Green vinyl repress! "Time is absolute garbage . . . But here's the thing: given enough time, your friends are going to keep making records, you're going to keep listening to them, and if you're lucky, some of them are going to seep into the cracks of your day-to-day . . . Since its initial appearance as a private press double cassette in 2016, Annual Flowers in Color has been exactly this sort of talisman for me. More to the point, it's also the closest thing to a definitive statement in the twelve-year history of John Elliott's Imaginary Softwoods and a no-brainer on the thinking head's shortlist of Elliott's most essential releases, alongside Outer Space's Akashic Record (Events: 1986-1990) (SP 019LP, 2012), Emeralds' Solar Bridge (2008) and What Happened (EMEGO 109LP, 2010), Mist's House (SP 004CD/LP, 2011), Lilypad's Capacitor (2008), Colored Mushroom and the Medicine Rocks' self-titled LP (2010), and Quiet Light Water Gap's Live at the Delaware County VFW Hall (2010). While each of these projects draws from the same reservoir of glittering pinpoint riffcraft and homespun surrealism and each reflects in its own fashion the awareness that a certain undercurrent of lurid horror is essential to all authentically psychedelic music, Imaginary Softwoods has always been distinguished in its relationship to a particular decades-long chain of private press loner music, or chamber music for shut-ins. You wouldn't necessarily be wrong to call Annual Flowers in Color 'deeply personal,' but that almost misses the point . . . it's handmade, human-scale domestic ritual music the making of which is inseparable from the sense in which it's been 'lived in.' . . . Above all, Annual Flowers in Color is an absolutely gorgeous, perfectly weathered, subtly strange record. It's exactly the thing you're thinking of when you think 'I want to hear really killer polysynths and tape delay,' but it's also much more, glistening with distended reflections of Steve Roach and Stapleton, ringing with simultaneous sublimated echoes of the dorkiest and most expensive French mellotron prog and the most incandescent cheap heat from the $2 exotica bin, and dripping with the 'as above, so below' that characterizes synthesizer records at their best. It's both a welcoming point of entry for the uninitiated and a sticky, seductive cut deep enough to envelop any heads seeking a way station on the search for the apocryphal second volume of Cosmos Farm Sessions." --Chris Madak (Philadelphia, February 2020)

2020 restock;; originally release on Lovely Music in 1987. A series of three pieces/suites; "Leapday Night", "A Traveler's Dream Journal", and "Interspecies Smalltalk" involving Rhys Chatham/Ben Neill (on trumpet/mutantrumpet), Fluxus mainstay Takehisa Kosugi (violin), and David Behrman himself on electronics. Behrman creates thickly layered liquid sounds utilizing this complex computer music system which absorbs, actually hears, the sounds of instrumentalists, and then plays off their improvisations with its own synthesized reactions. The system consists of pitch sensors ("ears" with which it listens to the performing musicians), various music synthesizers (some homemade), a computer graphics color video display and a personal computer. "Heavy period-synth float with bare accompaniment, thankfully just-pre DX-7."

2020 restock; 1992 release. First released on Lovely Music in 1980. A 50-foot length of taut wire passes through the poles of a large magnet and is driven by an oscillator; the vibrations of the wire are miked at either end, amplified, and broadcast in stereo. The thin wire is set vibrating four times at four different frequencies; what results is not the low drone one might expect from a long, vibrating wire, but a complexity of evocative, ethereal chords. Music On A Long Thin Wire is a classic example of Alvin Lucier's investigations into the physics of sound and the sonic properties of natural processes.

Axis/Another Revolvable Thing is the second installment of Blank Forms' archival reissues of the music of Japan's eternal revolutionary Masayuki Takayanagi, following April Is The Cruellest Month (BF 008CD/LP), a 1975 studio record by his New Direction Unit. Comprised of recordings of a September 5, 1975 concert by the New Direction Unit at Yasuda Seimei Hall in Tokyo's Shinjuku district, the two-part set showcases Takayanagi in deep pursuit of what he began calling "non-section music" after leaping beyond the confines of his prior descriptor "real jazz". The quartet of Takayanagi (guitar), Kenji Mori (reeds), Nobuyoshi Ino (bass, cello), and Hiroshi Yamazaki (percussion) deftly explores the twin poles of Takayanagi's spacious "gradually projection" and explosively virulent "mass projection" concepts across six pieces, titled "Fragments I-VI". Includes original liner notes by Japanese free jazz critic Teruto Soejima (newly translated for this edition). Originally issued in two individual LP volumes in rearranged order; the two separate LP reissues, Axis/Another Revolvable Thing 1 (BF 015LP) and Axis/Another Revolvable Thing 2 (BF 016LP), keep this rearranged order. Double-CD version presents the Another Revolvable Thing concert in chronological sequence for the first time.

Masayuki "Jojo" Takayanagi (1932-1991) was a maverick Japanese guitarist, a revolutionary spirit whose oeuvre embodied the radical political movements of late '60s Japan. Having cut his teeth as an accomplished Lennie Tristano disciple playing cool jazz in the late '50s, Takayanagi had his mind blown by the Chicago Transit Authority's "Free Form Guitar" in 1969 and promptly turned his back on the jazz scene. Takayanagi had found a new direction, an annihilation of jazz and its associated idolatry of hegemonic American culture. Aiming his virtuoso chops towards the stratosphere, Takayanagi dedicated himself to the art of the freakout, laying waste to tradition left and right, most notably via the all-out assault of his aptly-named New Direction for the Arts (later New Direction Unit) and collaborations with like-minded outsider saxophonist Kaoru Abe. His innovations on the instrument parallel those of Sonny Sharrock and Derek Bailey and paved the way for the Japanese necromancy of Keiji Haino and Otomo Yoshihide.

