Two certifiable Sun Ra classics refreshed and renewed and rolled into the perfect package. First released on the French label BYG/Actuel in 1971, the companion volumes of The Solar-Myth Approach were essential in introducing Ra's monumental program to an international audience. As with many Arkestra records, the information on these gatefold packages was dubious at best. Here they appear with corrected lineups and dates, showing that the music actually stretches back to the early 1960s, but was assembled into a beautiful chronological mosaic that serves as a gripping survey of early-post-Chicago Ra. It's an ideal way to start listening to his music, and for his fans absolutely essential items in the gargantuan discography. These LPs have been reissued a number of times since BYG/Actuel folded, and with each new batch the fidelity has diminished, so that they've been a pale shadow of the original recordings. For the first time, the sound has been lovingly restored to a previously unimagined level of omniversal fidelity, and one track ("Scene 1 Take 1") that was mastered at the wrong speed on the original -- perhaps a Ra idea, perhaps just a disconnect between the producers and the composer -- has been included as a bonus track remastered at the corrected speed. Packaged in the glorious original LP designs, with a definitive essay by Irwin Chusid, this is The Solar-Myth Approach as it was meant to be experienced.

LP version. "Ayalew Mesfin stands aside the likes of Mulatu Astake, Mahmoud Ahmed, Hailu Mergia and Alemayehu Eshete as a legend of 1970s Ethiopia. Mesfin's music is some of the funkiest to arise from this unconquerable East African nation. Mesfin's recording career, captured in nearly two dozen 7" singles and numerous reel-to-reel tapes, shows the strata of the most fertile decade in Ethiopia's 20th century recording industry, when records were pressed constantly by both independent upstarts and corporate behemoths, even if they were only distributed within the confines of this East African nation. Though Mesfin was forced underground by the Derg regime that took control of Ethiopia in 1974, he has returned almost 50 years later with this triumphant set albums -- the first time that his music has been presented in this form. These albums give us a chance to discover a rare and beautiful moment in music history, in anthologies built from Mesfin's uber-rare 7" single releases and from previously unreleased recordings taken from master tapes. Tewedije Limut gives us a chance to discover a rare & beautiful moment in music history, in an anthology built from his uber-rare 7" single releases."

Theo Parrish releases triple-LP Wuddaji on Sound Signature. Features "This Is For You" with Maurissa Rose.

2020 repress. "In The Past, their second album, is the perfect follow-up for anyone exposed to the Witch band through their landmark Introduction."

2020 restock; released in 1970, Blue Afternoon was Tim Buckley's first self-produced record and his debut for Herb Cohen and Frank Zappa's Straight label. Gatefold exact repro reissue.

12" vinyl reissue of the rare and infamous double-7", originally published by FMP in 1973. Recordings from a workshop at Akademie der Künste, Berlin, April 1972, featuring 15 children (aged 8-11) and Peter Brötzmann, Fred van Hove, Han Bennink.

Yellow vinyl version. Electric Music is The Wolfhounds' follow-up to the Untied Kingdom on Optic Nerve (OPT4 032CD, 2016) and The Complete John Peel Sessions (2018). Having now been recording and gigging for longer than their original 1980s incarnation, The Wolfhounds continue to hone the blade of their sound to outclass their whippersnapper competitors on Electric Music. From the desperate narrator of the opening anthem "Can't See The Light", unable to see an end to his descent into darkness to the sad urban reminiscences of the rural immigrant in "Song Of The Afghan Shopkeeper" and the unwilling draftee in "Pointless Killing", to the powerlessness of people tossed around on the waves of history and progress in "Like Driftwood" -- Wolfhounds ask where our emotional and actual lives are heading, as the world seemingly freefalls into barbarism. With the dreaded feeling that "Lightning's Going To Strike Again", you lack even the appealing soundtrack to the catastrophe of the past described in "... and Electric Music", and the band ask will "The Roaches" once more rule the world (if they ever stopped)? Is the solution to "Stand Apart" from the chaotic crowd or admit, cynically, that "We Don't Believe Anything" and roll with the movements of the masses? Featuring the glowing sleeve notes of comedian Stewart Lee, and a new expanded line-up including electric violin and bassoon from Scritti Politti's Rhodri Marsden, and peppered with the barbed lyrics and stinging guitar of David Lance Callahan and the home-made hybrid stringed instruments of guitarist Andy Golding, the Wolfhounds have never sounded more alive, energetic, and contemporary.

Reissue, originally released in 1973. The only LP featuring a band under Peter Kowald's name, Peter Kowald Quintet comes from a vital moment in the German bassist's career. A close colleague of Peter Brötzmann's in their formative years, including the saxophonist's debut For Adolphe Sax (1967) and the classic Machine Gun (1968), Kowald had by 1972 broadened his circle of collaborators, eventually working with a who's who of global creative music. Recorded live in Berlin, released on FMP, this date documents a tensile ensemble, with an unusual lineup featuring two trombones -- Londoner Paul Rutherford and the German maestro Günter Christmann -- together with the less-well-known Dutch alto saxophonist (and sculptor) Peter van de Locht and brilliant German percussionist Paul Lovens. Kowald adds to the low brass when he turns from double-bass to tuba and alphorn. Spacious and fiery, these four tracks are exemplary European free music led by one of the music's foremost originals -- Kowald's rough and ready bass, which was anchoring (and de facto leading) the Globe Unity Orchestra of that period, is echoed in the take-no-prisoners music of the fivesome. Mastered from original tapes, this first-ever CD release features a facsimile version of the original cover, which featured artwork by ten non-musician friends and unique hand-additions.

