Rich in musical associations yet utterly singular in its voice, joyous with an inner tranquility, the music of Natural Information Society is unlike any other being made today. Their sixth album in eleven years for eremite records, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the first to be recorded live, featuring a set from London's Cafe OTO with veteran English free-improv great Evan Parker, & the first to feature just one extended composition. The 75-minute performance, inspired by the galvanizing presence of Parker, is a sustained bacchanalia of collective ecstasy. You could call it their party album.

This was the second time Parker played with NIS. Joshua Abrams: "Both times we played compositions with Evan in mind. I don't tell Evan anything. He's a free agent."

The music is focused & malleable, energized & even-keeled, drawing on concepts of ensemble playing common to musics from many locations & eras without any one specific aesthetic realization completely defining it.

"The rhythms that Mikel plays are not an exact reference to Chicago house, but that's in there," Abrams says. "I like to take a cyclic view of music history, can we take that four-on-the-floor, & consider how it connects to swing-era music? Can we articulate a through line? I dee-jayed for years in Chicago & lessons I learned from playing records for dancing inform how I think about the group's music. The listener can make connections to aspects of soul music, electronic music, minimalism, traditional folk musics, & other musics of the diaspora as well. It's about these aspects coming together. I don't need to mimic something, I need to embody it to get to the spirit, to get to the living thing."

For jazz fans, the sound of Parker's soprano & Jason Stein's bass clarinet might evoke Coltrane & Dolphy, even though they didn't necessarily set out to do that & they play with complete individuality. Abrams sees a bridge to the historical precedent, too. "Since we first met in the 1990s, one of the things that Evan and I connected on was Coltrane's music," he says. "I hoped that we would tap into that sound world intuitively. In this case, I think that level of evocation adds another layer of depth, versus a layer of reference."

Indeed, this is a performance in which the connections among the ensemble & the creative tension between improvisation and composition build into a complex mesh of associations & interactions. While the band confines itself to the territory mapped out by Abrams' composition, they are remarkably attentive & responsive, making adjustments to Parker's improvisations. When Parker's intricate patterns of notes interweave with the band, the parts reinforce one another & the music rockets upward. Sometimes, Parker's lines are cradled by the group's gentle pulse & an unearthly lyrical balance is struck.

Drummer Mikel Patrick Avery is locked-in, playing with hellacious long-form discipline, feel & responsiveness. Jason Stein's animated, vocalized bass clarinet weaves in & out with Lisa Alvarado's harmonium to state the piece's thematic material; the pulsing tremolo on the harmonium brings a Spacemen 3 vibe to the party. Abrams ties together melody & rhythm on guimbri, a presence that leads without seeming to. Like his bandmates, he shifts modes of playing frequently, improvising & then returning to the composed structure.

"As specific as the composition is, the goal is to internalize it & mix it up," Abrams says. "The idea is to get so comfortable that we can make spontaneous changes, find new routes of activity, stasis & byways every gig. It's like a web we're spinning. If someone makes a move, we all aim to be aware of it, make room for it. Experiencing & listening is what it's about, & Evan supercharges that."

& "supercharged" is the word for this album. With Parker further opening up their music, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the sound of Natural Information Society growing both more disciplined and freer, one of the great bands of its time on a deep run.

Mastered by Helge Sten, Audio Virus, Oslo. Lacquers by Kevin Gray, Cohearent Audio, So Cal. Liner Notes by Theaster Gates. LPs pressed on premium audiophile-quality vinyl at RTI.

2021 repress. "Niandra LaDes And Usually Just A T-Shirt is the first solo record by John Frusciante. Between 1990 and 1992 the guitarist made a series of 4-track recordings, which at the time were not intended for commercial release. After leaving the band Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992, Frusciante was encouraged by friends to release the material that he wrote in his spare time during the Blood Sugar Sex Magik sessions. Originally released on Rick Rubin's American Recordings label in 1994, Niandra LaDes is a mystifying work of tortured beauty. Frusciante plays various acoustic and electric guitars, experimenting with layers of vocals, piano and reverse tape effects. Channeling the ghosts of Syd Barrett and Skip Spence, his lyrics are at once utterly personal and willfully opaque. Frusciante's rapidfire, angular playing shows how key he was in the Chili Peppers' evolution away from their funk-rock roots. His cover of 'Big Takeover' perfectly deconstructs the Bad Brains original with laid-back tempo, twelve-string guitar and a fierce handle on melody. The album's second part -- thirteen untitled tracks that Frusciante defines as one complete piece, 'Usually Just A T-Shirt' -- contains several instrumentals featuring his signature guitar style. Sparse phrasing, delicate counterpoint and ethereal textures recall Neu/Harmonia's Michael Rother or The Durutti Column's Vini Reilly. On the front cover, Frusciante appears in 1920s drag -- a nod to Marcel Duchamp's alter-ego Rrose Sélavy -- which comes from Toni Oswald's film Desert in the Shape. This first-time vinyl release has been carefully remastered and approved by the artist. The double LP set is packaged with old style tip-on gatefold jacket and printed inner sleeves."