"Mind-blowing set of duo improvisations from a string player once known as the King of the Dobro, and the original drummer for Morphine. Long based in the Boston area, Lloyd Thayer is a master musician as well as a teacher, a street performer (retired, I think) and a collector of esoteric stringed instruments (many of which are played with a slide). We were introduced to his work by Glenn Jones, who more or less grabbed us by the collars and hauled us to see him down at the 1000 Incarnations of the Rose festival. Thayer's set of eastern-tinged material, played on instruments we could not easily name, was absolutely mesmerizing. Glenn made sure we kept in touch, and when Lloyd had some new material ready we got an early listen to it. So, after 30+ CDs and cassettes, Feeding Tube is proud to present the first full-length vinyl LP by the great Lloyd Thayer. Using a Weissenborn-style lap guitar (the same type favored by Fahey) and a gorgeous 22-stringed instrument called a Chaturangui, Lloyd unwinds four long improvs accompanied by the quietly flowing drum work of Jerome Deupree. And if this makes you imagine the incredible blends recorded by Sandy Bull and Billy Higgins back in '63 and '65, you are definitely in the right dreamscape. Deupree has been around for a long time, starting off in the legendary Bar-B-Q Records scene in Bloomington, then new-waving it up in Santa Cruz with the Humans, eventually co-founding Morphine in Boston, while simultaneously moving into jazz with Joe Morris and the Either/Orchestra. Jerome has played on a crazy assortment of records, but the subtle interplay he displays with Lloyd's strings here is a perfect match. The music is beautiful, shifting and abstract. And the song titles are equally interesting. One is a blues for Fahey cohort Al Wilson, another for dobro pioneer Melvyn Marshall. Those make sense. The other two are for hip-hop artist Rammellzee and the British house duo, PBR Street Gang. Lloyd, naturally, claims the PBR Street Gang ref has to do with Martin Sheen's patrol boat in Apocalypse Now. But after the Rammellzee shout-out, who could believe him? Ha. But ultimately, who gives a tinker's cuss? Duets is an album of dizzying accomplishment. Not exactly like anything you've heard before, but such a satisfying spin you'll wonder where it's been all your life." --Byron Coley, 2020 Edition of 200.

Demos, early version, alternate mixes, and outtakes that helped shape The Velvet Underground's Loaded (1970), a great album. Giving it a wider view and complete understanding of the album. Album sessions recorded at Atlantic Recording Studios, Spring/Summer 1970 (NYC, USA). Demo tracks recorded at Atlantic Recording Studios, April 15-16, 1970 (NYC, USA). Edition of 333.

Bureau B present a reissue of Conrad Schnitzler's Con, originally released in 1978. Conrad Schnitzler: In the electric garden by Wolfgang Seidel, May 2020: "... Whilst on shore leave in Düsseldorf, Conrad Schnitzler heard about a professor at the School of Art (Kunstschule) who also accepted students into his class without high school diplomas. Conrad Schnitzler became one of them. The spirit of a fundamental new beginning bonded this generation of artists together, with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig the most radical proponents. Perhaps it was due to the fact that music had been so corrupted under National Socialist rule, from classical to the Schlager variety. Schnitzler was fascinated by the new sounds he heard on the radio in the evenings. To his ears, they connected the struggle for independence to the planning and precision he had learned as a mechanical engineer. At the same time, he understood that music like this was only possible within an institutional framework to which he had no access. So, he set about creating his own framework. Schnitzler bought his first synthesizer in the early 1970s -- a considerable investment at the time. The introduction of the compact cassette had liberated duplication and distribution from the realm of the record company, but Schnitzler also recognized the creative potential of the medium, beyond its practical functions. He built a 'cassette organ' out of 12 cassette recorders and two cases for his musical collages. Towards the end of the decade, he could be found on the Kurfürstendamm, West Berlin's premier boulevard, cassette recorders slung over his shoulders as his music boomed out of battery-powered loudspeakers . . . Buoyed by the success of Tangerine Dream, Peter Baumann, Schnitzler's successor in the band, established the Paragon Studio. Schnitzler had left after their first LP in the belief that the creative potential of the group had reached its limit, but their friendship endured. Baumann made use of downtime in the studio to pursue his own musical experiments. And then Conrad Schnitzler appeared at the door with a small Korg synthesizer, a sequencer, and his EMS Synthi (a portable model in an attaché case), having transported the whole lot on his delivery bicycle . . . The last record to be completed at Paragon reveals Schnitzler's lighthearted rapprochement with German New Wave (Neue Deutsche Welle) . . . The Paragon Studio era, with sound engineer Will Roper, whose work with Schnitzler gave him the opportunity to demonstrate his skills in tape manipulation, splicing, editing, and looping, came to an end when the studio was sold and Peter Baumann moved to the USA."