Restocked. Absolutely essential spiritual jazz masterpiece from 1975. This is an exact repro of the original release; it was also re-released with different cover art with Herbie Hancock and Don Cherry as the artists. In addition to Hancock and Cherry, performers include Buster Williams, Mtume, Ed Blackwell and Billy Bonner. Back cover notes by Amiri Baraka.

"More than a decade ago, Freak Heat Waves emerged from Canada's stark Midwestern prairies, establishing their voice through early cassette-based experiments and DIY performances. Over the years, the group's live incarnations evolved as they endured a rigorous and nearly non-stop touring schedule. When not on the road, the Freaks became hermits, engaging in countless writing/production sessions that grew increasingly complex, eventually forcing them to travel beyond guitar, bass and drums. Their home studios continuously relocated, advanced and diversified. New instruments started to appear and new trajectories were explored. The studio process became more dynamic, involving many overdubs, avant-garde recording techniques, experimental sound design and orchestrations that utilized legendary effects, drum machines and synths. Tireless curiosity fueled the duo as they merged their original sound with new discoveries and seemingly disparate influences. With their latest work, Zap The Planet, the Freaks find themselves splitting coasts in Montreal and Victoria, distanced by geography and time, connecting via serial transmission tethered to a lone ethernet terminal. Extenuating logistics can unexpectedly prompt innovation. No Freak Heat Waves record has followed a singular path and no two are alike. Each album is an evolution in musical direction, songwriting and conceptualization. With Zap The Planet, (their second album on Telephone Explosion,) the duo has manifested more of their intrinsically unique vision and become more pronounced in their unhinged artistic process. The follow up to 2017's Beyond XXXL finds the Freaks taking a fearless, inventive leap to create the greatest departure from their previous work. There are no fads here, no accidents either. Freak Heat Waves give us a record full of lo-fi digital grit and early MIDI instrumentation. Dirty samples crackle as they skate over immense analog synths. Psychotropic rhythms plant roots and the timeless, signature Freak Heat Waves vocals serve as guides throughout the journey. Through it all the Freaks find themselves zapped!"

Restocked. Double LP version. Includes an extra track "Venice" which was featured at the Venice Film Festival red carpet event. Lustmord is a Welsh electronic musician, composer, and sound designer based in Los Angeles. Active since 1980 he has released a prolific body of work across various labels such as Touch, Hydra Head, and Blackest Ever Black. Often credited for starting the dark ambient genre with his Heresy album in 1990, Lustmord's music has been described as sweeping and profound, a vast dreamlike soundscape that utilizes organic and real-world scenes as source material. Lustmord albums have been made from caves, crypts, car crashes, cosmological activity, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the site of the first ever nuclear detonation.

Lustmord has announced the launch of Vaultworks. Originally an imprint intended to release short editions of live CDs at his live shows, it is now launched as a wider platform for his work in general. Kick starting a planned series of new releases and reissues is the first time vinyl and CD release of his soundtrack to Paul Schrader's 2017 film First Reformed, starring Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, and Cedric Kyles. The release features extended versions of the score formatted as a standalone album.

2020 repress; LP version. "Rock music and revolution in '70s Zimbabwe. Bundled with a download card for WAV files and 72-page digital PDF that details the history of Zimbabwe's heavy rock scene and the trajectory of Wells Fargo."

2020 repress; LP version. 350gsm sleeve with selected UV high gloss varnish. Liner notes by Midori Takada, Satoshi Ashikawa, and Gareth Quinn Redmond. WRWTFWW Records announce the reissue of Satoshi Ashikawa's Still Way (Wave Notation 2). Initially released in 1982 as part of the Wave Notation series (which includes Hiroshi Yoshimura's Music For Nine Postcards), Still Way is, without a doubt, a seminal Japanese environmental/ambient/minimalism album, often mentioned alongside Midori Takada's Through The Looking Glass (1983) (WRWTFWW 018LP, WRWTFWW 019CD/LP) and Hiroshi Yoshimura's Green (1986) as one of the genre's most important pieces. "Like the moment of stillness, after the wind passes through the garden, when the rain stops for a brief second..." Notably inspired by Erik Satie's Furniture Music and Brian Eno's ambient work, Satoshi Ashikawa aimed to compose music "intended to be listened to in a casual manner, as a musical landscape or a sound object -- not something that would stimulate listeners but music that should drift like smoke and become part of the environment." The result is simply phenomenal, subtle minimalism and emotional elegance exquisitely orchestrated by Satoshi Ishikawa and his team consisting of his wife Masami Ashikawa (on flute), Midori Takada (on vibraphone), Yuko Utsumi (on harp), Tomoko Sono (on piano), and Junko Arase (on vibraphone). In conjunction with Still Way, WRWTFWW Records is releasing Laistigh den Ghleo (WRWTFWW 039CD/LP), a companion album by Irish ambient/minimalist composer Gareth Quinn Redmond, inspired by Ashikawa's approach. Liner notes by Midori Takada, Satoshi Ashikawa, and Gareth Quinn Redmond.