2021 repress. "The Fall returned to Rough Trade in 1983 to release a pair of singles ('The Man Whose Head Expanded' and 'Kicker Conspiracy') and Perverted By Language, their sixth proper studio album. Perverted By Language hints at the band's shift towards a distinctly pop approach, one that they would perfect via their Beggars Banquet output that immediately followed. Yet again, the force and panic of their initial Rough Trade recordings remains the foundation for much of the album. A transitional recording in the absolute best sense, Perverted By Language is The Fall both as they were and as they would become. The emergence of Brix Smith is often cited as the impetus for The Fall's move toward outward pop, and she first makes her first appearance with the band on Perverted By Language. Nowhere is her presence felt more than on 'Hotel Blöedel,' where she handles lead vocal duties alongside Mark E. Smith whose mangled violin accompaniment roots the song's cold romanticism in his unmistakable brand of strange. 'Garden' provides a new take on The Fall's stretched-out tendencies -- using ringing, clean guitars to build a nearly 10-minute epic more subtly than ever before. The opener, 'Eat Y'self Fitter,' is wholly classic Fall: a playfully circular bass line drives the album's strongest vocal spout, complete with emphatic breaks where Mark E. Smith issues the song's spiteful decree with equal parts glee and scorn. Superior Viaduct's edition is the first time that Perverted By Language has been available on vinyl domestically."

Limited restock; LP version. "This landmark album, now being reissued in a definitive stereo edition, marks the debut of the new Cosmic Myth Records label. Cosmic Myth plans to reissue Sun Ra's Saturn Records catalog titles under official license from Sun Ra LLC, comprised of the heirs of Sun Ra. Sun Ra albums like The Magic City prove the categorical futility of 'File Under: Jazz.' When assessing the post-Chicago (1960-on) work of Ra, 'jazz' turns out to be less a genre than a journalistic and marketing convenience. Jazz has a glorious tradition. Sun Ra was schooled in it, emerged from it, and grew to transcend it (though he never abandoned it). Even the cheeky term 'Space Jazz' cannot frame the extremes to which Ra pushed his art in the mid-1960s. In this regard, The Magic City was a pinnacle. 1965 was a turbulent year for the Arkestra and its leader, and many consider The Magic City a flashpoint for that upheaval. Arkestra drummer Tommy Hunter, quoted in John Szwed's 1997 Ra bio Space is the Place, describes a typical performance of the period: 'It was like a fire storm coming off the bandstand.' On the original 1965 The Magic City LP, issued on Saturn, the monster 27-1/2 minute title track sprawled across side A. The 'Magic City' to which Ra refers was his birthplace -- Birmingham, Alabama. The term was the town's motto, emblazoned on a billboard by the train station near Sunny's childhood home, intended to reflect the city's explosive growth as a Southern industrial epicenter after the discovery of iron ore, coal, and limestone deposits. Birmingham was a place about which Sun Ra felt and expressed ambivalence: an outpost of racial segregation and grim smokestack-pocked landscapes, yet a city for which he felt twinges of nostalgia and affection. (His heirs still live in the area.) Ra customarily supervised the Arkestra's improvisational process via keyboard cues or hand signals. He was always in charge -- hence critic Simon Adams describing the title track as '27 minutes of controlled freedom.' 'The Magic City' was never performed in concert; saxophonist John Gilmore said it was 'unreproducible, a tapestry of sound.' Although shorter in scope than side A's magnum opus, the four works on The Magic City's flip side reflect the same improvisational approach, spatiality, and lack of structure. One session outtake, 'Other Worlds,' an alternate version of 'Shadow World,' is included as a bonus track on side B. For this definitive edition, historical and technical liner notes are provided by noted jazz historian Ben Young, who restored and remastered the album with his Triple Point Records partner Joe Lizzi. Both men have been recognized for their extensive work on the Grammy Nominated Albert Ayler boxset, released on John Fahey's Revenant records in 2005."

LP version. Edition of 300. Jac Berrocal and David Fenech have been recording music together for more than ten years now... After albums with Ghédalia Tazartès (RIP) and Vincent Epplay, they shared the stage with musicians such as Felix Kubin, Jean-Hervé Peron, Jean Noel Cognard, and Thierry Müller (Illitch)... Now they are now joined by the American improviser Jason Willett (Half Japanese) for their first album as a trio. Built around a recording session in Paris, the three musicians created Xmas In March, an album of seven new peppermint-striped favorites. The tracks are like smoldering embers, mixed with the excitement and anticipation of Santa's arrival. Jac Berrocal's sound has never been so smooth since the Hotel Hotel album -- his trumpet like a sleigh in a jet stream. Willett plays bass with a rubber band and creates an impossibly huge sound from such a tiny "instrument" (like Charlie Haden played from a matchbox). He also plays this rare wooden synthesizer called Cocoquantus. Fenech sings, plays electric guitar, turntables, and is responsible for the recording as well as mixing all the tracks. With special guest Vincent Epplay on the closing track. This is the album you will want under the tree... skirt. Joyeux Noël! Cut by Andreas "Lupo" Lubich.

LP version. "Fleetwood Mac, also known as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, is the debut studio album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 24 February 1968. The album is a mixture of blues covers and originals penned by guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, who also share the vocal duties. It is the only album by the band without any involvement of keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie. The release of the album brought the band overnight success; in the UK, the album reached No. 4 and stayed on the charts 37 weeks, despite the lack of a hit single."