2020 repress. "Issued in 1975, this is the articulation of Zambia's Zamrock ethos. While other albums -- Rikki Ililonga's Zambia, Witch's Lazy Bones!! -- are competitors, it's hard to best this album as it covers each major quadrant of the Zamrock whole: it came from the mines; its musicians were anti-colonial freedom fighters, it envelops Zambian folk music traditions, and it rocks -- hard. Amanaz were serious, and they made a serious stab at an album. They titled their album Africa, according to original band member Keith Kabwe, 'because of how it was shared and how its inhabitants were butchered and enslaved, its resources stolen... all the atrocities slave drivers committed. ' Thus, their 'Kale,' a blues sung in Nyanja, that traced the continent's arc from slavery to Zambia's independence closes the album. Kabwe and rhythm guitarist John Kanyepa have a winsome softness to their vocals, which sit politely aside the feral growl of drummer Watson Baldwin Lungu, bassist Jerry Mausala and bandleader/lead guitarist Isaac Mpofu. Africa's vibe ranges from anxious ('Amanaz') to escapist ('Easy Street') to straight-up pissed-off. On the 'History of Man,' his voice whiskey-burned, his distorted guitar buzzing like swarming hornets, Mpofu indicts his species. There's a darkness to Africa not found on any other Zamrock records, and a melancholy drifts throughout, specifically on Mpofu's more restrained 'Khala My Friend,' which stands as an effective, bleak situation for the Zambian everyman, the average citizen of a struggling, new nation, who might have had relatives in conflict-torn countries on the horizon, who might have been struggling to find his next meal, who might have seen a bleaker future than his president promised. Then there's the clear Velvet Underground-influence on the nostalgic 'Sunday Morning,' which, as Kabwe recalls, was the first song written for the album, back in 1968, when Velvet Undergound and Nico was a new release -- and the underground funk of 'Making the Scene.' The album also tackles traditional Zambian music and early-'60s rock -- punctuated, of course by Kanyepa's wah-wah and Mpofu's fuzz guitars. But every time Amanaz get too deep, too violent, they come back with an accessible song and woo their listener back to the groove. 'Green Apple' is a civil song, featuring Kanyepa's sighing guitar. It is a perfectly arranged album, from the dichotomy of Mpofu's and Kanyepa's lead and rhythm guitars, to the vocal harmonies, to the rhythm section's sense of space and time, which allows Africa's funk to build. Inexplicably, Africa was given two separate mixes and two separate presses: one version is dry, with the vocals and drums mixed loud, the other slathered in reverb, with the vocals and drums disappearing into the mix, and with the guitar solos mixed much louder. We've presented them both here as they each have their appeal: it's up to the listener to pick the one he or she prefers. This is a highpoint of the Zamrock scene and we hope that this can be seen as its definitive reissue."

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

2020 repress. Limited red-colored vinyl version. Gatefold exact repro reissue manufactured by Rhino. Originally released in 1971. Baby Huey was a psychedelic soul legend as well as an enormous (sorry) influence on hip hop, having been sampled by the likes of A Tribe Called Quest, Ghostface Killah and many more. Includes the classics "Hard Times" (Curtis Mayfield) and "A Change Is Gonna Come" (Sam Cooke) and the best rendition of The Mamas & The Papas' "California Dreamin'" ever made.

Shutting Down Here is a special work. Symbolically, it covers a period of thirty years, between two visits by Jim O'Rourke to the GRM, the first, as a young man fascinated by the institution and his repertoire, the second, as an accomplished musician, influential and imbued with an aura of mystery. Shutting Down Here is a piece shaped like a universe, a heterogeneous world in which collides the multiple musical facets of Jim O'Rourke: instrumental writing, field recordings, electronic textures, and cybernetic becomings, dynamic spaces, harmonic spaces, silent spans. This variety of approach, strangely, does not in any way weaken the coherence of the whole and this is the talent of Jim O'Rourke, a talent, properly speaking, of composition, where all the sound elements compete and participate to stakes that exceed them and of a common destiny, that is to say of an apparition. Due to the wide dynamic levels, please adjust your volume accordingly.

Released in association with Editions Mego. Coordination GRM: François Bonnet, Jules Négrier. Executive Production: Peter Rehberg. Recorded at INA GRM and Steamroom. Personnel: Eiko Ishibashi - piano; Atsuko Hatano - violin, viola; Eivind Lonning - trumpet. Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin, February 2020. Photo by Eiko Ishibashi. Sleeve design by Stephen O'Malley.

"Forma" by Lucy Railton is a work that burrows deep inside. It disorientates and teases, without malice. Its beauty lies in gentle projections, which, though subtle, leave deep impressions, like the wings of a nocturnal moth reflecting dark light. Its path, too, is unpredictable, but such disorientation is not a reflection of chaos. Instead, a mysterious intention appears through an imperious unfolding -- its logic escapes us, but nevertheless captivates us. It is the story of a becoming of forms, as well as of their fading away and their appearance as a disappearance. "Forma", for multichannel tape and live cello. Commissioned by INA GRM and first performed on the Acousmonium at INA GRM's Multiphonies Concert Series, Maison de la Radio, Paris on June 1st 2019. Cello recorded live in concert, performed by Lucy Railton. Serge Synthesiser recorded at GRM Studios in April 2019. Organ recorded in Skálholt Cathedral, Iceland, by Alex Bonney, performed by Kit Downes in 2017. All other materials recorded, mixed and created by Lucy Railton at GRM Studios and in her Berlin studio between November 2018 and May 2019. Mix by Lucy Railton/Premaster by Emmanuel Richier (GRM). Photo by George Nebieridze. Part of Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

"Metabolist Meter (Foster, Cottin, Caetani and a Fly)", by Max Eilbacher, is a teeming piece, a matrix where textures and structures merge together, where the polyrhythmic instances become timbre, where the formal abstraction of the harmonic volutes coagulates around a vibrating form that is actualized in the dramatic reality of a dying fly. And this formal mastery is not disembodied in Max Eilbacher's work and the kaleidoscopic forms of the sound spectra that he has deployed know how to resonate in the sensations and experiences of each one. Created and recorded November 2018-March 2019 in Baltimore, Maryland. Fly recording made September 2018 in Carrières-sous-Poissy, France. Made for the Présences électronique festival 2019 in Paris, France. Mixed from 8 channel to stereo August 2019. Flute by Ka Baird; Text by Max Eilbacher, text read by Alexander Moskos and Miriam Salaymeh. Photo by Didier Allard © INA.

Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Cut by Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin, February 2020. Sleeve design by Stephen O'Malley, Released in association with Editions Mego. Coordination GRM: François Bonnet, Jules Négrier. Executive Production: Peter Rehberg.

Room40 present a reissue of Phill Niblock's G2,44+/X2, originally released in 2002. Matte laminate embossed sleeve; includes insert card and 24-page book with liner notes from Bill Meyer, interview, and photos. Design by Traianos Pakioufakis.

Liner notes from Bill Meyer: "In 2001, Phill Niblock wrote, 'You should play the music very loud. If the neighbors don't complain, it's probably not loud enough.' In 2019, Niblock can no longer host his annual six hour-long solstice concert at the Experimental lntermedia loft; not only did the neighbors complain, the landlord sued. But the validity of his prescription is undiminished, for it takes sonic volume and spatial confinement to unlock his music's true nature. Give the sound waves a boost and something hard to smack against, and they begin to shiver and multiply so that tones transform tones and every turn of the head (or every new room) yields a new listening experience. But 'Guitar Too, For Four' is notable in Niblock's oeuvre for its independence from loudness. While it sounds great turned up, the additive process that yielded the CD's two versions has resulted in music that changes most rewardingly, even when heard at modest volume. Victor Frankl opined that in the hierarchy of essential human motivations, meaning eclipses pleasure. In some ways, this music hews closer to the pleasure principle. Once you let go of the yearning for tunes and grooves, it's a sensuous delight to dunk yourself in the warm sound-bath of his music. And Niblock would be the first person to scotch any efforts to assign the sort of cosmic significance that certain other drone-oriented minimalists did to their art. But consider this notion; Niblock's music is fundamentally social. It only truly happens in spaces where people gather. While he does much of the composing and assembling of this music alone, Niblock didn't treat 'Guitar Too, For Four' as finished until he got some more people in on the act. He asked Rafael ToraI and Jim O'Rourke to contribute to a CD edition. And when O'Rourke declined to play on his own production, but instead invited Kevin Drumm, Alan Licht, Thurston Moore, and Lee Renaldo to do the honors, Niblock's reaction was the more, the merrier. To the extent that connecting people is an essentially meaningful activity, this music is the connective tissue of meaning."

Warehouse find, last copies available of this 2017 LP. "Cruel Optimism is a record that considers power (present and absent). It meditates on how power consumes, augments, and ultimately shapes two subsequent human conditions: obsession and fragility. . . . This edition owes its title and its origins to the wonderful text of the same name by American theorist Lauren Berlant. . . . In Cruel Optimism, I found a number of critical readings around the issues that have fueled so much of the music I have been making recently. Beyond her keen analysis of the relations of attachment as they pertain to conditions of possibility in the everyday, it was particularly her writing around trauma I found deeply affecting. It was a jumping off point from which a plague of unsettling impressions of suffering, intolerance, and ignorance could be unpacked and utilized as fuel over and above pointless frustration. When I made Wilderness Of Mirrors (RM 460CD/LP, 2014) clouds of unease were overhead. As I have worked through Cruel Optimism, what seemed an unimaginable future just a few years prior, began to present as actual. Over the course of creating the record, we collectively bore witness to a new wave of humanitarian and refugee crisis (captured so succinctly in the photograph of Alan Kurdi's tiny body motionless on the shore), the Black Lives Matter movement, the widespread use of sonic weapons on civilians, increased drone strikes in Waziristan, Syria and elsewhere, and record low numbers of voting around Brexit and the US election cycle, suggesting a wider sense of disillusionment and powerlessness. Acutely for me and other Australians, we've faced dire intolerance concerning race and continued inequalities related to gender and sexuality. The storm has broken and feels utterly visceral. Cruel Optimism is a meditation on these challenges and an encouragement to press forward towards more profound futures. Beyond the motivations forging the record, the process by which this edition was created was unlike many of my other records. Having worked largely alone in recent years, I wanted to shift away from that approach. . . . I count myself exceptionally fortunate to have been able to call on so many fine musicians in the making of this album. . . . I couldn't be more pleased to share Cruel Optimism with you." --Lawrence English, October 2016 Contributions in various forms from: Mats Gustafsson, Mary Rapp, Tony Buck, Chris Abrahams, Werner Dafeldecker, Norman Westberg, Brodie McAllister, Australian Voices, Vanessa Tomlinson, Heinz Riegler, and Thor Harris.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is an American composer, performer and producer, originally from Orcas Island and currently based in Los Angeles. After several self-released albums, Smith was signed to independent record label Western Vinyl in 2015, who released her first official album, Euclid, in January 2015. Tides: Music for the Meditation and Yoga, was released in January 2019. Smith grew up and was home-educated on Orcas Island, Northwestern Washington. She left the island to study composition and sound engineering at Berklee College of Music in Boston, before returning to the island after her graduation. It was after returning home that Smith discovered synthesizers, when a neighbor introduced her to the Buchla 100 Synthesizer. Having originally intended to use her voice as her primary instrument, and then moving to classical guitar and piano, Smith switched to the use of synthesizer after being leant and experimenting with the Buchla 100 for a year. Smith formed indie-folk band Ever Isles whilst still at Berklee but left the project after discovering the Buchla 100, explaining, "I got so distracted and enamored with the process of making sounds with [the Buchla's potential] that I abandoned the next Ever Isles album." When developing her composition skills, Smith used visual aid as inspiration for her music. She has said that she is always composing to a visual in her head, explaining, "Sometimes I let the sound create the image for me and then I build off that. Or vice versa: I come up with imagery that is inspiring to me, or I see something that is inspiring, and then create sounds that I feel match it." Recorded in 2013, Tides is a glimpse into the early phase of what has become Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith's signature approach to electronic music. Composed and played on a Buchla Music Easel -- the modular synthesizer that gives Smith's music its organic feel -- this collection of instrumentals is at once uplifting, transportive, and meditational.