2020 restock. WRWTFWW Records is beyond thrilled to announce the first ever vinyl maxi-single release for Raum, Grauzone's best-kept secret and underground mega-gem from 1980. The four-track affair includes the full title track sourced from the original reels. The 12-inch vinyl is cut at 45rpm and comes with a never-seen cover art by band member Stephan Eicher and a handmade Xerox hype sticker. Initially released almost 40 years ago on the beloved compilation Swiss Wave The Album (Off Course Records, 1980) alongside the band's massive hit "Eisbär", "Raum" is the biggest Grauzone track people have yet to discover. An über-infectious New York style bassline played by Christian "GT" Trüssel and frantic drumming by Marco Repetto's blend with Martin Eicher's hauntingly hopeless lyrics and Claudine Chirac's saxophone escapades to personify post-punk heaven and all its wonderful anomalies. It's disco with an edge, pop filled with fear, it's The Cure infused with proto techno and Swiss art chic. Or maybe, it's simply one hell of a song that will make you dance and shout. Further on the A-side, Naum Gabo's rework takes Grauzone to modern dancefloors with a thumping track and bounce-inducing groove on which Liquid Liquid's very own Dennis Young adds magic in the form of marimba, Roto Toms, and EBowed guitar. The energy is electric, the sound is huge, a club banger with extra heart, ready for sound systems of all kinds. The B-side features Ata Macias's fabled extended version of "Raum" (first released in 2010 via Live at Robert Johnson) that Stephan Eicher described as "the perfect Grauzone edit" (and it is!), plus a straight to the point radio edit of Naum Gabo's rework. This release follows WRWTFWW's reissue of Grauzone's Eisbär maxi-single (WRWTFWW 041EP) as part of the 40 years anniversary of the band.

2020 restock; Double LP version. A stunning survey of the 1970s heyday of great Japanese singer and countercultural icon Maki Asakawa (1942-2010). Deep-indigo, dead-of-night enka, folk, and blues, inhaling Billie Holiday and Nina Simone down to the bone. A traditional waltz abuts Nico-style incantation; defamiliarized versions of Oscar Brown Jr. and Bessie Smith collide with big-band experiments alongside poet Shūji Terayama; a sitar-led psychedelic wig-out runs into a killer excursion in modal, spiritual jazz. Existentialism and noir, mystery and allure, hurt and hauteur. With excellent notes by Alan Cummings and the fabulous photographs of Hitoshi Jin Tamura. "Japan's answer to Scott Walker, with a visual aesthetic and a death-decadent appeal that is straight out of the Keiji Haino songbook." --Volcanic Tongue

New Philip Corner LP on Recital. Voice recordings from a small performance in Italy, early in 2020 -- Homages to/from George Maciunas (1931-1978). Corner's piano meditative playthroughs of Couperin's The Mysterious Barricades (1717), from 1989 and 1992. These two elements (voice and piano) superimposed by Sean McCann, edited during the first month of the pandemic. Manic exaltation, distorted harmony things. Album cover is a few PC scores soaked in olive oil and held in-front of the sun through my kitchen window. Booklet features passionate writings on the Couperin piece and its meaning by Corner. Philip wrote a new reflection for this LP edition, "The Mesure of the Mystery". This album is built from the finest ingredients: beautiful piano with stomach-clenching voice stretches. Edition of 250; 12-page pamphlet of scores and an essay by Corner.

LP version. Tip-on sleeve. For every celebrated name in jazz, soul and related music, there are probably another 1000 musicians who had all the talent and potential but for whom widespread recognition remained elusive. Roscoe Weathers is one such figure, a jazzman who earned his chops the hard way, a sideman in smoky clubs from Memphis to Seattle, before finally settling in LA. He recorded a significant amount of music through the 1960s, but never found the slightest modicum of commercial acclaim nor the success that comes with it. Overlooked by all but the tiniest of record labels, Weathers's released much of his material himself. Indeed, Jazzman Records can lay claim to be the first outside label to release any of his music since the early 1960s. That's sixty years of being overlooked by the record industry, so Jazzman Records release this first full-length album of his music in a first attempt at righting that historic wrong. A multi-instrumentalist, Weathers mainly led on the flute in his recorded output. The music here spans the course of the 1960s, and moves from laid back beatnik jazz stylings through to percussion heavy Afro-Latin influenced workouts. As usual with Jazzman, the label has not only dug deep to unearth Weathers's music but also his background and biographical details, shining much deserved light on this enigmatic and largely unheralded figure for the first time.

LP version. "Ayalew Mesfin stands aside the likes of Mulatu Astake, Mahmoud Ahmed, Hailu Mergia and Alemayehu Eshete as a legend of 1970s Ethiopia. Mesfin's music is some of the funkiest to arise from this unconquerable East African nation. Mesfin's recording career, captured in nearly two dozen 7" singles and numerous reel-to-reel tapes, shows the strata of the most fertile decade in Ethiopia's 20th century recording industry, when records were pressed constantly by both independent upstarts and corporate behemoths, even if they were only distributed within the confines of this East African nation. Though Mesfin was forced underground by the Derg regime that took control of Ethiopia in 1974, he has returned almost 50 years later with this triumphant set albums -- the first time that his music has been presented in this form. These albums give us a chance to discover a rare and beautiful moment in music history, in anthologies built from Mesfin's uber-rare 7" single releases and from previously unreleased recordings taken from master tapes. Che Belew gives us a chance to discover a rare & beautiful moment in music history, in an anthology built from his uber-rare 7" single releases."

