"Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) formed in the mid-1970s as a loose-knit experimental music collective and multimedia publishing vehicle. Founded by teenage Le Forte Four members Chip Chapman, Joe Potts and Rick Potts and soon joined by Tom Recchion of Doo-Dooettes, LAFMS incorporated free improvisation, modular synthesizers, tape music, sampling, musique concrète, homemade instruments, noise, mail art and avant-rock in permissive and anarchic sessions at the Raymond Building and Poo-Bah Record Shop in old Pasadena. Inspired by The Residents, LAFMS self-released records and periodicals, organized performances and connected with fellow outsiders via post in the years before punk. Their uninhibited, egalitarian ideal of music-making and DIY distribution would influence generations of underground musicians. Live At The Brand documents the second performance of newly formed LAFMS core groups Le Forte Four and Doo-Dooettes on July 8, 1976 at the recital hall of the Brand Library in Glendale. Le Forte Four (now joined by Tom Potts) did not actually perform live, but rather created 44 pyramid-shaped headphone helmets with internal quadraphonic speakers and countless wires in order to share their latest tape assemblages with showgoers deprived of sight. The recordings delivered in this Fluxus-inspired manner feature the Buchla synthesizer at nearby CalArts, radio interpolations, group improvisations, addled outbursts and splices from source material lost to time. Doo-Dooettes -- Tom Recchion, Harold Schroeder, Juan Gomez, Dennis Duck and Fredrik Nilsen -- performed a series of alternately droning and chaotic duets with guitar, percussion, piano, tape loops and synthesizer, all improvised around loosely structured compositions and culminating in a spontaneous group composition at the end of the program. Originally released in 1976, the double LP would be LAFMS' third release. This first-time vinyl reissue is limited to 500 numbered copies. Comes with inserts."

"Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) formed in the mid-1970s as a loose-knit experimental music collective and multimedia publishing vehicle. Founded by teenage Le Forte Four members Chip Chapman, Joe Potts and Rick Potts and soon joined by Tom Recchion of Doo-Dooettes, LAFMS incorporated free improvisation, modular synthesizers, tape music, sampling, musique concrète, homemade instruments, noise, mail art and avant-rock in permissive and anarchic sessions at the Raymond Building and Poo-Bah Record Shop in old Pasadena. Inspired by The Residents, LAFMS self-released records and periodicals, organized performances and connected with fellow outsiders via post in the years before punk. Their uninhibited, egalitarian ideal of music-making and DIY distribution would influence generations of underground musicians. In 1977, LAFMS released Blorp Esette, one of several compilations tracking the collective's growth and wild-eyed experimentation. Ace Farren Ford, an early LAFMS recruit from the Poo-Bah circle, produced the album and solicited cover artwork by Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart). Ford appears in various configurations alongside members of Smegma, Le Forte Four and 'unknown artist' (as the credit for more than one piece reads). The Residents, showing their affinity with LAFMS, contributed 'Whoopy Snorp' for their first non-Ralph Records release. Blorp Esette shows the artists grasping for new, non-idiomatic voicings and collaborative modes, anticipating LAFMS affiliates and offshoots such as Airway, Human Hands and Monitor. A second volume would come out in 1980, featuring Ford's punk band The Child Molesters. If you're looking for the missing link between mid-70s art practice and outsider music, then look no further. This first-time vinyl reissue is limited to 500 numbered copies. Comes with inserts."

"Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) formed in the mid-1970s as a loose-knit experimental music collective and multimedia publishing vehicle. Founded by teenage Le Forte Four members Chip Chapman, Joe Potts and Rick Potts and soon joined by Tom Recchion of Doo-Dooettes, LAFMS incorporated free improvisation, modular synthesizers, tape music, sampling, musique concrète, homemade instruments, noise, mail art and avant-rock in permissive and anarchic sessions at the Raymond Building and Poo-Bah Record Shop in old Pasadena. Inspired by The Residents, LAFMS self-released records and periodicals, organized performances and connected with fellow outsiders via post in the years before punk. Their uninhibited, egalitarian ideal of music-making and DIY distribution would influence generations of underground musicians. Poo-Bah Records, with its import bins and backroom jam space, attracted the pseudonymous artists forming the initial incarnation of long-running collective Smegma. Early members Ju Suk Reet Meate, Dennis Duck, Cheez-it Ritz, Big Dirty, Amazon Bambi and Dr. Id contributed to various LAFMS compilations and combinations before several core members relocated to Portland, Oregon in 1975, where they recorded their debut album Glamour Girl 1941. Originally released on the LAFMS label in 1979, the LP combines rock instrumentation with tape, synthesizer, horns and voice in a tempestuous cauldron of anti-academy improv and alien noise. Beyond its roots in LAFMS, Smegma would help shape the early Portland punk scene in the late '70s alongside Wipers and Neo Boys. In more recent years, they have collaborated with Merzbow and Wolf Eyes. This first-time vinyl reissue is limited to 500 numbered copies. Comes with insert."

