Double LP version. Includes download code. "Rausch with no name / My beautiful shine / You are the sun / This is where I want to be / Rausch with no morning / This is where we burn / The Stars sparkle / In a sea of flames / Horns and fanfares / Fanfares of joy / Fanfares of fear / The wine we drink through the eyes / The moon pours down at night in waves / Careful with that axe Eugene / Personal Jesus / No beginning no end / Eighteenth of Oktember / The night falls / The king comes / The hunt starts / Freude schöner Götterfunken / The long march through the underwood / Trust me there's nothing / Once upon a time, there was a bandit / Who loved a prince / That was long ago / Spring Summer Fall and Gas / There is a train heading to Nowhere / Drums and Trumpets / Future without mankind / Warm snow / Alles ist gut / The bells toll / You are not alone / The murmur in the forest / The murmur in the head / Light as mist / Heavy as lead / Music happens / To flow like gas /A clearing / Heavy baggage / Debut in the afterlife / Death has seven cats / World heritage Rausch / Finally infinite." --Wolfgang Voigt, 2018; Rausch was created as a single composition. The intention is to listen to the album as a whole from beginning to end. Following a global tour, GAS will continue to perform live throughout 2018 to support Rausch.

Shadoks Music present a reissue of Jesper Siliya's Giant Steps, originally released in 1978. This album by Jesper Siliya was released originally on the same label as Chrissy Zebby Tembo's My Ancestors. Jesper Siliya used to play with the Ngozi Family and most likely, they played with him here. This is his sole album as a band leader, and it's a great one -- very catchy, simple but beautiful compositions, you'll find yourself singing these songs in your sleep. Heavy fuzz-guitar is all over the album -- Fuzz guitars all over with African beats and political lyrics. Originals are impossible to find in any condition and the prices are high when you do find them. African rhythms and '70s rockish underground moods -- never too polished. A "sugar & spice" album. The music suits all fans into Zam-rock such as Ngozi Family, Witch, and Amanaz. Heavy sleeve; 180 gram vinyl; Includes CD; Edition of 500 (numbered).

"Eight previously unissued proto-punk godheaded rippers from the pre-Real Kids combo The Kids recorded on Nov 10 1974 -- plus four previously unissued Real Kids demos from Spring 1977, recorded by DJ Oedipus at WTBS radio station with 1 mic suspended above the band! Gatefold LP plus 32-page 12" x 12" (30.5cm x 30.5cm) booklet inside crammed with tonsa liner notes (28,000+ words not counting the text of the press clippings) built mostly upon Dave Laing of Dog Meat Records' mucho-extensive March 1995 interview whilst key band members Billy Borgioli and Alpo were alive, never seen photos, flyers, press-clippings, info, etc. on John Felice's days with The Modern Lovers, his combos The Children's Rock & Roll Band, The Kids, and the Real Kids! There was a young Boston lad named John Felice who took it upon himself to say 'F.U.' to the current dull-ass folkie/prog/Top 40 crap and blast forth with his own fucking vision/riproar and, most important, pop songwriting mastery of Groovies/Kinks/ Stones/Stooges/ VU/Dolls-influenced rip-roar. In 1970 at age 15 John Felice formed the Modern Lovers with next door neighbor Jonathan Richman. At age 16 John Felice formed his own band, which Jonathan Richman named The Children's R&R Band because Felice was in 10th grade and drummer Paul Murphy was in 9th grade and lead singer Ricky Carmel was in 6th grade. A band consisting of teenagers covering the unissued Velvets' 'Foggy Notion' was certainly an oddity in the age of Zep/singer-songwriter folkie pap. Felice departed the Modern Lovers in January 1973 to concentrate on The Children's R&R Band, who soon became The Kids, then later, in early 1976, The Real Kids, who would become labelmates at Red Star Records with Suicide. Just upon the verge of exploding into the Big Time, the Real Kids imploded along with Red Star. The booklet goes full-depth into all these years and circumstances. The music? Ripping, absolutely ripping rock and roll music."

Empty Editions present Failed Celestial Creatures, an unexpected collaboration between composer-guitarist David Grubbs (Gastr Del Sol, The Red Krayola) and Tokyo-based musician Taku Unami. Primarily recorded in Kyoto, the album takes inspiration from the duo's shared musical and literary influences, emerging just as much from their improvisatory explorations as from an eclectic reading list exchanged prior to the recording sessions. The album's narrative inclinations are rooted in both artists' previous experiments with the complex reciprocity between sound and text, including Grubbs' work with the poet Susan Howe and Unami's collaborations with writers such as Eugene Thacker and Evan Calder Williams. Failed Celestial Creatures draws in particular upon a group of short stories by the short-lived Japanese author Atsushi Nakajima (1909-42) -- perhaps best known for inflecting Classical Chinese folktales with a modernist vein of absurdist and existential foreboding -- as the imaginary backdrop for its set of guitar-based instrumental explorations. In Nakajima's The Moon Over The Mountain, a mad-poet metamorphosed into a hybrid-tiger recites poetry with an obscure defect, while The Rebirth of Wujing sees the titular river monster self-identifying as a "failed celestial being" [堕天使]. The cryptic collapse read in both of these episodes resonates with Unami's research into the etymology of the chinese character "堕," meaning "to fail" in modern usage, but historically understood as referencing "sacred meat from the altar fallen on the ground." Such a primordial scene evokes the violation of the sacred as a tacit aspect of ritual. This failure of ritual, always a condition (and perhaps even a technique) for musicians of Grubbs and Unami's ilk, can be broadly understood as the primary point of departure for Failed Celestial Creatures. Situated within this affective terrain, the album's title-track consists of a side-long progression of dirge-like riffs enveloped by clouds of vaporous electronics -- eventually erupting into unruly squalls of feedback as Unami joins Grubbs on electric guitar. The B-side features a cluster of luminous guitar duets which are beguiling in their seeming effortlessness and simplicity. Threadbare and fallen, Grubbs and Unami invoke the failed ritual, the spilling at the altar, always suggested at the precipice of sonic emergence. Recorded by Taku Unami at Soto, Kyoto, August 7th and 9th, 2017; Mastered by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering. 180 gram vinyl; Edition of 500.