Shrouded in myth, Save Your Software is the long-lost album by Der Plan. Back in the mid-1980s, Moritz Reichelt, Kurt Dahlke (Pyrolator) and Frank Fenstermacher initiated the Fanuks project with the aim of making themselves immortal as Mensch-Maschinen or Man-Machines. "Fanuks" would produce music for all eternity, embarking on a never-ending world tour. By the end of the decade, the Fanuks, or their respective human alter egos, had crafted six pieces. These were only rediscovered in 2020 during a thorough inspection of the Ata Tak/Der Plan archives. Reichelt, Dahlke, and Fenstermacher augmented their six visionary masterpieces with three tracks based on compositions from the year 1989. In cooperation with the company "Second Life Inc", who had worked on similar ideas for George Lukas and Kraftwerk, they developed designs scratching the limits of technological possibilities. At the same time Japanese cutting-edge robot producer FANUK opened an office in Düsseldorf. The plans included not only the technical aspects of the hardware of the robot musicians, but also similarly sophisticated software. For this area of the project Der Plan asked a man with an excellent reputation of experience, the mysterious Nigelius Senada, a Bavarian philosopher and musician, who had developed a Theory of Obscurity, that fitted the ideas of Der Plan perfectly. Senada had a history of developing a non-existing band for a Californian supergroup. Senada's projections were based on the idea, that in the future man would transform into robots as much as robots would adapt characteristic human qualities. Under permanent supervision of Der Plan the first prototype under the internal name LP3 could be finished by 1988. For test purposes the robot was sold to a household in Italy, where he served as a house-keeper and loneliness companion. 12 months later conclusions could be drawn: despite great expectations and the use of expensive materials such as molybdane and carbon, LP3 turned out to be not reliable enough for the use on a stressful band tour. Meanwhile the production of robot music in the Düsseldorf studio of Der Plan continued. The ambitious goal was music made by robots -- and it was pretty successful, actually more successful than the processing of the hardware. A good half a dozen of songs were recorded, determined to be send on tour with the robots. The FANUK project was the last great concept of Der Plan before the band split up two years later. It is buried in history and memories and seemed to be bound for oblivion. This is the first time the public will hear six original tracks, plus three newly recorded ones, based on compositions from 1989.

"I've had the pleasure of being a [The] Fall fan since I was a teen. I was lucky enough to have some guidance from my local record shop stoner-lords. They turned me on to many of my heroes, but once I heard my first slanted and barky Fall song, I was part of the army for life. The word prolific gets tossed around a lot. It almost seems like a slag-off in the press, as if they wish the artist would produce less so they wouldn't have to do their self-imposed job of judging releases for the rabble. The Fall is subjected to this lazy word often. Yet I can honestly say that I am so thankful for any nugget of Fall that lands at my feet and in my brain. Live Fall performances are always a pleasure because they seem to take what already made the Fall great and push it even a bit more into the rough and bloody uncharted wasteland that is drug scorched proto-punk and heady political poetry. So, it is with great pleasure that we introduce this Fall bootleg soundboard recording to you. Recorded during one of the many strong points in the bands vast and mighty history. They really burn bright here and bring every ounce of what you expect from this formidable force. We have reached out to every surviving member of the band, the sound person, the bootlegger who recorded it and the photographer and received their blessings and help piecing it all together. Castle Face will be donating 50% of our profits to Centrepoint, which helps the homeless in the Manchester area get back on their feet, so the local and deserving Fall fans get a little, and give a little back, too. Nothing but the hits here folks and as raw as you dig it. This one really is exceptional in terms of live sound for The Fall. All the stars were aligned over St. Helens that eve. And it wouldn't be complete with a bit of Fall fan saltiness so, fuck you too, Jason." --John Dwyer

"The only time that Bradford, Carter, Newton and Tapscott have all played on stage together, along with Robert Miranda! Roberto Miranda's Home Music Ensemble Live at Bing Theatre: Los Angeles, 1985, personnel: Roberto Miranda (bass, congas), Bobby Bradford (cornet, tpt), John Carter (cl), James Newton (fl), Horace Tapscott (p), Thom D. Mason (a and t sax, b cl.), Louis R. Miranda Sr. (voc, perc), Louis R. Miranda, Jr. (drs), David Bottenbley (guitar, elec bass, perc, voc), Elias "Buddy" Toscano (drs), Cliff Brooks (perc)."

Blue vinyl. "Owen Maercks's Teenage Sex Therapist LP is one of the forgotten twisted pop masterpieces of the Twentieth Century. Owen had been in Monster Island with Henry Kaiser, who proposed he do a solo album or his songs. Henry had moved back west by this time, so Owen went out and recorded this album there. Henry produced, and added amazing horn parts by Jon Oswald, Larry Ochs, and John Gruntfest. In 1978, the album was mixed, pressed, and distributed exclusively to radio stations, record labels, and the like, in hopes of getting Owen signed. The music didn't fit any extant pigeonhole, however, so no deal was in the offing. About the only note of its passing was made by an A&R guy at Elektra, who swiped the arrangement (and lyric rearrangement) of 'Little Black Egg' (originally by The Nightcrawlers) for use by his protégées, The Cars. Well, fuck them. Teenage Sex Therapist is ripe with jaw-drop moves. Flashes of Eno, Beefheart, Lou Reed, The Bonzos, and various of Owen's other obsessions fight each other for air time. And everyone goes away a winner. If this one doesn't make your teeth wiggle, you need a new jaw." --Byron Coley, 2014