From David Toop: "Maybe these titles, torn as they are from cinema screens and the pages of literature and philosophy, give a feeling of romantic or sexual love or some dark pool of nostalgia but that's not it, or it could be if you want it for yourself but not for me, not now; for me it's about the teeming proliferation of complex events in the world, their vivid, hyperreal intensity as this human life steps closer to its end and their sense of fading, like a mist that thins out to leave not a clear bright day but almost nothing of substance as all that beauty is crushed, burned, dug up, wiped out, to be replaced by banality, so it's about a language of love and desire in which we speak openly to all the unknowns, the speculative, the ancestral, the forgotten, the different, the extinct, the unimaginably distant and vast, the incomprehensibly small and intimately close, the fast or the slow, as if as we spoke we were becalmed in a wooden galleon off the coast of Java, sleeping microscopically in soil of a thousand years hence, hearing the voice of a dead person from the rim of a vibrating cup, gliding backwards and weightless through the alleyways of a city unrecognizable yet heartbreaking in its poverty, speaking in conference with winged and amphibious beings, crouching in a cavern whose opening only reveals the specter of many wonders now apprehended as memories of the skin, heard through cheekbones, nostrils, the crepitation as a neck turns, pains of the knee and thumb and some not yet fully understood sensation within the throat which suggests a way of comprehending that which is being lost of this magical place. All I desire is what already exists or once existed, now falling asleep outside the world. Don't ask me about genre or consistency. Who cares? Half the world is drowning; the other half is in flames. Each story is an animal, a plant, something you drink, a surface you touch, a faint line, some memory emanating from a cardboard box . . . Apparition painting is the term used to describe a certain type of ancient Chinese painting of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In these works, often associated with Chan (Zen) teachings, the ink used to depict the subject was exceptionally pale, the background lacking in any detail. As Yukio Lippit has written: 'This combination results in remarkably self-dissembling images that somehow compromise their own visibility. Apparition painting appears to capture its subjects in mid-fade, as if managing to preserve only a dimly translucent afterimage of a bygone entity.'"

LP version. "For a decade now, Vatican Shadow, one of the many guises of Dominick Fernow, has blurred the lines of rhythmic industrial, ambient and soundscapes to weave throbbing frontline communiques of war, terror, media manipulation and anxiety disorder. One of the most prolific underground artists of the 21st century, living his art down to minute detail, Fernow's penchant for seamlessly spanning underground sub-cultures finds Vatican Shadow now aligned with 20 Buck Spin for the first time. On the new full-length album Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era, the deconstruction continues, with layers of collaged synth stabs, low end pulsing dread and ominous sand-swept melodies. And where Vatican Shadow often sets a rigid musical focus with each release, here the full multi-faceted embodiment of the project comes to fruition from hypnotic dance floor repetition, cold metallic percussion, martial bass strikes, and dark melodic noise. To further intensify the album Fernow brought aboard Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, JK Flesh, etc.) for the painstakingly detailed mastering process, adding the mysterious vibrance of cold morning mountain light that presages a conspiracy about to unfold. An unquestionable heaviness permeates the organizational structure of Vatican Shadow, never more apparent than on Persian Pillars..., and while prior devotees of the scripture will continue to find it approachable, here now the doors have been flung wide open to an entirely new realm of memorialist iconography."

Organ songs inspired by Sacro Bosco/Parco Dei Mostri. All songs written and performed by Anna von Hausswolff. Organ sound design by Filip Leyman. Produced and mixed by Anna von Hausswolff and Filip Leyman. Mastered by Hans Olsson at Svenska Grammofonstudion. Recorded in Örgryte New Church, in Gothenburg January 2020 North Germany, Baroque organ recorded with mobile equipment from Svenska Grammofonstudion. Photography by Gianluca Grasselli. Layout and design by Philip Marshall. Cassette only limited edition.

"Feeding Tube was chuffed to take Professor Steve Hesske's advice and make way for the fifth vinyl LP by Mordecai. I mean, when the Professor speaks even the cows take notice. And we are all descended from cows, right? So why not? Originally based around Butte Montana, formed by two brothers who claim to have been born (or conceived) (or some damn thing) on crappy Dead tours ('89 and '92, meaning the ones that resulted in 'Without a Net' and 'Althea' from 30 Trips Around the Sun), Mordecai took an unlikely backstory and spun it into solid gold dirt. The tunes on Library Music were recorded during 2015-2017 and represent another fine sideways style leap by this highly discordian trio. Musically the attack, as usual, makes me think of someone playing a bunch of Siltbreeze records on top of each other, and mixing in shards of the Dept Store Santas for good measure. People often mention the Stooges when talking about Mordecai's approach, but their sound is raw in a whole different sort of way. It demonstrates an actual ability to play coherent tunes in the manner of sub-underground South Island kiwis, but twists violently away from any sort of formal acknowledgement of 'song' as a necessity in performing music. Which makes me suspect the version of the Stooges Mordecai most closely resembles is the legendary vacuum-cleaner/golf-cleat iteration of the psychedelic Stooges no one ever bothered to record. What Mordecai does can sound pretty random, but because of the clues they occasionally cough up in the middle of their tunes, one suspects they are as well versed in the arcana of Columbus OH as they are in Dunedin's. And that the whiffs of late '70s freak bands (from Doors and Windows to Destry Hampton and the Lone Wolves from Hell) are not arbitrary or capricious. They're just tributes to all the wild mooks who preceded them into the tunnels of despond. Library Music. It's a great record." --Byron Coley, 2020