Double LP version. Gatefold sleeve. In the world of electronic dance music, Âme stand apart. Since 2003, the duo of Frank Wiedemann and Kristian Beyer have cut a singular path through techno, house, minimal, ambient, and more with their anthemic singles and mixes. But 2018 reveals their finest achievement yet, their second full-length album Dream House. It both sounds unmistakably like Âme and unlike anything you've ever heard from the duo, an evocative home listening journey enacted after 15 years spent crafting dancefloor weapons. Features Matthew Herbert, Gudrun Gut, Planningtorock, Jens Kuross (ex-drummer for RyX), and Roedelius.

The Ivytree, as some may know, is the project of San Franciscan musician Glenn Donaldson. In the early 2000s Glenn was a founder of the Jewelled Antler Collective, forming such projects as The Blithe Sons, Thuja, and The Skygreen Leopards, among many others. The range of projects he is associated with all beautifully web together. Between 2001 and 2005 Donaldson published a handful of discs under the names The Ivytree and The Birdtree. These boiled down and tanned the patient, outdoor ambiences of the long-form instrumental recordings. These were slow and pastoral and pensive songs, carried by Glenn's haunting voice. Glenn recorded outside with field-recorders and mini-discs: in forests, headlands, and tunnels of the Bay area. Recital label head Sean McCann on the recordings: "I grew up listening to his recordings -- throughout high school and college in Goleta, CA. They spark many memories: driving around beach parking lots, dragging boomboxes into creeks, camping in the mountain valleys etc. I remember once driving five hours up to San Francisco with a group of friends to try and get into a Giant Skyflower Band concert (another Donaldson project). It was at a bar and we were under 21 -- so we couldn't get in, even after trying to bribe the doorman. As you can tell, very special places in my mind and memory. My fondness for The Ivytree never dissipated, and I always dreamed of hearing more material from that time, as I know how prolific the Jewelled Antler association can be. On a whim in 2017 I reached out to Glenn and asked him if he wanted to publish a 'best-of' The Ivytree as a limited LP. This idea blossomed and provoked Glenn to dig through his vast mini-disc archive, where he unearthed some forgotten jewels. The recordings were trickling in to my email -- one by one, each better than the last. Ranging from the Robert Wyatt-esque piano ballad 'Evil Is Circular' to the gentle melancholy of 'All The White Plumes' that could belong on Richard Youngs' Sapphie (1998). 'Unburdened Light' carries on the warm breeze and innocence of the early 2000s CDr culture. So our project then turned into publishing a new album of unreleased Ivytree recordings. A full circle youthful wish now ripens in my adulthood. I am honored to have stirred up the bees-nest to deliver you these tragically honeyed songs." Unreleased recordings: 2001-2004. Includes eight-page 9x9″ booklet of Glenn's collages. Edition of 300.

"On the cover: Laurie Anderson (More active now than ever, the multimedia artist and performer discusses a career marked by hybridity, borderless networks and a new interest in virtual reality). Inside the issue: Cecil Taylor (When the revolutionary pianist died in April, jazz lost one of its most uncompromising individualists. Author, photographer and historian Val Wilmer recalls their encounters); Senyawa (Javanese musicians and instrument makers Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi fuse metal with trance to create overwhelming fields of sound); Global Ear: Veracruz; Invisible Jukebox: The Storm Bugs; plus: Tansy Davies, Rodrigo Tavares, Sarah Hennies, Futura Records and more."

Hold That Thought announces The Brian Jonestown Massacre's forthcoming two albums to be released in 2018. The first track is "Hold That Thought" which comes from the forthcoming album Something Else, to be released in June of 2018. The second track is "Drained" which will come from the self-titled album, to be released in September of 2018. Both tracks were recorded in Berlin. White-colored 10" vinyl.