2021 rerelease; 2004 release. King Tubby, the "Dub Master" who's output was as prolific as it is sought after and whose presence is surely missed. Jamaican Recordings take you on another dub excursion. This time through some essential cuts made for the producer/DJ Tappa Zukie. King Tubby always added something a little special to the tracks he worked on. Producers would often bring their already recorded tracks to his home studio at 18 Drummlie Avenue in the Kingston district of Waterhouse. The backing tracks which were laid at various other studios around Kingston. Like Channel 1 and Randy's Studio 17, would then be voiced/re-voiced at King Tubby's. Tubby and his team which included Prince Jammy and Philip Smart would be left to create the version cut. Having listened to the track it would be striped back to the bone of bass and drums and rebuilt. Sprinkling his magic over the track by dropping the bass in and out, adding echo and emphasizing various elements of the song. In some cases, dubbing the cut into something unrecognizable from its original sound. The tracks would be aired on Tubby's Hometown hi-fi sound system. Which acted much like a pre-release for the record to gauge the crowd's reaction, before the tracks would be unleased on the public. Another fine collection of Tubby Cuts, comprising work with Mr Tappa Zukie. Lost cuts to some of his own tracks like "First Street Rock", alongside productions he undertook with the great Prince Allah, Junior Ross, and the Spears. Also, the much-overlooked vocal group Knowledge. Some great rhythms, some great tracks, worked over by the greatest dub mixer of them all.

"Eric Random is a British pioneer of post punk electronica. Born in 1961 Eric soon joined the Buzzcocks' road crew. At the age of 17 he became a third of a group called The Tiller Boys, the other two being Pete Shelley and Francis Cookson. They played their live debut in 1978, supporting Joy Division at Manchester's Factory club. For Pete Shelley The Buzzcocks were his main concern, so The Tiller Boys soon fell apart. Eric founded Free Agents with Cookson and soon met Richard Kirk and Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire. Thus, he got involved in the Sheffield scene as much as the Manchester one. Despite the two cities being only an hour's drive apart, their respective music scenes were very different. Manchester was the number one spot for postpunk with band like Joy Division/New Order, The Smiths, James, Magazine or A Certain Ratio. Sheffield went a very different way. It is birthplace for groups like The Cabs, The Human League, Clock DVA, ABC or Heaven 17, all influential European acts of electronic music. Eric Random felt home in both scenes. His first solo efforts were recorded and produced at Cabaret Voltaire's Western Works studio. A change in sound became obvious. Eric later merged his electro funk with ethnic influences. Playing with people like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan sparked an interest in Sufi music. He travelled extensively, regularly to India where he once even spent eleven months in a row. Random also fronted Nico's band until her untimely death in 1988. They recorded and album together, Camera Obscura, produced by John Cale. Random then went on a long hiatus. In 2014 he made his comeback -- since then three purely electronic albums have been released, the fourth now being No-Go. On this new long player, Eric goes further into an electronic dance direction, leaving his ethnic influences further behind. Think Wrangler, think Kraftwerk and you get the idea."

Yuko Araki is one of a number of young female artists emerging from Japan that are redefining the outer boundaries of noise, post-industrial techno and experimental electronics. Raised as a pianist, Araki's teenage obsession with metal opened a gateway towards various types of intense sonics. Exploring a range of diverse music projects over the past decade, her solo work resolved in 2019 after she developed an approach to freeform analog noise. Working with a reductive set of tools, her methodology was to create work that created a sense of timbral density and complexity through a weaving together of competing elements. End Of Trilogy pushes this approach outward, taking in almost kosmiche sensibilities, creating a sound that glints with the unsteady radiation of a dissolving pulsar. The album is an offering of competing states of tension and release. It merges polychromatic pulses against waves of sheering noise and uneasy ruptures of sound. End Of Trilogy is a record of unpredictable momentum and tempered ferocity. Even at its most intense. Yuko Araki's work maintains a sense of playfulness, and a determination not to succumb to mere sonic nihilism. Drawing on techniques borrowed from 70s prog-rock and even free jazz, she dissolves expectation and, in the process, reveals an utterly personal approach to noise and experimental electronics. End Of Trilogy is not merely a conclusion, but rather an interrogation of what comes next.

Multi-instrumentalist/composer based in Tokyo, Yuko Araki started playing piano when she was a small child and in her teenage years was inspired by hardcore and metal music, but she soon became really eclectic and took on a diverse range of projects, including drummer of the oriental/tribal dream psych band Kuunatic and founding members of the neo classical noise duo Concierto de la Familia and her solo project: harsh noise drones layered by analog synthesizers, cymbals and samples of Japanese traditional instruments creating abstract rhythms and dissonant harmonies that sound like a noise orchestra. Her exceptional sensibility in processing extremely heavy and dense sounds makes the result sounding like nothing else you heard before: a thousand leaves oscillation sound at the same time rooted in Japanese noise but also totally different. Intergalactic noisescapes.

Steppas Records present Center of Gravity, the new album from Korean-German producer JahYu. This heavyweight instrumental dub album breaks all convention taking the listener deeper into the world of mystical and ethereal soundsystem music. Exploring and fusing the realms of dub, world, and electronic music. The enigmatic producer blends contemporary bass music with the sounds of his ancestral homeland, playing and recording traditional Korean instruments; kayagum, geomungo, haegum, daegum, hun, yanggum, and janggu via his own hand. Center of Gravity is another truly eclectic, profound and exciting album from Steppas Records not to be missed. "A perfect fusion of meditative Eastern instrumentation with 21st century sound-system vibration" --Mixmag. In partnership with onetreeplanted.org, there will be a tree planted for every record sold.

