cross-pollination between South African and British players. Mongezi Feza's 'You Ain't Gonna Know Me 'Cos You Think You Know Me" alone is enough to make your life a better place. Made with permission and in association with Ogun Recordings. Features an exact reproduction of the original artwork and liner notes, along with new liner notes from Matthew Wright. Remastered by Giuseppe IIelasi. High gloss sleeve; edition of 1000.

From Matthew Wright's new liner notes: "The South African melodies, now so familiar, were wholeheartedly taken on board by the individual musicians, their unity of purpose mirroring the belief in the strength of the collective. Stunning solos, often close to the edge, feature throughout -- Evan Parker and Keith Tippett on 'Shine Wherever You Are'; the contrasting trombone styles of Nick Evans and Radu Malfatti on 'You Ain't Gonna Know Me...'; the octet sounding like a full big band; and behind them, the relentlessly rhythmic urgency of the piano, bass and drums. Add to this Kenny Wheeler's moving and all-encompassing trumpet on the elegiac 'Amaxesha Osizi' and the joyous flamboyancy of 'Wedding Hymn' with Parker's relatively straight-ahead tenor and Tippett's dextrous piano solo over a bed of riffing horns, (fast) walking bass lines and a supreme sense of swing. Louis' early hero, Big Sid Catlett, would have loved it!"

DJ Nigga Fox's most substantial release to date sets a new benchmark for Lisbon's revered underground ghetto dance scene, pulling traces of jazz, acid house, and cinematic sound design into his deeply rugged and exceptional sound with effortless style. Highlighted as one to watch in Lisbon's virulent club scenius since appearing on the Bazzerk compilation which introduced many ravers to Kuduro in 2011, DJ Nigga Fox's productions have become acclaimed for a mix of abstract weirdness and proper dancefloor impact that's hit 'floors hard across the world. Following 2018's Crânio 12" and remix of How To Dress Well, he now returns to the Príncipe powerhouse, home of his first trio of 12"s, with a definitive statement that arguably ranks among this year's strongest, rhythm-driven LPs, bar none. In a way that mirrors UK dance music's transition in the '90s from hardcore jungle to garage and D&B, or in the '00s from grime and dubstep to more "sophisticated" styles of deep house, broken beats, and UK Funky, Nigga Fox's longest release to date appears more layered, plusher and, ultimately "musical" when compared to his earlier work. Using sparing but knowing dabs of noirish jazz keys, live-sounding double bass, and off-kilter synth tones, he binds rippling, colorful flesh to his flexing, bare bones drum torque in a bold way. This inch-tight refinement of Nigga Fox's already distinctive style is characterized by the twisting, unpredictable arrangement of "Sub Zero", where stealthy waves of swinging drums and vintage horror movie tropes are ramped with feral electro scuzz to killer effect, or equally in the freaky tension between lissom jazz chords, jaws-harp buzz and wild acid lines on "Faz A Minha", and likewise the way he meshes roiling drums with complex, asymmetric electronics on "Vicio", or simply forges his own, outstanding form of slow, psychedelic dance-pop replete with his own, Quasimodo-styled vocal in the shocking closer "5 Violinos". By any measure Cartas Na Manga is a singular album-length EP that stands miles out from the crowd. Its only comparisons really lie within Lisbon's club scene, with the likes of DJ Firmeza, Marfox, or Nervoso. As such it's best taken as symptomatic of their collective scenius, and is keenly ready to be mixed with music from all corners of the Black Atlantic. Special "modular" sleeve artwork design by Márcio Matos. Edition of 500.

Free magazine from Rush Hour. After a hiatus Rush Hour are back with the sixth episode of House Of Music! Rush Hour's non-periodical fan zine... All kinds of music reaches our ears every day, but a lot of times we don't really understand what it is we're actually listening to. HOM contextualizes only some of our highlights. The sixth issue holds interviews with Wally Badarou, Kamma & Masalo, John Gomez, and D.C.'s Beautiful Swimmers. Sassy J sums up 14 of her favorite records and we get a look inside the astonishing analog Willen Twee Studios & the Analogue Foundation. And more!

Second Editions presents Things Opening by Lori Goldston. Lori Goldston's approach to the violincello is true and immediate. Describing herself as "classically trained and rigorously de-trained", Goldston indeed defies all conformities of genre, style, and technique. Her playing reflects as much of Baroque as it does of American roots or experimental traditions. It is elegant, gritty, restless, delicate, irreverent, utterly pure. This album comprises of two parts, highlighting Goldston as both a distinct composer as well as a many-faceted performer. The first side holds a suite of songs written by Goldston to accompany the poems of Melinda Mueller, while the second features pieces written for Goldston by Jessika Kenney, Satchel Henneman, and Julio Lopezhiler. Recorded live by Mell Dettmer at the Chapel Performance Space and at Studio Soli in Seattle WA, 2018. Mastered and cut by Anne Taegert at Duplates & Mastering in Berlin, 2019. Photograph by Antonis Theodoridis, 2016. Includes printed inner sleeve and download code; Edition of 300.

Sommor Records present the first ever vinyl reissue of Franck Valmont's Et Synchro Rhytmic Eclectic Language, originally released in 1976. A fabulous French/West Indies Afro-jazz-funk-Caribbean-fusion album, originally released on the Moshé-Naïm label by poet-singer-painter Franck Valmont accompanied by multicultural progressive jazz-rock band, Synchro. Featuring Jo Maka (Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra) on sax, Louis Xavier on bass and fuzz-bass, Georges Nouel on electric piano and organ, Gerard Curbillon from Magma-related prog-fusion band Speed Limit on electric guitar, and Yves Dolphin on drums. Includes "Diamant", "Maléré", and more. Remastered sound. Original artwork; includes insert.