Aguirre Records present a reissue of Taj Mahal Travellers' August 1974, originally released in 1975. A monumental work by the Japanese experimental music ensemble. In April 1972 a group of Japanese musicians set off from Rotterdam in a Volkswagen van. As they crossed Europe and then made their way through Asia they made music in a wide range of locations. They also paid close attention to the changing scene and to differing ways of life. Midway through May they reached their destination, the iconic Taj Mahal on the bank of the Yamuna river in Agra, India. The Taj Mahal Travellers had fulfilled physically the promise of the name they adopted when they formed in 1969. The double album August 1974 was their second official release. The first July 15, 1972 is a live concert recording, but on August 19th, 1974 the Taj Mahal Travellers entered the Tokyo studios of Nippon Columbia and produced what is arguably their definitive statement. The electronic dimension of their collective improvising was coordinated, as usual, by Kinji Hayashi. Guest percussionist Hirokazu Sato joined long-term group members Ryo Koike, Seiji Nagai, Yukio Tsuchiya, Michihiro Kimura, Tokio Hasegawa, and Takehisa Kosugi. The enigmatic Takehisa Kosugi, whose soaring electric violin was such a vital element in their music, had been a pioneer of free improvisation and intermedia performance art with Group Ongaku at the start of the '60s. Later in that decade, before launching the Taj Mahal Travellers, he had become known internationally through his association with the fluxus art movement. During the mid-70s the Travellers disbanded and while his colleagues more or less stopped performing as musicians Kosugi continued to reach new audiences across the course of several decades as a composer, regular performer, and musical director for the acclaimed Merce Cunningham Dance Company. August 1974 captures vividly the characteristic sound of the Taj Mahal Travellers, haunting tones from an unusual combination of instruments, filtered through multiple layers of reverb and delay. Their music has strong stylistic affinities with the trippy ambience of cosmic and psychedelic rock, but the Taj Mahal Travellers were tuning in to other vibrations, drawing inspiration from the energies and rhythms of the world around them rather than projecting some alternative reality. Films of rolling ocean waves often provided a highly appropriate backdrop for their lengthy improvised concerts. Licensed from Columbia Japan. Remastered and lacquer cut by Rashad Becker.

"Seraphic Light was recorded live in the performance hall of Tufts University (Boston) in April 2017. These three masters each possess a complete & total devotion to the music. On this very rare trio meeting they manifest a meditative resonance, replete with lyrical exploration, throughout a sublime set. The concert was part of an event entitled 'Art, Race, and Politics in America.' First was a screening of the 1959 documentary film, The Cry of Jazz. The film asserts 'jazz is the Negro's cry of joy and suffering' and 'the Negro is [white America's] conscience...if they have a conscience.' These bold and timely ideas pushed forward the second portion of the program, a discussion / Q&A with Carter, Parker, and Shipp. For 45 free-flowing minutes, these three men spoke truths, told stories, floated ideas, countered assertions, listened to questions, gave advice, told jokes, and laughed together. Having already established an honest and direct bond with the audience, they then seamlessly shifted their discussion to the musical dialogue presented here. While William Parker and Matthew Shipp are each deservedly world-renowned as players-improvisers-composers due to their extensive recording and performance work as leaders, Daniel Carter remains an underground figure on the world stage; even relatively so within New York City where he has been ceaselessly active since the mid-70s. He is a masterful player of deep lyricism and passion; in possession of gorgeous tone across a full range of wind instruments. Seraphic Light showcases Carter on all of these instruments and in a characteristic style in which his melodies prod and ply, concurrently asserting and suggesting. As he has recently entered his 7th decade of non-stop creation, it is hoped that this recording -- in the company of well-esteemed peers -- will go some measure to increase recognition of the gifts he has long offered."

2018 repress; originally released in 2001 by the Dog W/A Bone label, this release features these 2 long pieces: For Samuel Beckett and The Turfan Fragments. Performed by: The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, with Petr Kotik, conductor. For Samuel Beckett and The Turfan Fragments are Morton Feldman's only chamber orchestra compositions. Both were commissions: The Turfan Fragments by the Swiss-Italian Radio Orchestra in 1980, For Samuel Beckett by the Schönberg Ensemble, Amsterdam, in 1987. Both titles are descriptive and suggest how Feldman arrived at a particular concept for each piece. The Turfan Fragments is a succession of short sections, which could indeed be described as fragments. The title relates the composition to manuscripts from Turfan (the southwest region of present-day China), which are in the collection of the Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin. These calligraphic remnants, going back to the 9th century, were brought to Germany before World War I and Feldman must have seen them while living in Berlin in 1971. In contrast, For Samuel Beckett is based on a single idea of several chord progressions unfolding continuously for almost an hour. In 1977, Beckett wrote a text for Feldman, to be used as the libretto for his opera Neither. Feldman's description of Beckett's writing most eloquently suggests what was on his mind when composing For Samuel Beckett: "here's something peculiar about it [Beckett's text]. I can't catch it. Finally I see that every line is really the same thought said in another way. And yet the continuity acts as if something else is happening. Nothing else is happening. What you're doing, in an almost Proustian way, is getting deeper and deeper saturated into the thought." Includes an 8-page booklet with liner notes from Petr Kotik and an extract from Morton Feldman from Give My Regards To Eighth Street (Exact Change). The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble; Petr Kotik, conductor.

Double LP version. 180 gram vinyl. Detroit Swindle present High Life, their second studio album on the duo's own Heist Recordings. The heart of the album was recorded over a three-week period at their Amsterdam studio in March 2017, and the release will coincide with the fifth anniversary of the label. Since forming in 2011, the Dutch duo have carved a unique place for themselves in the scene. Their sound -- which merges references from multiple decades into one smooth aesthetic -- quickly rose to popularity for its careful blend of soul and rhythm, taking cues from their passion for obscure records, with influences ranging from house and funk to Afrobeat and soul. Dynamic live shows and DJ sets afford them a packed touring schedule across the globe, whilst their label Heist Recordings is credited with consistently breaking new artists. High Life explores the intersection of live and electronic music, with much of the improvised material left largely untouched to maintain its organic sensibilities. Detroit Swindle describe the album as an "electronic album with a live approach, combining our love for house, ambient and jazzy harmonics, making it a record interesting for the club, as well as a pleasant album to put on at home." High Life explores stripped back soul and groove driven house over ten glistening productions. Featured on the album are a sun-drenched collaboration with British singer/songwriter Tom Misch and a deep workout with the vocals of trained gospel singer turned house aficionado Seven Davis Jr. on "Flavourism" and Lorenz Rhode who accompanies the duo for their live shows, features on the infectious melodies of "High Life". "Call Of The Wild" incorporates none other than Dutch nine-piece brass band Jungle By Night.