Trading Places present a reissue of Curtiss Maldoon's self-titled album, originally released in 1971. After playing in Bodcast with future Yes guitarist Steve Howe, Dave Curtiss, and Clive Maldoon formed blues-rock duo Curtiss Maldoon, their self-titled debut released on Deep Purple's label, Purple Records, in 1971. For the LP, the pair was backed by top session players including Mighty Baby's drummer, Roger Powell, as well as Howe on the final track; contemplative folk-rock track "Sepheryn" would later be immortalized in altered form by Madonna as techno classic "Ray Of Light," but is included here in all its original glory, along with four rare bonus tracks from the same sessions, left off the original release, making this expanded reissue the best way to experience the band at their finest. Features four bonus tracks. 180 gram vinyl. Licensed from Cherry Red.

LP version. Color vinyl. "With no touring in 2020, and possibly this year, Woods decided to take a deep dive into their archives and put together the first volume of their much-discussed archival series, Reflections. Featuring rare and unreleased recordings from 2009-2013, including a ghost town desert jam off the side of the highway, their first live performance in Big Sur, the first recorded version of 'Bend Beyond' and some shelved diamonds in the rough that were finished up during quarantine. Their hope is that it plays like a 'lost record' from an extremely strange and fruitful period in Woods history."

"This new Wackie's 12"s combines three of our favorite tracks from two different past Itopia releases into one killer three track EP. Showing the diversity of style in the Wackie's camp, two tracks have a more up-tempo dancefloor feel and the third in a more rootsy mode. These tracks have been some of the most requested for reissue in the last couple years, finally back on the road."

2021 repress. "David Axelrod delivered one of the great psychedelic albums with 1968's Song Of Innocence, based around the poetry of William Blake. It is considered by many his masterpiece. Song Of Innocence is this weird hybrid that no one, not even Axelrod himself, could ever really describe. The listener is pulled in by his melodies, simplistic at first blush, but colored by odd chord progressions and turn arounds, grounded by the drummer Earl Palmer and Carol Kaye's funk, torn between the juxtaposition of musical elements -- a jazz vibraphone solo here, a fuzz guitar tear here, a nod to the baroque in Don Randi's clavichord comps -- and put at ease, always, by Axe's arrangements, which utilize brass and strings in a way that no 1960s arranger did. It's worth noting that there are really count-on-your-hand examples of anything that might even be compared to Song Of Innocence. Perhaps Arthur Verocai's self-titled and only artist album, issued on the Brasilian Continental label in 1972, or the collaborations between Serge Gainsbourg and Jean Claude Vannier, which found their epitome in 1971's Histoire de Melody Nelson. But even these albums, superb, in any thinking music fan's canon of the best from this era, perhaps in their lives -- and perhaps in line with Song Of Innocence -- are one-offs. Axelrod's Song Of Innocence set in path a series of artist albums on Capitol and other labels and influenced the world countless times over, from The Verve to DJ Shadow to Madlib to J.Dilla. Remastered from the original tapes in a new transfer, with extensive liner notes and unpublished photos."

2021 repress. "After releasing their Warner Bros. debut, the Herbie Hancock Sextet underwent a major transformation in the early '70s. Over the course of a year, every member was replaced (except Herbie Hancock himself and bassist Buster Williams) and each adopted Swahili names. (Williams even led the group in occasional sessions of Buddhist chanting.) Hancock chose the moniker Mwandishi (meaning 'composer'), and the Sextet became unofficially known as the Mwandishi Band. The lineup's first album -- simply titled Mwandishi -- reflects Hancock's new aesthetic and spiritual directions. Stretching out from the R&B/jazz fusion of Fat Albert Rotunda, the pianist would draw inspiration from his time with Miles Davis (whose classic Bitches Brew came out in 1970) as well as through the creative relationship he had formed with producer David Rubinson (known for his work with Moby Grape and Santana). 'Ostinato (Suite for Angela),' dedicated to political activist Angela Davis, is an extended jam with stunning rhythmic complexity -- enhanced by studio effects, such as Echoplex delay. On the ballad 'You'll Know When You Get There,' Hancock's tight arrangements are saturated in reverb, which gives an ever-shifting dimensionality. Side-long closer 'Wandering Spirit Song,' written by trombonist Julian Priester (aka Pepo Mtoto), goes even further out: alternating between dynamic soloing and group improvisation, the Sextet fully manifests the radical potential of their collective identity/energy. Mwandishi remains a bold and expansive statement, even after nearly 50 years."

Long-time Astral Industries associate Wolfgang Voigt returns to the London label with his next album, Rückverzaberung Exhibition. The Exhibition reimagines the concept with renewed purpose, opening the gates to deliver an arresting 60-minute journey into the underworld. Dense soundscapes mutate with alchemic fluidity, unravelling with vast symphonic counterpoints and synesthetic textures. Intoxicating in its Mephistolean dissonances and ambitious sonic structure, the sprawling Rückverzauberung itself becomes a nebulous organism shrouded in the seeping mist of the unknown.

2021 restock; 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."

LP version. "Mr. Wonderful is the second studio album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 23 August 1968. This all-blues album was broadly similar to their debut album, albeit with some changes to personnel and recording method. The album was recorded live in the studio with miked amplifiers and PA system, rather than plugged into the board. A horn section was introduced; and Christine Perfect of Chicken Shack was featured on keyboards. In the US, the album was not issued under the name Mr. Wonderful, though around half of the tracks appeared on English Rose."

LP version. "The Pious Bird of Good Omen is a compilation album by the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1969. It consists of their first four non-album UK singles and their B-sides, two other tracks from their previous album Mr. Wonderful, and two tracks by the blues artist Eddie Boyd with backing by members of Fleetwood Mac. These two tracks came from Boyd's album 7936 South Rhodes."