"Lugar Alto's newest project is the idiosyncratic album MUMIA (portuguese for MUMMY). Never released before, it is a work that was originally recorded on cassette and combines elements of post-punk, industrial and ambient music. Kodiak Bachine and Celso Alves formed the ephemeral and eponymous duo in 1988. The partnership resulted in a single recording derived from improvised sessions using minimal amounts of electronic equipment at Celso's country house, located in the interior of São Paulo. Bachine was an important figure in the São Paulo underground. His most renowned project was the band Agentss from 1981, which also consisted of Miguel Barella, Eduardo Amarante, Elias Glik and Lyses Pupo (later replaced by Thomas Susemihl). In its brief duration, the band released only two seven inches that were considered seminal artifacts in the Brazilian post-punk scene: 'Agentes / Angra' from 1982 and 'Professor Digital / Cidade Industrial' from 1983. These two rare records are highly sought after by collectors and DJs from around the world for their inventiveness and originality. Similar to Agentss, MUMIA brings with it extreme authenticity, managing to extrapolate the barriers of more traditional Brazilian music and interact with unorthodox elements. The lyrics are a mixture of Portuguese and English and it is still possible to identify picturesque fragments of Spanish, French and German. In addition, sonically, the record portrays aesthetics from the eighties and dialogues with themes relating to LSD. Another notable feature is the fixation on Egyptian post-mortem themes, providing a cinematic and lysergic experience of the desert landscapes from the African country. It is a recording with comic passages which provokes an unpretentious reaction from the listener. However, it still has more ethereal and atmospheric moments, such as the opening song 'Ave do Deserto'. In the final two tracks, it is possible to enjoy a darker MUMIA, which with 'Massacre da Serra Elétrica I' and 'Massacre da Serra Elétrica II', provide a sound experience capable of accompanying intense scenes from the macabre productions by Tobe Hooper and George Romero. The striking new artwork was created by the Sometimes Always studio, a partner of Lugar Alto and responsible for diverse graphic collaborations with artists, venues and parties in Brazil. The album, mastered by the prolific Arthur Joly, also has a booklet containing Kodiak's texts in Portuguese and English, in addition to the lyrics, which serve as a logical exercise for further understanding of the album. MUMIA was unearthed by the renowned Brazilian DJ Millos Kaiser, who in addition to kindly curating this album, put together the compilation Onda de Amor: Synthesized Brazilian Hits That Never Were (1984-94), released by Soundway Records. Now, after 32 years in its tomb, the MUMIA has risen and thanks to Lugar Alto it can finally be celebrated and appreciated."

LP version. Wewantsounds reissue of Billy Brooks's much sought-after album Windows of the Mind, released in 1974 on Ray Charles's Crossover Records. The album was co-produced by Charles and features such heavy players as Herman Riley, Calvin Keys, and Larry Gales. There's not a huge amount of information to be found about trumpet player Billy Brooks. A solid session musician who'd been around since the '50s, he played with the likes of Lionel Hampton, Cal Tjader, and of course Ray Charles, who signed him to his sub label Crossover Records in the early '70s to release Windows of the Mind. Interestingly, Brooks also appears on Bea Benjamin's 1976 cult classic African Songbird produced by Dollard Brand. Windows of the Mind released in 1974 remains Brooks' only solo album. Windows of the Mind was recorded in Los Angeles and co-produced by Ray Charles. It is a skillful, brass-led mix of jazz and funk performed by such cult players as bassist Larry Gales (Thelonious Monk), drummer Clarence Johnston (Freddie Roach, James Moody), saxophonist Herman Riley (Side Effect, Pleasure, Earth Wind & Fire, Letta Mbulu), guitarists Jef Lee (Roy Ayers, Sylvia Striplin) and cult player Calvin Keys of Black Jazz Records fame. From the groove of "Rockin Julius", "Shetter Cheeze", and "Black Flag" to the mid-tempo jazz mood of "Cooling It" and "C.P. Time" and the cinematic brass pyrotechnics of "The Speech Maker", "Windows of the Mind" is a superb funked-up big band jazz album. Windows of the Mind did reasonably well among the jazz circles when it came out but its fate would change fifteen years later when, in 1990, A Tribe Called Quest heavily sampled its closing track "Fourty Days" for their own "Luck of Lucien" featured on the group's debut album People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm (1990). The album revolutionized hip-hop and "Luck of Lucien" became one of the album's highlights, thus cementing the reputation of Billy Brooks original LP among DJs and collectors. Original LPs now change hands for a few hundred dollars. Wewantsounds now make this landmark album available again in partnership with The Ray Charles Foundation. Newly remastered audio; comes with original artwork.

Sunquake is the first ever vinyl compilation of work by Désaccord Majeur, the alter ego of French artist Jérôme Mauduit who played a crucial role in Europe's post-industrial/ethno-ambient scene. Linking with figureheads Muslimgauze, O Yuki Conjugate, and Rapoon (Zoviet France) via cassette compilations and seminal label Staalplaat, his music is played today by the likes of Vladimir Ivkovic, Elena Colombi, and Interstellar Funk. Three carefully chosen cuts by the A Colourful Storm crew, properly cut and mastered at 45rpm and housed in full-color printed sleeve. Includes liner notes by Vladimir Ivkovic.

A Colourful Storm presents a new album by Beequeen, the duo of Frans de Waard (Kapotte Muziek) and Freek Kinkelaar (Brunnen). Over two long-form pieces, new material from 2020 and almost-discarded fragments dating back to 1988 are collaged to form a brand-new composition. Think woodblock, guitar, static radio signals, ethereal ambience. An honorable addition to Beequeen's discography and a beautiful piece of the Dutch avantgarde with historic ties to Edward Ka-Spel, De Fabriek, Merzbow, and Nurse With Wound. Mastered by Peter Johan Nyland. Full-color sleeve photography by Alfred Boland.