What Phil Minton is able to create with nothing but his voice -- those, as Bert Noglik puts it, "simply unbelievable and uncanny sounds for which nothing comparable exists, far and wide" -- seems to lie beyond what it is possible. He is the indisputable vocal giant of the jazz avant-garde. He meets a collective of kindred spirits with the ICI Ensemble. Comprising some of the most enthusiastically experimental instrumentalists and sonic artists of the German improvisation scene, this ensemble has been creating a unique sonic cosmos for almost 20 years that has already inspired numerous international composers and improvisators to collaborate with them. Phil Minton and the musicians of the ICI Ensemble spin here a refined chamber musical texture and seem to whisper words of the late Beckett: "Say Yes." -- until someone else relativizes: "Till No". And then nothing is any longer as it was before. Personnel: Phil Minton - voice; David Jäger and Markus Heinze - saxophones; Christofer Varner - trombone; Martin Wolfrum - piano; Gunnar Geisse - laptop guitar; Georg Janker - double bass, electronics; Sunk Pöschl - drums.

In conjunction with the Music Archive Finland, Renair Records announce another disc in their series exploring the history of Jewish recorded music. Until its destruction during the War, Warsaw, together with Berlin, was at the cultural and intellectual intersection of East and Western Europe. Known as the Paris of the East, its musical, literary, artistic, and theatrical flourishing was in no small part due to its extraordinary ethnic and cultural diversity. Most traces of this period vanished in the devastation of the 1940s but thanks to the survival of some precious recordings made in this period you can hear echoes of that rich culture. The Syrena (Mermaid) label covered all aspects of musical activity in Poland between 1909 and the end of the 1930s. All human life is on this CD. You will hear people arguing, soldiering, going bankrupt, and praying. They also dance to Klezmer bands, meet the devil, fail to have sex, complain about modern girls, and of course, eat. The package is completed by a richly illustrated and informative 28-page booklet. Features Kenig, Norski, Feld, Sirota, Belf, Brajtman, Kupfer, Feinstein, Oppenheim, Fenigstein, Sibiriyakov, Anon, Kusewicki, Roitman, Kaniewska And Brajtman, Feinstein and Lindenfeld, Fenigstein, Lerman, and Neroslawska.

Espen Eriksen Trio was formed in 2007 and released their first album in 2010. Their music relies on highly melodic and lyrical instrumentals and a "less is more" approach and is often credited for its unique voice within today's jazz scene by the international press. The aptly named Perfectly Unhappy features eight new songs by the pianist, all written with this collaboration in mind. These are enchanting and lyrical tunes, often melancholic and uplifting at the same time and will surely speak to followers of both the trio and Sheppard and attract many new ones. With a career spanning over four decades, working together with the likes of George Russell and Gil Evans, Andy Sheppard is truly one of Europe's leading saxophonists. Lately, his main focus has been with his own quartet and the trio with living legends Carla Bley and Steve Swallow, both acts recording for ECM.

Andy Sheppard on the recording: "I knew from the first time I heard the trio play that I would fit right in. I loved the melodic sense and vibe and was thrilled when I was invited to guest with the trio in London in 2016. Since then we've had a chance to grow the music with tours in Korea and Norway, before Espen wrote a set of fantastic tunes for the recording session in Oslo. They played themselves and we had a ball recording, everything clicked and in two days we had made a very special album."

Techno mutant Gábor Lázár morphs two-step and warped electropes with futuristic tension and torsion on Unfold, the Hungarian artist's first solo double LP for The Death Of Rave. The eight-track album follows a busy 2017 for Gábor in which he released Crisis Of Representation with Shelter Press (SHELTER 076CD/LP, 2017), heard his music played in numerous Aphex Twin live/DJ shows, and also toured the EU with Josh Eustis and Turk Dietrich's Second Woman -- an experience which fed directly into the sharper defined rhythms and plasmic mentasms of this album; arguably Gábor's definitive solo release. Kerning classic styles with devious ballistics according to a mutant syntax reflected in the LP's bespoke sleeve art, Gábor galvanizes his signature flux of zinging mentasms and hyper rhythms with a cyber-mongrel gnash in Unfold. Drawing from the deeply affective and rude ends of South Yorkshire, Detroit, and South London tech-nous for inspiration, Gábor consolidates their mutual aspects by trimming the excess and stressing the funkiest points of syncopation with razor sharp, inventive edits. Whilst instantly recognizable as Gábor's work, his grooves are more pronounced, and this time unusually riddled with melodic gestures that lead to moments of unexpected emotive relief. In the contemporary field, Unfold firmly lives up to comparison with the retro-futurism of Mark Fell's Sensate Focus, the advanced playfulness of Errorsmith's Superlative Fatigue (PAN 081LP), or the fluidly knotted syncopation of Jlin, but with a singular mesh of style and pattern that Gábor can patently declare his own. Gábor Lázár lives and works in Budapest. He self-released a split tape with Russell Haswell in 2013; then I.L.S. (2013), and Crisis Of Representation (2017), beside his EP16 (RAVE 006LP, 2014), and a collaboration with Mark Fell The Neurobiology of Moral Decision Making for The Death of Rave (RAVE 010LP, 2015), and remixes of Second Woman and Jesse Osborne Lintier & Grischa Lichtenberger. Gábor has toured his live show extensively in Europe, held artist residencies at HeK, Basel; EMS, Stockholm; and 4DSound Amsterdam, and was a SHAPE Platform Artist of 2017. Typeface design and layout by Daniel Kozma. Mastering and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy.