KRAFFT for orchestra was composed in 2016 as a commission of the French State, and was premiered in Paris and Marseille, France. The composition has a similar kind of metric structure as String Quartet No.3: all instruments play in rhythmic unison throughout. KRAFFT is an ironic-onomatopoetic wrong spelling of the German term "Kraft", meaning "power" or "force". The listener should feel exposed to a sonic undertow. The notion of huge power and force is often connected to the existence of clandestine and unknown rules controlling the world around us; something is happening, but we do not know exactly what, when or how. KRAFFT enforces textural listening as Richard Wood described it "an unwinding strip of 'texture': just listen to that; not to its various strands as such, not to one single strand, but to it as a whole, an unwinding ribbon, varying as it goes in width, in colour, in depth, in thickness, in weight, in character, but always a unity." KRAFFT is composed with the help of the computer program TTM (Textural Transformation Machine), developed by the Friedl to sculpture multiple random processes. It has been programmed by Sukandar Kartadinata.

This reissue is a collaboration between Munster Records and Disques Mono-Tone. With a career that includes hits as producer ("Alley Oop" by The Hollywood Argyles), songwriter ("Nut Rocker" by B Bumble & The Stingers), recordings with Gene Vincent, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, and countless others, his early management of The Runaways and plenty of glorious failures along the way, Kim Fowley has been a maverick presence in rock n' roll history for over fifty years. Living In The Streets (1977) is a compilation of his solo recordings, some of them dating back to the beginning of the decade. "Born to Make You Cry" and "Thunder Road" -- recorded in collaboration with Mars Bonfire -- had first appeared on a single on Original Sound in 1970. As had "Big Bad Cadillac" (a homage to Vince Taylor's "Brand New Cadillac") and "Man Without A Country", released under the name King Lizard, and recorded in Sweden while he was producing Wigwam's Tombstone Valentine album (1970). Originally released on Chattahoochee in 1973 under the alias Jimmy Jukebox, "Motorboat" is now regarded as a Fowley classic. That song and its B-side, "25 Hours A Day" was written and recorded in collaboration with his good friend Michael Lloyd, who Fowley had been making records with since the mid-sixties. "California Summertime" and "Hollywood Nights" were recorded in 1974 at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood and released as a single on the Now label under the unlikely sobriquet of Lance Romance. Three songs -- plus the spoken piece "Sex, Dope and Violence" -- made their debut on the album: "Summertime Frog", "Love Bomb", and "Living In The Streets". All are acoustic and show a certain Captain Beefheart flavor, the former, and some Dylanesque influence, the later. "Living In The Streets" remains a worthy monument to the seventies recordings of the Dorian Gray of rock n' roll, the human jukebox: the unstoppable Kim Fowley. Includes an insert with extensive notes by Mike Stax (Ugly Things Magazine) and features its original artwork.

Commissioned by the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva (MEG), Jean-Jacques Birgé composed a work based on the MEG's International Archives of Folk Music (IAFM). Perspectives for the 22nd Century includes 31 pieces recorded between 1930 and 1952 and compiled by Constantin Brăiloiu (1893-1958), founder of the IAFM and an authoritative reference in the field of traditional music. Perspectives for the 22nd Century is written on the basis of an anticipation scenario where the survivors of the disaster of 2152 live on the ruins of the MEG and decide to rebuild themselves from the archives discovered on site. The composition mixes acoustic instruments, some of which belong to the MEG collections, virtual instruments, ambiences, and sound archives. A disturbing echo of current events, Perspectives for the 22nd Century is a sound fiction following the journey of humans who must reinvent themselves. In these times of questioning about the future of the planet and of humanity, Jean-Jacques Birgé wanted to dedicate this work to C.F. Ramuz and Vercors. This CD is the fifth title to appear in the series of recordings published by the MEG and devoted to contemporary creations composed on the basis of its sound archives. Inside-out digipack, includes 44-page booklet with preface, French/English notes, and photographs by Jean-Jacques Birgé and Madeleine Leclair.

3x12" release. Full color gatefold sleeve featuring exclusive photography; includes download code. Switching within digital binaries, analog flux, and all forms of degradation in between, a creature is kickstarted to life, as if awoken with locomotion's full might. Helena Hauff delivers a mix for Tresor's Kern series, lashing together a sound world with a potent barrage of industrial dance music. Scorched-earth missives attract metals and mining chemicals, leaving little in its wake but aggravated and chaotic experiments of lateral hypotheses in acid brine. Like a hyperloop through this labyrinth, this high-velocity future is both beautiful and evil, glinting embers through low-bit fogged-out clusters. 100-meter high aluminum pylons vibrate, each captivated by their electrified foundations. There is no place for dust to settle on the floor. Where a loose TB-tribalism knocks switches and pounds upward synaptic shocks, life down there is too rapid. Not to be taken lying down, this is the viable path forward without the shackles of turgid passivity. The eect is no less thrilling than crucial, as it presents an essential DJ of our times. Settling into swift 150bpm groove, Hauff ploughs through shepherd-tone electro, ghetto bumps, and grizzled techno. A new collaborative track with Morah plays a rough game of meter, with Hauff's signature sound clear as ever ripping apart new dimensions with a brutal disorder over deceptive bass synths. The visceral crunch of the present is no more clear than at the halfway point, a threshold in which the breakneck electro falls apart, with the rabid foam of Nasenbluten's ballsy gabber anthem "Intellectual Killer". Slowly more room to breathe comes into view, the pace drawn down revealing a strange sense of resolution, with expansive synths hinting at a beckoning euphoria. At this moment, Helena Hauff is clearly in full stride, uniquely melding fragile machinations against anarchic human interventions. Helena Hauff and Morah, Umwelt, Machino, Galaxian, and L.F.T. all contribute with five previously unreleased tracks, exclusive to the compilation. Rare titles are also featured, such as the late Curley Schoop's "Mayhem" under the name Esoterik, "City Of Boom" by DJ Godfather & DJ Starski, Nasenbluten's "Intellectual Killer" and "After Dark" produced collaboratively by Andrea Parker and David Morley.