LP version. "Schlammpeitziger is the alias of musician, illustrator and performance artist Jo Zimmermann. He has been an integral figure in the evolving sound of Cologne since 1992, releasing his surrealist lo-fi krautronica on imprints such as A-Musik, Pingipung, and Sonig. Ein Weltleck in der Echokammer is the tenth Schlammpeitziger opus and his second album to appear on the Hamburg-based label Bureau B. The first notes of the opening title track Weltleck instantly confirm that this is no run-of-the-mill record. Jo Zimmermann confounds expectations as he wraps the art-electro sound of Schlammpeitziger in otherworldly dub echo loops -- a surprising, yet perfectly coherent development. Jo Zimmermann elaborates on the new Schlammpeitziger sound: 'Reggae expert Bettina Lattak is a good friend of mine and she has been telling me for years that there are dub and reggae influences in my music. I had never really given it much thought, but when I began to introduce these elements more consciously into my music, everything clicked into place quite naturally. I found it fascinating, completely free of any religious context, simply following the sound.' Not that these eight sun-drenched tracks are exclusively in the realm of dub rhythm; they are also sprinkled with disco beats, beguilingly low-flying bass and dreamy, sweeping melodic arcs -- everything for which we have come to love Schlammpeitziger. He launches us into outer space before bringing us back down to the prosaic dancefloors of Earth. Another new aspect is that Jo Zimmermann sings on three of the tracks, translating the whimsical, curious nature of the music into an equally unique vernacular. His verbal expansion of the enraptured cosmos illuminates the brightly lit world outside the echo chamber on 'Handicapfalter', referencing Kraftwerk's 'Spiegelsaal' like a steel drum Absurdistan. Elsewhere, 'Every Dayhey' floats like a weightless rainy Sunday dub, a dull sensation of gentle melancholy seeping into the morning after a long, long night. Stefan Mohr, the producer from Cologne, mixed the album as he did its predecessor. Zimmermann and his congenial colleague Ulrike Göken have once again crafted the cover art and created a video in visual interpretations woven from the same fabric as Schlammpeitziger's music. Ein Weltleck in der Echokammer is an album which offers answers to questions that nobody is able to ask. Dancing feet caught in a trap, lost in crowded emptiness or sucked into space through a leak in the world -- only Schlammpeitziger can do the lot." --Andreas Dorau

"Pressed on splatter-colored vinyl housed in a recreation of the triple gatefold jacket from the original 1973 pressing. When Malcolm John Rebbenack Jr., best known by his stage name Dr. John, first hit the scene in the late 1960s after many years as a Wrecking Crew session musician, he developed his craft the back of an eccentric presentation. His swampy, and frequently psychedelic blend of New Orleans-inspired boogie-woogie rock paired with a macabre character heavily inspired by voodoo priests and Mardi Gras, and a highly theatrical stage show to match. Across four studio albums Dr. John cultivated this stage presence and developed a strong cult following. As Dr. John entered the 1970s however, this stage presence would undergo a major change. In 1972, Dr. John abruptly switched gears from muddy psychedelia with the release of Dr. John's Gumbo, which saw the performer covering a selection of New Orleans rhythm & blues standards. The backing band remained the same, but the sound was a slicker and more traditional fare that undoubtedly disappointed the cult following that fell in love with Dr. John's voodoo antics, but was a hit with critics and commercial audiences. Dr. John's Gumbo was Dr. John's second Billboard chart success (reaching #112) and would be named one of the '500 Greatest Albums of All Time' by Rolling Stone. Building on this success, the next year Dr. John continued upon this path, releasing In The Right Place in 1973. Produced by the legendary producer Allen Toussaint, In The Right Place took the more polished sounds developed on Gumbo, and traded psychedelia for New Orleans funk, for a sound that still pulsated with the spirit of Louisiana, but was imminently danceable as well. In The Right Place was not only a critical hit, but marked Dr. John's greatest commercial success, reaching #24 on the album charts, and rendering a Top 10 hit out of the title track."

"Hozac Books is proud to present our third art book, I'm Just The Drummer the Bob Bert artist compendium of photography and interviews, establishing his irreplaceable link between the 1970s no wave movement and contemporary noise rock. Although Bert's immediate work is best known drumming in his wide array of musical projects he's been involved with (such as Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Chrome Cranks, Lydia Lunch, and many more) since the early 1980s, the focus of his book isn't drum-centric as it is an encapsulation of the artistic world he's developed within. It's not a drumming instructional guide, or a critical assessment of how the drummers in bands are treated, but a 200+ page guide through Bob's musically adventurous life, and what a ride! Starting out with his teenage love of photography and his process of capturing the underground downtown figureheads as well as the emerging unknown no wave bands, Bob was just as much of an enthusiastic fan of music as he was a fixture in some of the most crucial music of the 1980s, '90s, and beyond. And that's what's really important in the long run, as his excitement for music bursts from each page, providing the springboard to his long-running life in bands on the fringe of the mainstream. But Bob Bert wasn't just that figure at the intersection of commonality of several pivotal bands with an edge over the last 30 years, oh no. He also has (not surprisingly) impeccable taste in music and culture, which could only sprout forth in the 1990s with an inevitable 'zine,' and thus, BB Gun Magazine was born. Spanning from 1995 until 2004, and covering emerging underground music, film, and outer artists sub-underground, as well as Hollywood-level impresarios, I'm Just The Drummer contains a wealth of interview excerpts from the elusive original magazines, along with his photography accompaniment. From Nancy Sinatra to Vincent Gallo, and from Suicide to Cynthia Plaster Caster, Bert's undeniable love of his subjects is hard to conceal, and his book is a perfect representation of an ongoing life of true adventure, traveling the world, and illuminating the darkest corners of our cultural curiosities. 200+ pages, paperback."