Enter, Angst a series of musical "essays on the ephemeral being" by Portuguese pianist and composer Tiago Sousa. After 2015's Um Piano nas Barricadas (CREP 023LP, 2016) Sousa expands his compositional chops by writing and performing along with a trio made of clarinet, percussion and vibraphone adding a magical realism aura to the music. It was fate that the releasing of these compositions would arrive in one of the most troubled passages of recent memory, just as a new decade begins. If it was already established that anguish is one of the hallmarks haunting our modern era, these last few years expose this existential feeling with even greater urgency. The album that Tiago now presents, part angst part nostalgic escapism addresses this very modern concern as well as other themes dear to the so-called existentialist thinkers such as Heidegger, Camus or Kierkegaard, who among others, seek to directly challenge the Being with various concepts such as Repetition, Temporality, Interiority, Despair... Throughout the eight themes here presented, a delicate attempt is made to sketch a phenomenological cartography through its content and form, loosely describing the feeling of being launched into the wide world and the discovery of one self. In other words, the artist's aim here is to convey the growing pains that the whole question about the meaning of life throws at us. In an approach that is difficult to catalogue, the album tries to avoid genres and crystallizations in which music presents itself as a vehicle to express the ineffable and the incommunicable, expressing instead a magical world of wonder and enchantment.

OPTO S formed in early 2018 in Brooklyn, but the genesis was almost ten years in the making. Argelis Liriano (The Boonies, Last Ones, Ghost Beaters) and Diana K (Hamish Kilgour Band, Giggle The Ozone, Ghost Beaters) befriended each other at Brooklyn basement psych-punk shows and had already been jamming for eight years within the confines of various rehearsal spaces when Diana responded to a social media post by Charles Dodson (Pelvi$$, Ghost Beaters) putting out feelers for a synth-driven new band that would draw on influences such as Sun Ra, Suicide, Oneida, and Silver Apples, to name a few. Charles and Diana had met separately through shows, and all three later determined they had been to many of the same shows, whether they knew each other or not at the time. They found that they were all native New Yorkers. The chemistry was instantaneous and the first few shows were booked within months. Credits: Argelis Liriano - bass, vocals; Charles Dodson - synth, guitar, vocals; Diana K - drums, percussion; with Ben Jaffe - tenor saxophone on "Lucifer Crawl" and "Downlow". Recorded in concert at The Broadway on January 4, 2020 and The Footlight on February 12, 2020. Mastered by Scott Anthony at Storybook Sound in Maplewood, NJ Produced by OPTO S and Steve Holtje.

2021 restock. After years of mythology, misinterpretation, and procrastination Nurse With Wound's Steven Stapleton finally chooses Finders Keepers as the ideal collaborators to release "the right tracks" from his über-legendary psych/prog/punk peculiarity shopping list known as The Nurse With Wound List, commencing with a French specific Volume One of this authentically titled Strain Crack Break series. Featuring some Finders Keepers' regulars amongst galactic Gallic rarities, this double-vinyl dossier demystifies some of the essential French free jazz and Parisian prog inclusions from the alphabetical "dedication" inventory as printed the anti-bands 1979 industrial milestone debut. When Steven Stapleton, Heman Pathak, and John Fothergill's anti-band Nurse With Wound decided to include an alphabetical dedication to all their favorite bands on the back of their inaugural LP the notion of creating a future record dealers' trophy list couldn't have been further from their minds. By adding a list of untraveled European mythical musicians and noise makers to their own debut release of unchartered industrial art rock they were merely providing a suggestive support system of existing potential like-minded bands. Many of the rare, obscure and unpronounceable genre-free records on The Nurse With Wound List have slowly found their own feet and stumbled in to the homes of open-minded outer-national vinyl junkies, mostly without consultation of the enigmatic NWW map. Via vinyl vacations, on cheap flights and interrail tickets, buying bargain bin LPs on a shoestring while oblivious to the pending pension worthy price tags after their 40-year vintage, Stapleton and Fothergill, even if you've never heard of them, were at the bottom of the pit before "digging" became pay dirt. The List has been mythologized, misunderstood, and misconstrued. It's also been overlooked, overestimated, and under-appreciated in equal measures. Bolstered by the sub-title "Categories strain, crack and sometimes break, under their burden," all bands on the inventory (many chosen on the strength of just one track alone) were chosen for their genre-defying qualities. Forty years after Nurse With Wound's first record, Finders Keepers, in close collaboration with Steve Stapleton remind fans of this kind of "lost" music, that there once existed a feint path which was worn away decades before major label pop property developers built over this psychedelic underground. A collaborative attempt to officially, authentically, and legally compile the best tracks from the list, succeeding where many overzealous nerds have deferred. The first volume of the series focuses exclusively on individual tracks of French origin, the country that unsurprisingly hosted the highest content of bands on the list. Comprising of musique concrète, free jazz, Rock In Opposition, Zeuhl School space rock, macabre ballet music, lo-fi sci-fi, and classic horror literature inspired prog.

Features Jacques Thollot, Philippe Besombes, Igor Wakhévitch, Mahjun, Lard Free, Etron Fou Leloublan, Jean Cohen-Solal, Z. N. R., Red Noise, Pierre Henry, Horrific Child, Dashiell Hedayat, and Jean Guérin.