3x12" features: Esoterik, Galaxian, Morah & Hauff, DJ Godfather & DJ Starski, Q.D.T., Machino, Umwelt, Shinra Nasenbluten, L.F.T., Dirty Hospital, and Andrea Parker & David Morley.

Vampisoul present the first vinyl reissue of The Silvery Boys's self-titled album, originally released in 1968. The Silvery Boys was created in 1965 in the district of Campo Grande, Rio de Janeiro, featuring a unique blend of organ, guitar, bass, drums, trumpet, and trombone. They became known as "The Famous Bandinha de Campo Grande" and released their debut album on RGE in 1967. At the end of the '60s, the sound of the garage beat and the bossa nova and samba coexisted smoothly in the repertoire of a good number of Brazilian bands. You could find playful Farfisa licks and guitar riffs combined with moving bossa rhythm drum patterns and powerful brass arrangements, groovy club tunes next to lounge mood sounds, across the track list of so many albums released at the time. That is exactly what the second album of The Silvery Boys comprises. Band members José Carlos (trombone) and Fernando Soares (guitarra) sign most of the songs on this self-titled record that also includes some versions of the Spanish famous Duo Dinámico, "Amor Amargo" and "A Recordar", as well as other international hits (Tommy James & The Shondells' "Gone, Gone, Goner"). However, "Você Balança Meu Coração" -- composed by José Messias -- is the stand-out cut here and became a much sought-after club tune after being included in the second volume of the cult compilation series High Jazz in the early '00s. A dance song so irresistible that makes the search for this elusive Brazilian album worthwhile. Original artwork and quality 180 gram pressing.

"27th Anniversary set for the multi-dimensional midland screw, led by Phil Todd and Melanie O'Dubhslaine. Nearly six hours of cosmic, psychedelic, mind-boggling sounds, featuring a newly recorded LP plus four max-length CDs curated by AshNav connoisseurs Rob Hayler, Henry Rollins, Pete Coward, and Neil Campbell. The CDs are drawn from the band's massive back catalog of mostly small run / private releases, covering activity dating back to 1994. Mining a deep well of thousand-yard stare psychedelia, Ashtray Navigations possess of one of the most exciting outré music catalogs of the contemporary era, matching the classics from any era in originality and straight-up bonkers fun. This epic release includes a full range of hypnotic jams, including sequencer-led cosmic workouts, drifty ambience, and a heavy dose of Phil Todd's ripping, laser guitar leads. The gatefold LP also includes pithy liner notes from Matt Valentine, Henry Rollins, Jon Dale, and more." "Phil. Well I am glad you're finally back from your place in Monaco and getting to work. The pictures of you with the polo mallet and the horses you sent were impressive, sure but when you sell yourself as an artist type and then are seen cavorting with those over tanned Euro trustfunders, it is alienating to your audience. You are, however, the only person I have ever met who has actually cavorted and that's why you will always be a mid-level god to me." --Henry Rollins

2020 repress. 180 gram exact repro reissue of Gram Parsons' first solo album, originally released in 1973. Manufactured by Rhino. "...probably the best realized expression of his musical personality. Working with a crack band of L.A. and Nashville's finest (including James Burton on guitar, Ronnie Tutt on drums, Byron Berline on fiddle, and Glen D. Hardin on piano), he drew from them a sound that merged breezy confidence with deeply felt Southern soul, and he in turn pulled off some of his most subtle and finely detailed vocal performances; 'She' and 'A Song for You,' in particular, are masterful examples of passion finding balance with understatement. Parsons also discovered that rare artist with whom he can be said to have genuinely collaborated (rather than played beside), Emmylou Harris; Gram and Harris' spot-on harmonies and exchanged verses on 'We'll Sweep out the Ashes in the Morning' and 'That's All It Took' are achingly beautiful and instantly established her as one country music's most gifted vocalists. On G.P., Parsons' ambitious vision encompassed hard-country weepers, wistful ballads, up-tempo dance tunes, and even horn-driven rhythm and blues." -- All Music Guide

LP version. We Release Jazz present its sixth release, a reissue of Boillat Thérace Quintet's self-titled album, available for the first time since its original limited private pressing in 1974. Full of prolific and inspired local clusters and boosted by the recently launched Montreux Jazz Festival, the Swiss jazz scene was vibrant and inventive in the 1970s, notably in the region surrounding Lake Geneva. This is precisely where jazz activist and brilliant pianist Jean-François Boillat and wind instrument master Raymond Thérace formed their quintet whose dazzling debut album was recorded in 1974. An absolute Lemanic gem of the soul-jazz/modal kind, the self-titled album includes superb covers of Freddie Hubbard's "Straight Life", Keith Jarrett's "In Your Quiet Place", and Rahsaan Roland Kirk's "Sweet Fire", plus groovy original compositions from the Boillat-Thérace crew. Helvetian fun facts: the velvety "1224" is dedicated to Geneva's public transport line Tram 12, and one exquisitely funky track on the album is named after the famed yet elusive (and locally legendary) Swiss Marmite: "Cenovis"! This is reissued in conjunction with Boillat Thérace Quintet's My Greatest Love featuring Benny Bailey from 1975 (WRJ 007CD/LTD-LP). Swiss jazz bliss!