Double LP version. Lys, Christian Löffler's newest album, serves as a contrast to Graal (2019), its predecessor. Whereas the latter is the result of a six-month period spent largely on the road in between live shows, the former is a studio release in the truest sense, recorded and compiled in the serenity of Löffler home studio, immersed in the woodland nature that formed the basis for A Forest (2012), his first attempt at the long-player format back in 2012. Lys is a selection of Löffler's favorite productions from the past three years, carefully compiled into one enchanting and deeply moving listening experience. The sounds of Lys can be traced back to late 2016, as Löffler settled back into his studio following Mare, but it really began to take shape in the wake of a creative breakthrough in 2018. Struggling with writer's block, Löffler travelled to Scandinavia. Graal, with its drawing-based artwork, reflected this rich period of initial creativity and opened the door to Lys, on which Löffler continues the narrative with 12 of his more contemplative and introspective studio adventures. Integral in the process was his painting of these earlier drawings, cementing a connection between his visual and musical work. What unifies these songs is the process behind them: Waking up early, Löffler headed for a run before sitting down in his studio for 8am. He'd set his mind back to the early morning, and reflect. Conceptually, the album captures how his feelings evolved during a day of working on the album, beginning in the morning and ending as his finished his painting in the evening. To capture his innermost feelings, he once again puts his voice front and center. It also features the vocals of Menke, a young Swedish singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist; and Mohna, who has been a staple on his recent tours. A natural calmness and beauty pervades the album, even on the two club-ready tracks, "Roth" and "Sun", sketches from Mare but reworked to fit Löffler's vision. "Versailles" and "Lys", two of the three lead singles, reflect the light and airy sound that Löffler envisioned at the beginning of the recording process. Meanwhile, "Noah", the third single, stands for the record's darker, heavier side, driven forward by Löffler own vocals. Along with "The End," a final focus track, these singles came together to form the backbone of the album. Also features Josephine Philip and finn..

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; included download code. Coming out of the fertile London jazz and experimental scenes, Krononaut is a richly textured new ensemble helmed by guitarist/producer Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Imogen Heap, Jon Hopkins) and drummer Martin France (Nils Petter Molvær, Evan Parker). The album features an esteemed group of collaborators and a sonic footprint that channels spectral ambiance, "fourth world" expansions and a gorgeous slow-boiling pointillism. Krononaut are a posse of time-expanding shapeshifters who, in the space of two sessions recorded early last year in London, have managed to produce ten cuts of arresting, deeply immersive instrumental music. The core of the album is provided by Leo Abrahams, whose startling guitar lit up Small Craft On A Milk Sea (2010), some of Brian Eno's best work of the last couple of decades, and who plays and produces here, and Martin France, the extraordinary drummer whose wide list of achievements and collaborators includes Evan Parker, Nils Petter Molvær, and, more tangentially, Elvis Costello. The two men came at it from two radically different backgrounds: Leo, who started off studying classic composition and who, in his own words, "can't play jazz", and Martin, whose playing rests precisely on what he refers to a "jazz sensibility", on everything about interacting within and shaping the music implied by that term. In on the first session was Shahzad Ismaily (Tom Waits, Laurie Anderson, Marc Ribot). Like many great multi-instrumentalists (on this album he plays bass), he was keen to find a frame for the "attitude" they should seek in the session; Leo obliged by playing some Madoh, shamanic funeral music from Tajikistan, whose unique rhythms ended up informing both the guitar and drums on this record. A second session was joined by bassist Tim Harries (June Tabor, Byrne & Eno), American saxophonist Matana Roberts, and Swedish trumpet maestro Arve Henriksen. Save for Henriksen's gorgeously melodic, flute-like lines, Krononaut was improvised live with no overdubs. Yet, these soundscapes never feel jammy or unfocused, possibly because of the influence of another of the album's spiritual touchstones: avant-garde pioneer Morton Feldman. The sessions produce overall a subtle and intricate record that expands with each listen. Pointillistic and often quietly restless. Rough edges butting against discrete spaces.