2018 repress. First ever vinyl release; originally released on cassette in 1983. Gorgeous and essential archive material from this master of mood. The latest unearthing on Chee Shimizu's 17853 Records -- previously only available on a very limited Japanese cassette back early '80s. The late Hiroshi Yoshimura, a pioneer of Japanese ambient music, was involved in a wide range of fields, such as sound design for public installations, graphic design, visual poetry, free improvised performance (using his own body), and inventing his own instruments, right up until he passed away in 2003. The seven songs on Pier & Loft were created for a fashion exhibition held at a warehouse in the Tokyo bay area. He released it on cassette tape on Japanese label Fukusei Gijutsu Kohboh ran by Yoshio Ojima who also produced the album. Yoshimura referring to the Loft: "As the time goes by, the Loft that was swept away (forgotten) from the city but it somewhat has a look of a 'City of Ruins' that reminds you of something you have forgotten. Something nostalgic. Sounds from the city and the vast landscape gave me a great opportunity to take a fresh look at Tokyo". And referring to the Pier: "His look towards Tokyo bay takes on the shape of sonic particles. . . . tickling down gently while tinged with change. A landscape of seven sounds." The sleeve image is the same as on the original cassette release.

Hunee presents a collection of his favorite dancefloor cuts from the '70s to modern times. Pressed on three slices of vinyl. Going from afro to disco to techno, Hunchin' All Night holds a wide spectrum of songs, tracks by the wonderful Boncana Maïga, Black Beat Niks, Larry Heard, Mappa Mundi, and many more. Hunee, aka Hun Choi, is a Korean Berliner who has been drawn in music since a very young age. After working in record stores and studying musicology he resided in Amsterdam, where he released his debut album Hunch Music (RHM 016CD/LP, 2015). As a DJ he has always followed "a hunch", which gave him wings to communicate the music he loves with crowds all over the world. With Hunchin' All Night, Hunee expresses his relationship with the dance floor. Features Carlos Maria & Nuno Canavarro, Aby Ngana Diop, Michael Ozone, Stanislas Tohon, Raphael Top-Secret, Don Laka, Ron Trent, Villa Abo, and Hunee.

"Rausch with no name / My beautiful shine / You are the sun / This is where I want to be / Rausch with no morning / This is where we burn / The Stars sparkle / In a sea of flames / Horns and fanfares / Fanfares of joy / Fanfares of fear / The wine we drink through the eyes / The moon pours down at night in waves / Careful with that axe Eugene / Personal Jesus / No beginning no end / Eighteenth of Oktember / The night falls / The king comes / The hunt starts / Freude schöner Götterfunken / The long march through the underwood / Trust me there's nothing / Once upon a time, there was a bandit / Who loved a prince / That was long ago / Spring Summer Fall and Gas / There is a train heading to Nowhere / Drums and Trumpets / Future without mankind / Warm snow / Alles ist gut / The bells toll / You are not alone / The murmur in the forest / The murmur in the head / Light as mist / Heavy as lead / Music happens / To flow like gas /A clearing / Heavy baggage / Debut in the afterlife / Death has seven cats / World heritage Rausch / Finally infinite." --Wolfgang Voigt, 2018

Rausch was created as a single composition. The intention is to listen to the album as a whole from beginning to end. Following a global tour, GAS will continue to perform live throughout 2018 to support Rausch.

For his third album for Far Out Recordings, London-based multi-instrumentalist and one of Europe's finest saxophonists Sean Khan ventures to Rio de Janeiro to collaborate with iconic Brazilian polymath Hermeto Pascoal. Taking its title from the escaped slave settlement "Palmares" in the Northeast of Brazil during the 1600s, Palmares Fantasy is Khan's utopian jazz message for the world, and it features Azymuth drummer Ivan "Mamao" Conti, bassist Paulo Russo, guitarist Jim Mullen, and guest vocals from Brazilian chanteuse Sabrina Malheiros, and Cinematic Orchestra frontwoman Heidi Vogel. Like Hermeto Pascoal, Sean Khan is a self-taught musician. Never able to afford his original dream of studying at Berklee and having been turned away from Guildhall School of Music for being "too raw", he became disillusioned with what he saw as the exclusivity, elitism, and dangerous institutionalization of the jazz world. Yet Sean's love for music and the drive to create never faltered. Hermeto Pascoal, the man Miles Davis once dubbed "the most impressive musician in the world", is a similarly independent artist. by the 17th century settlement of Palmares in Brazil's Alagoas region, which was free from the Portuguese crown's murderous exploitation of South America for a century, Khan notes his fascination with the fact that while made up mostly of escaped African slaves, many deserter conquistadors also joined the settlement. Hearing the deep-grooving title track with this history in mind, the listener is transported to a futuristic musical eden, with Mamao's insatiable 10/8 rhythm back-boning Hermeto's wild improvised vocals, Rhodes, and whistles, while Sean's harmonically brilliant sax and flute add more layers of moody, characterful expression. "Moment of Collapse" is Sean's poetic study on the uncertainties of modern day western civilization, delicately presented by the gorgeous vocals of Heidi Vogel and drenched in lugubrious strings and Alice Coltrane-esque harp. The two covers on the album are of Hermeto's own "Montreux" (on which Hermeto plays solos on a teapot and a pint of water), and an uplifting soulful jazz-funk take on Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges MPB classic "Tudo Que Voce Podia Ser" featuring the vocals of pioneering nu-bossa voice Sabrina Malheiros. The recording sessions for the album were part of an intensive and hugely productive eight-week excursion to South America for Far Out Recordings boss Joe Davis in the summer of 2016.