LP version. We Release Jazz present a reissue from Geneva's Boillat Thérace Quintet, the My Greatest Love album, featuring bebop and hard-bop legend Benny Bailey and available for the first time since 1975. Galvanized by the creation of the Montreux Jazz Festival in the late '60s and lively local scenes, jazz music was healthy and booming in Switzerland in the 1970s. One band that beautifully captured this energy was Jean-François Boillat and Raymond Thérace's Boillat Thérace Quintet whose self-titled debut (WRJ 006CD/LTD-LP) and impressive Montreux appearance set the tone for quality Helvetic jazz in 1974. Following this first excellent impression, the Boillat-Thérace ensemble connected with American trumpeter Benny Bailey and recorded the magnificent My Greatest Love in May and June of 1975. The modal, hard bop, and soul-jazz gem includes first-class takes on Freddie Hubbard's "Gibraltar", Kenny Dorham's "Blue Bossa", and Jimmy Heath's "Gemini", plus deliciously funky originals from the Geneva crew, including the upbeat "Le Colin" and the swaying fan-favorite "Prompt" and it's thrilling solos. Bailey is on trumpet and flugelhorn, Boillat on Fender Rhodes and piano, Thérace on saxophone and flute, Roger Vaucher on Fender bass, Eric Wespi on drums, and Rogelio Garcia on percussion and tenor saxophone -- heavy sessions and deep vibes. This is reissued in conjunction with Boillat Thérace Quintet's self-titled debut album from 1974 (WRJ 006CD/LTD-LP). Swiss jazz bliss!

Classically trained experimentalist Aārp releases his compositionally expansive and pointedly political debut album via InFiné. Propaganda is an album that rewards repeat listens and inspires research, pushing listeners to look for the truth beyond the headlines. The title Propaganda is inspired in part by the death of a young man in Nantes who drowned following a police altercation at "Fête de la Musique" in 2019. Despite the fact that he was only dancing and there was clear evidence of negligence, the media campaign that followed cleared all involved and disinformation spread, distorting the truth and allowing French authorities to evade any consequence. This blatant and very recent example of press propaganda lead Aārp to explore a multitude of moments in history, each one informing a single track from his new record. Each song title is a direct quote taken from different examples of these moments, from George W. Bush to Margret Thatcher and French philosopher Gilles Deleuze to the infamous Oxycontin commercial by Purdue Pharma. With Propaganda, Aārp is asking his listeners to consider fact, open their minds and to think before spreading questionable news in an era rife with deception, when fabricated click-bait holds more currency than expertise. Musically dense and littered with glistening electronics, Propaganda tells a story as it weaves between epic ambient soundscapes to droning, beat-infused dance. A backbone of glitchy industrial sounds allows it to delve into some dark places while retaining its upbeat and accessible mood.

"These are Now-Again's definitive reissues five classic spiritual jazz and funk albums from DC's legendary Black Fire record label. Limited edition, one time pressing in an obi-wrapped 'box set.' Each album includes oversized booklet with extensive liner notes and rare photos. Lacquered, most directly from master tape, by legendary Los Angeles mastering engineer Bernie Grundman. Packaged in a thick, tip-on sleeve and includes a unique, oversize booklet with extensive notes on each album, the Black Fire collective, and the musical and cultural revolution they created. Includes Juju - Live at the East 1973, Experience Unlimited - Free Yourself, Juju - Charter Two: NIA, Oneness of Juju - Space Jungle Luv, Oneness of Juju - African Rhythms."

LP version. "Renowned for its enviable combination of musical muscle and malleability, guitarist/songwriter Raymond Alexander Jenkins' tight four-piece unit was so revered on the uptown club circuit that it was offered the opportunity to serve as the Apollo Theater house band. Jenkins demurred, hopeful and confident in his group's chances at making it on its own, and Let's Talk is the sublime result of their hard work. Independently released and recorded with a distinctly lo-fi charm, it is a collection of unabashedly sincere songs that perfectly encapsulates the era's heady milieu of Black pride and cultural awareness, and the plaintive emotion of struggling to realize dreams whilst navigating a city and neighborhood in decline. Personal tragedy coupled with Jenkins' inability to gain traction as a musician, would haunt him for years. But Let's Talk's reputation would eventually spread via word-of-mouth praise amongst soul and funk connoisseurs and record collectors. Now elevated to exalted status, it may finally be more widely appreciated as a testament to Jenkins' gifts."

"Originally recorded direct to disc and released by Incus in 1978, this new edition from Treader is pressed from the original stampers. Hand-finished sleeve. 'Parker uses rapid tonguing techniques and circular breathing to create a sound all his own, marked by the simultaneous intonation of multiple notes. One hears a note as well as all the residual tones around it; each breath ends up sounding like a battle between the different registers of the horn. At various times, Parker's saxophone sounds like dolphin speech, electronic tape squeals, or human murmurs; namely, anything but what it actually is. His language on the instrument is essential listening for anyone interested in acoustic experimental music' --AllMusic. 'Eight years after Topography Of The Lungs, and two years after his Saxophone Solos, Monoceros was the most muscular statement of Evan Parker's solo saxophone muse. Superbly recorded, it seemed to place the listener within the chaotic air flows of the saxophone's own tubing. Philip Clark said: 'Parker's dialogue with the saxophone throws up so much that is unexpected, and indeed unknowable, that the problem he faces is how to keep pace with his own invention' --The Wire, Best Albums Of The Year."