"Bourbonese Qualk were an experimental music group from England who where active from 1979 until 2003. The group were always obsessively and uncompromisingly focused on controlling their work -- they ran their own record label, recording studio, tour organization and music venue (the legendary 'Ambulance Station') -- they refused to integrate into the commercial music racket turning down publishing deals from major labels -- stubbornly opting for total independence. Bourbonese Qualk were also known for their political activism which was formed in the crucible of the 1980s Britain: The Miner's Strike, Falklands/Malvinas war, anti-fascism, Thatcherism, monetarism, squatting/housing, local government corruption, anti-capitalism, and anarchism -- which was further re-enforced by touring Europe and meeting like-minded groups and organizations. Ethno, jazz, funk and EBM are all buried deep in the album as it seeks independence. The title, a critique of the Labor movements ineffective and limited call to arms against the prevailing Thatcherism of the mid-80s, encapsulates this wider oeuvre. From opening 'Return To Order', the acoustic gloom is offset by tight musicianship and countering melody. The switch of 'Outcry' precedes psychedelic anthem, 'Boggy Creek', with its VU remembrance. Blighted pulses 'Confrontation', 'Xenophobia', 'Backlash' and closer, 'Insurrection', sense the darkness, but the ground has shifted forwards with the legendary 1.51 minutes of man 'n' machine that is Lies, the enwrapping symphonic dub vocal of Born Left Hearted and incongruously pretty, Is It As It Was? At times, suffocating, uncomfortable, at others light appears as history progresses. Preparing For Power is BQ at their most uncompromising and essential. Available on CD for the first time now, with bonus tracks added that were not on the original vinyl LP."

LP version. Blue vinyl; gatefold sleeve; includes A2 poster and three art prints. Way back in 1982, Battersea based mod heroes The Direct Hits had released one single on Dan Treacy's Whamm! record label, "Modesty Blaise" earlier in the year. This was singled out in the music press as not just one of your average jam crash/bang/wallop mod revivalist tunes. Whamm! was struggling to provide the funds to record an album, the songs were too good not to commit to a full 12" set, so the Direct Hits pooled their limited resources and self-financed a very cheap one day recording session in a tiny studio in Tooting, South London called Broadway Sound. Early on the morning of August 12th, 1982 the band, comprising of Colin Swan, Geno Buckmaster, Brian Grover, and their trusty roadie "Robbo" assembled at the tiny studio to begin recording as many of their songs as they could get down on tape for the tiny budget they had scraped together. As most of the songs were already well rehearsed thanks to the band's busy live schedule, the recording of the first nine songs on this disc were finished by mid-afternoon. Throughout the rest of the day, the band toiled over scant overdubs with limited keyboard facilities and a distinct lack of musical ability. The recordings immediately came to life however, when Colin Swan and Geno Buckmaster's stage-honed tight harmonies were added, there was no time for vocal overdubs, and the mixing was completed by midnight. Tired and worn out, the band ventured out into the cold night air happy with the day's work, clutching the precious reel-to-reel tape. Two weeks later the band came back with a friend producing, and recorded the three final tracks featured on this album which have a more rounded slightly less raw sound. All three were completed in an afternoon. Almost two years later they re-recorded some of these songs, and along with a handful of new songs from the pen of Buckmaster and Swan, recorded their Blow Up debut album at Rendezvous Studios in Sydenham, South East London, released on Whaam! Records in August 1984. A few didn't make it to the first album those that did, as you will hear, stayed reasonably faithful to the original arrangements. Remastered.

2021 restock; LP version. "Joshua Abrams' Cloud Script - Cloud Script - Joshua Abrams (double bass), Ari Brown (tenor saxophone), Jeff Parker (guitar), Gerald Cleaver (drums)."

"While The Tennors burned up the charts in Jamaica regularly in the late sixties into the '70s, their legacy in America has not achieved the greatness of many of their equally successful contemporaries like The Melodians or the Techniques. Do The Reggay Dance is a deep look at the best Tennors productions from their classic late-60s period, including many tracks that have not been on vinyl since their original 7-inch release. The music on Do The Reggay Dance is classic rocksteady music from one of the best bands of the genre. Do The Reggay Dance showcases the first time all (but one) of the featured songs have been on vinyl since they were first released on now impossibly rare 45 singles. The songs were mastered by legendary reissue engineer Gary Hobish and designed by Barbara Bersche, the designer behind last year's Grammy winning historic package Voices Of Mississippi. This is the follow up release on black vinyl to the August 2020 RSD limited edition red vinyl version."

Trading Places present a reissue of Brian Davison's Every Which Way, originally released in 1970. Esteemed drummer Brian Davison was a key part of The Nice during the mid-60s, and when Keith Emerson quit to form ELP, Davison put together Every Which Way with former Skip Bifferty frontman Graham Bell, bassist Alan Cartwright, guitarist John Hedley, and saxophonist Geoffrey Peach. Self-titled debut LP, released by Charisma in 1970, was an intense slice of prog with excellent sax solos, emotive vocals, tasteful bass, soaring guitar, and forceful drumming, but Cartwright soon joined Procol Harum and Davison drifted into Refugee, making this album the group's sole release. Well worth exploring, it's another highly sought-after album for fans of well-produced prog. 180 gram vinyl. Licensed from Cherry Red.