LP version. The Colorful World Of Arp Frique is the exotic and super funky debut album of Niels Nieuborg, aka Arp Frique. The debut follows his very well-received debut release on Rush Hour (RHSTORE JAMS11, 2018). Pulsating New York City style live disco vibes, interwoven with both Caribbean and Cape Verdean sounds, are themes throughout the record with danceability always guaranteed and a healthy finishing touch of weirdness present across most tracks. First single "Nos Magia" was shortlisted for Track of the Year 2017 at Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards and has been given airplay by BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Radio 1, and NTS whilst club DJs Antal and Hunee have all supported the track in their sets. The Arp Frique alter ego is a reference of course to two things Nieuborg clearly appreciates in music: firstly, the sound of the Arp synths and secondly, by referring to Chic's "Le Freak" -- he is also showing love to the genre of disco. Be sure to know however, that you are not listening to edits of seventies jams. Arp Frique's music may sound vintage and authentic at times but all tunes are original and made with live instruments. Mind you though, that all compositions are the product of the "insatiable creative urge" of just one man. As part of a wholly different career, Nieuborg once owned a venue and programmed various venues and festivals, like his latest success, Festival Magia. With that knowledge in the back of your mind, the impressive cast on the album -- which follows on 2017's Nos Magia EP -- seems logical. Nevertheless, the status level of the contributors is astonishing. There's a Cape Verdean funana song featuring legend Americo Brito on vocals, an infectious Brazilian disco funk hit-to-be with Ed Motta, two tracks with Surinam's famous Ronald Snijders on flute, three collaborations with Afro-beat don Orlando Julius and so much more. Also features Humphrey Campbell.

Pye Corner Audio morphs into Head Technician mode for the project's brooding second sojourn with Ecstatic. Taking inspiration from his fascination with Brutalist construction, Martin Jenkins exclusively uses Roland TR-606, MC-202, and TB-303 boxes plus the Roland System 100 modular synth to sketch out a slow, murky sound in furtive pursuit of the vibes on Zones (2017), but this time the results are even darker and obscure. Echoes of early Detroit and UK bleep and bass infiltrate the stark corridors of Profane Architecture as much as the hauntological spirits of Boards of Canada, combining to make a sound that revels in nostalgia yet yearns for the future. It's not a new idea, but it is one that Jenkins executes with such classic style and unique character that can only lead to comparisons with acid maestros such as early Plastikman or the Analord, Richard J. James. For moody dancers, Profane Architecture is perfect; from the oozing elan of opener "First Pour" through the spheric momentum of "Béton Brut" and the mind-weaving acid of "Formwork" he establishes a slickly hypnotic sound that works its magick with more funk on the flipped, generating the tactile form of "Second Pour" and the ruggedly hewn groove of "The New Brutalism", then closing out with the exquisite darkness of "Demolition" -- a real highlight in his extensive and highly collectible catalog. Cut by CGB at Dubplates & Mastering.

"A trip through the productions of pioneering genius Joe Meek. Here we have a mix of hits that have appeared on comps before and real out-there obscurities. Designed to be highly listenable. Never a dull moment amongst these songs that cover subjects close to Joes' heart such as vampires, love (and the lack of it), death, outer space, the human soul, Buddy Holly, and more. Artists featured are The Blue Rondos, The Blue Men, Jason Eddie and the Centremen, The Sound Offs, The Moontrekkers, Johnny Leyton, The Cryin' Shames, Mike Berry, The Outlaws, Chick Lewis, Glenda Collins and even Joe himself warbling out a tune. One time very small pressing so please don't sleep."

On this CD, Isao Nakamura presents a selection of works for solo percussion which -- despite some very demanding technical passages -- do not focus primarily on technical brilliance but on clear, focused artistic ideas, as well as, in some cases, extra-musical concepts. The main focus here is on drums. As the only instruments tuned to a specific pitch, in this CD the timpani features in two movements of Elliott Carter's "Eight Pieces for Four Timpani" and in Peter Eötvös's "Thunder". The latter is an experimental solo work for one-pedal timpani. Nicolaus A. Huber uses only a single snare drum in "dasselbe ist nicht dasselbe" ("the same is not the same"). A nearly endless range of sounds is elicited from the timpani by alternating playing techniques. Several works on this CD were dedicated to Isao Nakamura. Also features compositions by Mauricio Kagel, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Iannis Xenakis, and Toshio Hosokawa.