LP version. Much has been written about Young Marble Giants' small, perfect catalog, which contained roughly two-dozen songs, nearly each one a perfect gem. Less is known about his long wilderness years after the break-up of his first professional band. Stuart Moxham's next project, The Gist, chopped YMG's minimalism into a new sound. "This Is Love", "Public Girls", and "Fool For A Valentine" showed his songs to be razor-sharp, but the album's fragmented pieces were a step too far for some, though even the strangest, "Carnival Headache", when cast in sunlight by Alison Statton's combo Weekend, was as fine a song as any he'd written -- and "Love At First Sight" became a million-seller when covered by Etienne Daho. Then Stuart disappeared. A mid-90s resurgence led to fine albums done on low budgets, before more silence followed. The Devil Laughs, recorded a few years back, is a compelling addition to the canon of the 21st century songwriting. Stuart's generally unadorned musical presentation does not hinder his appreciation for the skills of Louis Philippe, whose iconic arrangements across an array of Él label albums inspire the fierce devotion of aficionados around the world. Nor does the unvarnished solidity of Stuart's arrangements deter Louis from hearing possibilities for their presentation in styles which take inspiration from the perfection of 1960s studio technology that led to the rise of Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach, along with less-recognized names such as Bones Howe and Roy Halee. "Tidy Away" is Young Marble Giants redux, though the backing vocals hint at maturity which band didn't live to see. "Fighting To Lose", written with producer Ken Brake, would pass as a worthy B-side to "Bridge Over Troubled Water", and although the songs are otherwise Stuart's, Louis fans will delight at several, like "Love Hangover" and "Sky Over Water", which display his style and production genius as succinctly as anything on his own albums. The Devil Laughs is as out of its time as Colossal Youth (1980) was -- its subtle but immediate beauty, devoid of "rock", is a recording best understood in the light of those obscure groundbreakers who inspired it -- the faux barbershop vocals of Smile-era Beach Boys, the studio luster of Tom Wilson's work with Simon & Garfunkel, a dash of The Swingle Sisters and French chanson -- along with enough hints of Young Marble Giant's modernist folk abstraction to satisfy longtime fans. The Devil Laughs is a small masterpiece of pure expression.

Brothers Reginald Omas Mamode IV and Jeen Bassa come together as Mama Odé on full-length album, Tales & Patterns Of The Maroons. At its core this is a classic "hip-hop" format LP -- but have you ever heard Creole Sega rap roots music before? Of Creole descent from a group of African islands that transiently have hosted many settlers, west African slaves, colonialists and the potentially indigenous East African-Malagache Maroons; the brothers have an inherent spirit of diversity that runs through their recordings. Musical influences consist of jazz, funk, blues, and reggae to un-placeable but definite Afro-drum patterns, through to their Golden era rap vocal flows, which have a sure nod to A Tribe Called Quest and Slum Village. The album's deep grooves overwhelmingly seed optimism, subscribing to a positive future drawn from historically multi-ethnic ancestral lines. Reginald Omas Mamode IV's three solo albums -- 2016's s/t debut, 2017's Children of Nu, and 2019's Where We Going? (FEP 027LP) -- received continued critical success from Mojo, Mixmag, Q, Record Collector, The Wire, DJ Mag, Electronic Sound, and more. He was also nominated for "Album of the Year" at Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards 2017. Jeen Bassa has carved out a reputation as one of the leading beat-tape producers mixing up slo-mo, mechanized funk with hues of neon soul and blue, jazz notes. Jeen Bassa's warm and woozy productions stand out in a world saturated with bland Dilla and Madlibesque pastiches. Along with Al Dobson Jr, Henry Wu, Mo Kolours, and Tenderlonious; ROMIV and Jeen Bassa have helped forge the extended 22a co-operative. Edition of 500.

2020 repress. "Aix Em Klemm is the moniker of the ambient music project consisting of Adam Wiltzie (Stars Of The Lid/A Winged Victory For The Sullen) and Robert Donne (Labradford/Anjou). As Wiltzie told Sadness Is In The Sky fanzine, his collaboration with Donne began when 'we all met during a Texas swing of a Labradford tour that Stars Of The Lid opened for back in 1996. They stayed at my house for a few days and we became close.' A year later Wiltzie was asked to join Labradford for their Mi Media Naranja European tour of 1997 as the sound technician. This tour also included Bruce Gilbert of the legendary band Wire who was the opening act and joined them in the van for the entire tour. With Gilbert's nightly improvisations of minidisk field recording explosions running through a Sherman Filterbank, it left a profound effect on Wiltzie and Donne, and led to inspiring internal philosophical discussions on the importance of improvisation. After concluding six weeks in the van, the idea of creating a unique collaboration separate from their other projects was realized. The duo exchanged tapes over the course of a year and then Donne ventured to Austin, TX for a week to record at Wiltzie's home studio in 1999. The in-person collaboration moved much more quickly than the exchange of tracks by mail. One track on the Aix Em Klemm album, "Sparkwood And Twenty-One", was written and recorded in one day. The duo took the mysterious name Aix Em Klemm and the self-titled debut was released in the autumn of 2000. As of late, Wiltzie lives in Brussels, and Donne joined Stars Of The Lid on their last tour of Europe in 2016 playing modular synth. They still collaborate musically so new Aix Em Klemm recordings remain a possibility."

LP version. "Melissa Guion's second offering for Kranky retains the glassy gauze of her debut, 2016's Precious Systems, but shaded starker and darker, framed by mechanical rhythms and humid industrial moods. She speaks of Sour Cherry Bell as something of a reckoning with her tools of creation: 'I was curious to see how far I could go with them, even if that meant reaching the ends of their capacity to do what I wanted. But I never exhausted them and they never exhausted me.' Utilizing her trusted combination of instrumentation, Guion tracked the record between her New Orleans home and rehearsal space, capturing chemistries both intimate and expansive. The songs sway between twilit shoegaze, downer ballads, and gothic pop, mapping a delicate palette of electric melancholies, though in retrospect she cites as her primary muse the notion of power: 'lost and found, corporeal and cerebral, harnessed and exploited, of one and many, in this reality and the next.' Sour Cherry Bell reverberates beyond the here and now into scenes unseen, worlds unheard."