2021 restock. Her memoir Dana Gillespie: Weren't Born a Man was recently published by Hawksmoor Publishing. "Vinilisssimo present a reissue of Dana Gillespie's Weren't Born A Man, originally released in 1973. Hardcore David Bowie fans should have heard by now about the so-called Bowpromo album (2011). It contains "rough mixes" of original tracks that would later be included on the Hunky Dory (1971) and Ziggy Stardust (1972) albums, as well as an exclusive track and the early (and shorter) versions of some amazing songs that would later make their way into Dana Gillespie's Weren't Born A Man: "Mother, Don't Be Frightened" and "Andy Warhol". In fact, these two tracks on Dana's album were produced by Bowie and Mick Ronson, featuring Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey, members of The Spiders from Mars, as the backing band. Weren't Born A Man is Gillespie's third album after some previous folk and pop recordings and a rather successful career as an actress. She played Mary Magdalene in the first London production of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1972. However, her involvement in music would soon be connected to some of the key players in the London scene, such as Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page and David Bowie. But there is much more to this album that just Bowie's glam sound influence. "All Cut Up On You", "All Gone", "Eternal Showman" or the title track are all outstanding tracks on their own that show Dana Gillespie's various moods, from mellow notes to sexually ambiguous statements. Sadly, record sales did not match RCA's expectations and after one more album, Dana was forced to take a long break on her recording activity, one that would eventually lead her to a very different approach to music. During the '80s, Gillespie made a comeback becoming a member of the Mojo Blues Band and her career as a blues singer has not stopped since then, releasing over 25 albums to date. 43 years after its original release, Weren't Born A Man stands as a must-have record for anyone with an interest in '70s music. 180 gram vinyl.

2021 restock. "Includes liner notes & archival photographs. 1970 was an important year in Eliane Radigue's musical life since it was the year just before she acquired her ARP 2500 synthesizer. Since 1967, she had been using the feedback as a material; feedback from two tape recorders reworked through intensive studio techniques: slowing down, alteration, superimposition, montage. In 1970, the last year she dedicated to feedback, several milestone pieces saw the light of day: Omnht, a wonderful sound installation for three out-of-phase tape loops and wall-mounted loudspeakers; the theoretical setting of Labyrinthe Sonore (eventually premiered at Mills College in 1998 in collaboration with Pauline Oliveros, Maggie Payne and William Winant, amongst others); Opus 17, one of her first compositions in fixed duration (according to Rhys Chatham, a decisive piece that would change his own compositional career); and Vice-Versa, etc..., which appears to be her very last feedback loop composition. Vice-Versa, etc... was conceived as a sound installation setting similar to S=a=b=a+b. A single magnetic tape can be played at any speed, a stereo tape of which allows three playings: left channel alone, right channel alone, left and right channels together. These different channels can be overlapped/crossed over as much as possible, at any speed. Thus the piece reveals itself in its whole dimension, its infinite grace. In its content, the piece is the most minimal that Eliane Radigue has ever composed. Feedback is horizontally sustained, time is suspended, vibrating with organic and subtle pulsations. The fastest playthrough, in just 2'42", weaves a graceful continuum of uncanny depth, somewhere between the sonority of feedback and a glass harmonica. Played slowly, at 13'41", it takes us into an universe of low frequency vibrations felt as much by the guts, the ribcage and the whole body as by the eardrum: the signature sound of Eliane Radigue. Between these two extremes, many delicate shadings/variations appear simply through speed modulation. What is striking about this work, which may arguably be one of Radigue's most important compositions, is the extraordinary quality of the tones obtained from such a rudimentary material. It is hard to believe that the composer was yet to begin working on her ARP, since the sonorities heard on Vice-Versa, etc... are surprisingly similar to those she would go on to produce with her synthesizer. Vice-Versa, etc... is a minimal work which possesses an infinity of possible variations, a secret object containing the seeds of the oeuvre to come, and a discreet turning point linking the composer's two important working phases, an extremely subtle cross-fade between her feedback loop period to her ARP period. Originally, only ten signed and numbered copies of this little boxset containing a magnetic tape and a handwritten note were released -- needless to say this is a work that has been nearly forgotten! We have decided to reissue this object as a double CD, with the tape played respectively forwards and backwards, at four different speeds, corresponding to the standards of the tape recorders of the time. This will allow dedicated listeners to experiment with simultaneous playback of the work's different versions, recreating the conditions of the original installation. For lazier listeners, a simple playthrough provides complete satisfaction, a listening experience that loses itself in the ineffable and discreet beauty of these four variations."

2021 repress. Housed in a gatefold sleeve with download code; includes the "legendary Northampton demos from 1986". "Amidst the swirl that is Spacemen 3's discography, Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To occupies a pivotal position -- one right at the nexus between their garage beginnings and their expansionist future. While much of this material is expanded upon via Sound Of Confusion and The Perfect Prescription, many devotees consider these urgent, minimally treated recordings as the prime document of Spacemen 3 at this stage. Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To casts Spacemen 3 alongside the mid-80s cadre of UK front-line rockers, contributing a distinct variation of high pop shining through layered noisy guitars. Ultimately, this collection serves to exalt the strength of Spacemen 3's songwriting over the atmospherics and production assemblage that would permeate their later efforts. Be it the rave-up rendering of 'The Sound Of Confusion' or the churning take on 'Losing Touch With My Mind', these full band recordings capture the excited and inspirational spark of psychedelia rather than deep-dive ruminations on sonics and space."

"The best of two eras together on one 12", from Mr. Bullwackie Barnes himself, aka The Chosen Brothers. The A-side disco mix a fantastic piece of conscious late '70s roots, the B-side a prime cut of the fantastic digital reggae that Wackie is less known for, but none the less has excellently produced for many years."