Double LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Comes in matte-finish, gatefold sleeve; Includes download card. Flowers From The Ashes: Contemporary Italian Electronic Music is the latest multi-artist project to bear the acclaimed Stroboscopic Artefacts imprimatur. There is a sensibility of decadence and corroded grandeur etched within the album, reminding you that historically "decadent" times have nonetheless resulted in some of the boldest acts of individual and collective creativity. Like the "floral" theme that has remained a consistent feature of S.A.'s graphic presentation, the music here equally presents fragility and intensity in a way that really drives home this visual metaphor for good, while still holding out the promise that similar creations will be seeded in the near future. Though many of the artists involved have set of residence outside of their native Italy, all contribute here to make a captivating portrait of a shared spirit and cultural memory. The album opens with "Errori", deceptively fragile sonic ornaments crafted and suspended in space by Blackest Ever Black artist Silvia Kastel. This is followed closely by the mellifluous, warming glow of percussionist Andrea Belfi's "Spitting & Skytouching", and then by the resolute electric bass patterns and luminous fog of "Lux Et Sonus" from Eeri label head Marco Shuttle. Hospital Productions alumnus Ninos Du Brasil enters with a similarly dense, amorphous construction built from tribalistic chants and rhythmic patterns, to be followed by Mannequin label boss Alessandro Adriani's "You Will Not Be There For The End", showcasing his distinctive take on the "paranoiac breakdance" aesthetic of classic EBM. S.A. veteran Chevel comes in with interlacing several percolating synth lines together into a richly conversational piece. The journey continues with "Starving The Mind", an undulating mini-epic from S.A. founder Lucy that is animated by his signature balance of seductiveness and concentration. The bright, biting acid synth tones of "PRV-HH3-X", by Lory D, then takes a sharp right turn into an invisible metropolis ruled by reflective high fashion and hidden intrigue. The imposing architecture of "Virgo Rebellion", designed by modular synth futurist Caterina Barbieri, acts as an excellent companion piece, and sets up the closing "4G" from Spazio Disponibile co-founder Neel -- a crepuscular serenade that accurately sums up much of the foregoing activity.

"Spacemen 3 began assembling their third album, 1988's Playing With Fire, at perhaps the freest, most confident point in their career. Recording began with the band road-tested and rugged, even amidst the functional volatility that famously motivated their course. The sessions' first offering came in the form of 'Revolution,' a single of heroic Stooges-devotion and the most commercially successful release the group had to date. High expectations for the album were soon exceeded, as Playing With Fire would become Spacemen 3's crowning studio achievement and cement their rightful place on the vanguard of otherworldly rock 'n' roll. An exquisite mix of stuttering tremolo guitars and wistful melodies, Playing With Fire sheds any trappings of revisionism and furnishes a nuanced grade of psychedelia. Epic entries like 'Suicide' (named after the notorious NYC band) and the mesmeric 'How Does It Feel?' catch Spacemen 3 at their celestial apex, the very point where their collective writing, performance and production would crest and wondrously splinter. Includes download card and new insert with liner notes by Marc Masters."

Four tracks from J. Albert. J. Albert runs the Exotic Dance Records label with Person Of Interest.

Tresor Records present a new commission, bringing together two of its most time-honored contributors. Berlin's Thomas Fehlmann and Detroit's Terrence Dixon came together in Detroit to produce this expressive album. An avant-premiere live performance of this album was presented at Tresor's annual Detroit showcase in May 2017. Composed of six titles and exploring a wide range of rhythms and emotions, We Take It From Here is a celebration of resilience, patience, creativity, and devotion.

Following the reissues of 1997's Imagine-a-Nation (AD 004LP) and 1995's Le Fusion, Anotherday present a special release from the vault of the enigma that is Spencer Kincy, AKA Gemini: Gemini's first four releases, lovingly re-mastered and packaged together in a very limited box set titled The Beginning. Originally released on Relief Records, the Chicago techno label headed up by Cajmere, these releases were Gemini's introduction into the worlds of house and techno, and contain some of his most vital works. As one of Chicago's most mysterious and revered characters, the story of Gemini has become something of a myth in recent years -- blazing a trail throughout the '90s, prolifically releasing over 200 tracks from 1994 to 1999, Spencer's music had shades innovation and soul few of his peers could match. Then, suddenly, at the peak of his career, he disappeared. As before, this album has been licensed directly from the man himself, and the money made from its exploitation will go directly to him. The Beginning compiles The Beginning (1994), U Know How I Feel (1994), Imagine A Nation (1994), and Welcome To The Future (1995). Edition of 500.

"United under the guise of Rain Text are well-known Italian producers Giuseppe Ielasi and Giovanni Marco Civitenga, who you may better know for his output as My Dry Wet Mess. The project first came to life in 2016 with a debut instalment on Civitenga's own imprint Skyapnea, soberly-titled '1', now followed by its longed-for second outing '2', coming out mid-April on Bedouin Records' polyamorous sister label Bastakiya Tapes. From pensive ambient opener '2.1' to the carefully crafted dub techno of '2.3' this collaboration shines as much through its silences as it excels in the creation of a genuinely captivating atmosphere out of a very limited battery of elements. Deep, acute and penetrating, a masterly EP."