The amazing Luis E. Bacalov/Ennio Morricone 1971 experimental album Pitturamusica reissued for the first time from the original master tapes. The two maestros created these compositions approaching the most advanced set of problems existing in the contemporary European musical experience. The basic modules are those proper to certain procedures of musique concrète: the non-traditional use of instruments for timbre research (e.g. the piano played on the tailpiece), the processing of human voices -- almost always reduced to pure linguistic syntagms in polyphonic combinations, the highlighting of a whole series of noise-sounds which are not audible except through electro-acoustic devices, etc. Subsequently, the sound complex -- stored on magnetic tape -- is divided into separate sections, according to a criterion of timbre distribution, and then manipulated through superimpositions, variations in the speed of the tape, natural and artificial echoes, and other processes. The music was composed on the occasion of an exhibition of the painter Edolo Masci in Milan. Edition of 150.

"Realising a career-long ambition, The Residents finally explore The Blues! Having been turned on to the music of lost bluesman Alvin Snow, aka Dyin' Dog, the group presents their interpretations of all ten of Snow's known recordings, alongside several new compositions inspired by his work. Fans will be familiar with The Residents love of cover versions and imposing themselves on the material of countless seminal artists. Metal, Meat & Bone sees the group take that approach a step further, having discovered a previously unknown artist on their own doorstep and found themselves moved to record their own tribute to his work. The result is a collision of the pain of the wounded bluesman and the subversive and unpredictable sound of this most unique of bands. Having performed a handful of Snow's songs on their recent In Between Dreams world tour, The Residents now present an entire suite of The Songs Of Dyin' Dog alongside the original Alvin Snow recordings, as discovered by longtime friend and associate Roland Sheeehan. Metal, Meat & Bone also sees The Residents perform alongside several collaborators, old and new. Eric Drew Feldman, Nolan Cook, Black Francis, Carla Fabrizio, Sivan Lioncub and Peter Whitehead all contribute."

Repressed; LP version. "Coriky is a band from Washington, D.C. Amy Farina plays drums. Joe Lally plays bass. Ian MacKaye plays guitar. All sing. Formed in 2015, Coriky did not play their first show until 2018. They have recorded one album. They hope to tour."

Tyrannosaurus Rex, live from the Progressive Rock Festival, Sporthalle, Köln, Germany on April 4th, 1970. Marc Bolan replaced Steve Took with Mickey Finn in late October 1969, and the revised duo recorded A Beard Of Stars, which was released in March 1970. A few days later, they traveled to Germany to play at Cologne's Progressive Pop Festival. Appearing late in the afternoon of the second day, they performed a mixture of psychedelic folk, pop, and rock, clearly pointing the way towards their huge success later in the year. Their complete set, broadcast on WDR-FM, is presented here, digitally remastered, together with background notes and images. Personnel: Marc Bolan - acoustic & electric guitars, organ, vocals; Mickey Finn - drums, tablas, percussion; Moroccan Clay drums, finger cymbals, vocals. First time on vinyl. Purple, 180 gram vinyl; hand-numbered fold-over sleeve, with insert.

"Double disc combining folk musician Michael Chapman's first two Growing Pains releases, collecting early tracks spanning his career from 1966-1980."

2020 repress; gatefold double LP version. This version is unmixed. Arguably one of the world's most important underground dance music producer/DJs Theo Parrish lends his hands to selecting and mixing a set of jazz and funk records licensed from and originally released on the Black Jazz label 1971-1976. World-renowned for his DJ sets and remixes/productions, this Chicago-raised artist is near impossible to pigeonhole. Revered by a wide spectrum of dedicated music fanatics, he is known for his otherworldly DJ sets, and his serious approach to DJing as an art form. Theo gives special attention to fellow Chicago musicians The Awakening (three consecutive tracks, four total on the mix), one of the best funk/fusion groups that the Black Jazz label released, and whose only output was on that label. The set itself is a masterful "two turntables all vinyl" execution, a format that Theo is dedicated to -- no mp3, no CD-R, just the vinyl palette for the true aural experience. Sit back and be drawn into his world -- hear things his way. Other artists include: Doug Carn, Gene Russell, Calvin Keys, Rudolph Johnson, and Walter Bishop Jr.

WHP preset a reissue of Piero Piccioni's original score for Il Boom, originally released on CAM in 1963. Written by Cesare Zavattini, directed by Vittorio De Sica, and interpreted by Alberto Sordi, Il Boom can be easily considered as one of the most peculiar film comedies in the Italian post-war era. Premiered in the USA in 2017, more than 50 years after its release in 1963, the film has been described as something between Buster Keaton, David Lynch, and Billy Wilder. Some sort of very current dark satire of the consumer society. Part of the film's surreal atmosphere is due to the original score composed and produced by the legendary Piero Piccioni. A weird and very dynamic mixture of different music styles including jazz and various popular dance grooves of the period such as samba, twist, calypso, and hully gully. A simple and yet very effective compositional technique based on both serious and funny elements at the same time. The soundtrack includes "Samba Della Ruota", Piccioni's first use of samba for Alberto Sordi's films. A choice that would soon become a real passion and trademark for the great Italian comic actor.