Cacophonic present an abridged reissue of Experiences Musicales De Jean Dubuffet, originally released by Jean Dubuffet in 1961. If ever a phonographic accomplishment could encapsulate the precise modus operandi of the Cacophonic label, then the Expériences Musicales sessions made by French born painter, sculptor, music maker, wine merchant, and founder of the Art Brut movement, Jean Dubuffet would be a prime candidate. Originally released as an impossibly rare six record box set containing Dubuffet's first long anticipated forays into sound sculpture and spontaneous artistic noise, these intimate early 1960s recordings show a lesser-known side of this important artist's personality and stand up as a vital document in both fields of contemporary art and experimental music. Finally released to a wider audience and presented complete with Dubuffet's signature style artwork, this abridged vinyl edition includes specific selections curated by the artist himself, in conjunction with experimental music pioneer Ilhan Mimaroglu, and showcase what the two leading lights of modern art consider to be the best moments of this historic session. On this limited vinyl pressing Dubuffet succeeds in translating his unique spontaneous creativity and active support of Low Art into musical forms, a process with which he would also collaborate in his dual compositions with Danish avant-gardener Asger Jorn (for a separate series called Musique Phénoménale). Utilizing a wide range of orthodox acoustic instruments ranging from violin and open piano to duck whistles and not musical apparatus this set of eight pieces (culled from a potential twenty tracks made under the Expériences Musicales banner) sees the work of the artist approaching music from the perspective of "a man of 50000 years ago". Recorded at Galleria del Cavallino in Venice Italy during the first months of 1961, these primary experiments with music followed over twenty years of Dubuffet developing his own unconventional artistic persona as an instantly recognizable pioneer of post-war artistic abstraction. The recordings you will find within the grooves of this LP were created without any reference and in the artist own words "without any discipline, without anything that would present the artist from expressing himself freely and for his own good pleasure". Almost sixty years have passed since this sonic objet d'art was first realized, and with all the technology and the advanced science-of-sound, decades of so-called experimental musicians are still struggling to find that Brut energy within their creative endevors making this early example one of vital existence.

The second vinyl EP from Terre Thaemlitz's first album in five years Deproduction features its two bonus tracks: "Admit It's Killing You (And Leave) (Piano Solo)" and DJ Sprinkles' corresponding "Dead End" deep house mix. Presenting vinyl versions of the bonus reworks to his 43-minute Deproduction album track "Admit It's Killing You (And Leave)", the A-side includes Terre's haunting 14-minute "Piano Solo", where he drops the unsettling backdrop of samples of domestic violence to leave the keys suspended in reflective space, reverberating in plangent overtones which take on a starker effect if you care to play it at 33rpm. The B-side is Sprinkles' uncannily brilliant "Dead End" house mix, a more percussive adjunct to the "House Arrest" mix off EP1 (C 027-1EP), framing traces of the original vocal and keys in a sumptuous, rolling and swinging deep house workout full of rustling congas and lustrous low-end that marks up among her most affective, especially in its closing minutes. So damn good... Mastered by Terre Thaemlitz, cut at Dubplates & Mastering.

Pali Meursault is a sound artist, composer, and sound designer. His electroacoustic and sound art research takes different shapes: compositions for records, radio works, installations, or performances. Environmental sound recording is central in his work, which takes from musique concrète and the sonic exploration of soundscapes. For Stridulations, Mersault confronts recorded and performed sounds, composition and improvisation: field-recordings of animal communication (insects, birds, and bats recorded in France, Japan, and South America) mix and dialog with the "sonification" of fluorescent tubes. Both the environmental sound matter composition and the electromagnetic instrument have evolved with performances between 2014 and 2017. Little by little, new recordings were collected and new electrical and electronic supplies were added to the setup. The record is altogether the outcome of that process and a different take on the project, leaving the synesthetics of the flickering lights but embracing the deepness of "blind" listening. For Pali Mersault, the long research for Stridulations has been a practice for deconstructing binary oppositions between nature and machine, bio- and anthropo-phony, and to explore the strange sonic affinities that exist between some animal voices and technological phenomena.

2018 repress. In the late nineties, the budding producers Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani bonded over their shared love of slower tempos and '70s and '80s New York City club culture. Obsessed with record digging and the sounds they heard on late-night "club classics" radio shows -- and turned off by current releases they saw as artlessly "updating" sublime disco by sampling, filtering, and subjugating them with huge kick drums -- the duo set out to discover how their favorite old 12" records were made. They naturally gravitated towards extended dubs of songs -- full of strange mistakes and echoing backing tracks -- instead of the better-known vocal versions. Lacking the big budgets and gear that made so many of their favorite classic records come together, they were forced to take a guerrilla approach. They reprogrammed their techno-oriented arsenal of secondhand synths and samplers, using novel digital recording technology to capture live instrumentation and prioritized mood over hooks, and the resulting music was just wrong enough to sound unlike anything else being released at the time. After just four underground 12" releases, the duo -- now well-known as Metro Area -- released their first and only album, Metro Area, in the fall of 2002. Fifteen years later, it's time to celebrate the culmination of their shared history and inspiration once again. Environ is proud to present the 15th Anniversary Edition of Metro Area, Metro Area's eponymous debut album, meticulously remastered using the original source tapes and generously spread across three slabs of vinyl. The 12-track triple LP and included download card combines all the songs from both the original US and licensed European releases, and features new commemorative artwork unique to this edition.

The sixteen-minute original version of "Source" is a vocal piece in which Wolfgang Tillmans explores his abilities to generate vocal sounds to tell a story while refraining from using actual words. Meshing six different sequences into one composition, each sequence investigates different moods and emotions meandering between the guttural, sacral, and absurd. The A-side's 10-minute remix by Roman Flügel develops changing arrangements around Tillmans' vocals. Contains a download code including bonus track: "Source (Roman Flügel 909 Mix)."