"Sound: An Exhibition of Sound Sculpture, Instrument Building and Acoustically Tuned Spaces opened at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art in the summer of 1979 (and was also on view later that year at PS1 in New York). Curated by Bob Wilhite and Robert Smith, the exhibition surveyed the field of sound art. The forty-four participants were painters pivoted toward performance, conceptual artists attracted to time-based mediums, self-styled creators of environments, and musicians (formally trained and otherwise) fashioning new instruments from household items and consumer electronics. They were more or less object-oriented and, at the same time, more or less music-oriented. What brought them all together, as the exhibition catalog gamely asserted, was sculpting in three-dimensional space. The Sound exhibit included installations, recordings played in the exhibition space and a series of live performances, demonstrating instruments that otherwise rested inert in the gallery. For a broader sense of the show than a single visit provided, the curators also produced a compilation album featuring short pieces, or excerpts from longer works, by many of the participants. (Artists in the exhibition, but not on the LP include Alvin Lucier and Mike Kelley.) Selections from bright lights of the 20th century avant-garde -- such as composers Bill Fontana, Yoshi Wada and Paul DeMarinis; conceptual artists and performance artists Terry Fox, Tom Marioni and Jim Pomeroy; experimental vocalist Joan La Barbara; and Los Angeles Free Music Society members Tom Recchion and John Duncan -- feature alongside the sounds of Jim Hobart's tuned jars, Ivor Darreg's fretless banjo, Doug Hollis' aeolian harp and Richard Dunlap's rubber bands. This first-time reissue is limited to 500 numbered copies. Comes with poster."

LP version. "Behind Oakland CA-based ensemble Orchestra Gold's original sound is a decade-long story of knowledge, respect, and collaboration between Mariam Diakite of Mali and Erich Huffaker of Oakland. Blending the traditions of Mali and American rock/funk with a retro feel, OG represents a world of powerful cross-cultural experience. The group transcends borders and boundaries to be a force of healing within the community. OG offers a kaleidoscope of magical sound deeply rooted in the past while boldly blazing towards the genre-bending future: African psychedelic rock. OG's vibrant sound is spearheaded by the dynamic Mariam Diakite, whose raw, hypnotic vocals deliver heartfelt and thought-provoking lyrics in the highly symbolic Bambara language. While paying homage to Malian musical traditions, this fierce new sound thrives with heavy swinging rhythms, a funky fresh brass section, and cosmic guitar licks. With the January 2023 release of their third album, Medicine, this profoundly spiritual and dance-inducing ensemble continues their pursuit of spreading healing and community through the universal gift of music."

Water Witches collects all the early tape and vinyl works of Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement which paved the way to the deforestation of Green Graves. Water Witches includes the following previously released titles which have been meticulously remastered and presented on CD for the first time in this sturdy box set with spot gloss varnish wallets: Fallen Leaves Camouflaged Behind Tropical Flowers, Green Amulet Crafts Supernatural Qualities, Taking Place In The Foyer, Jungle Black Magic And Highlands Green Sorcery, Papua Land Where Spirits Still Rule, Black Magic Cannot Cross Water, The Plant With Many Faces, Folklore Venom, Water Rose Above The Head. Includes digital download code.

In 1970, Harry Bertoia had been developing his sonic sculptures for over ten years. He had only been composing/recording for two years and the four long pieces chosen for this CD find him starting to arrive at the sonic forms he had been searching for. Hints Of Things To Come is one of the most unique and melodic pieces discovered so far in the Bertoia tape archive. In this piece, you hear him slowly create and articulate a musical riff. Bertoia builds this phrase patiently until the composition reaches an intense climax where the riff is played heavily and distinctly. "7 ½ + 7 ½ Combined", another historic standout, is one of the earliest examples of Bertoia overdubbing by playing a tape and then performing along to the playback. This CD is defined by ambient passages, long drones, gongs that sound like whales, shimmering harmonics and the feeling of an artist searching for sounds deep within his own sonic sculpture.

Harry Bertoia first gained some artistic visibility in the early 1940s, then came into prominence with his sculptural, ergonomic chairs, produced by Knoll Furniture beginning in 1952, which quickly became classics of modernist furniture. Inspired by the resonant sounds emanating from metals as he worked them and encouraged by his brother Oreste, whose passion was music, Harry restored a fieldstone "Pennsylvania Dutch" barn as the home for this experiment in sounding sculptures which he had begun in the late 1950s. Bertoia was an obsessive composer and relentless experimenter, often working late into the night and accumulating hundreds of tapes of his best performances; Oreste, too, would explore and record the sculptures' sounds during his annual visits to his brother's home in rural Pennsylvania. Harry Bertoia's recently dismantled Sonambient barn collection was an attentive listener's paradise full of warm, expressive instruments that were gorgeous visually and audibly. Nothing could prepare you, even on return visits, for the overwhelming experience of entering the spacious wood and plaster interior where gongs, some of them giant, hung among the ranks of standing sculptures of various metals. Over nearly twenty years of adding, culling and rearranging, Bertoia carefully selected nearly 100 harmonious pieces ranging in height from under a foot to more than fifteen feet. He considered this barn a full experience, sights and sounds comprising not a collection of works, but one piece unto itself. It was here, deep in the woods, that his Sonambient recording work took place.

Golden Leaf is the 19th album by the Italian experimental band Larsen here exploring free form sounds and spatial dynamics by real time composing and creating a sonic and social environment. It also confirms the love and interest the band has for collaborations as ongoing dialogues and portals to new paths. This album documents a four-hour, site-specific performance by Larsen and Alessandro Sciaraffa featuring interactive sound totems designed by Alessandro Sciaraffa and exclusive food creations by chef Gabriele Gatti. The performance took place at a secret location in Torino (Italy) in 2021 and was meant as an alchemical rite with the audience being an integral part of it. It was recorded and then edited and assembled into two pieces by long-time collaborator, sound engineer, solo musician, Paul Beauchamp. Mastered by James Plotkin. First edition pressing of 300; digipak printed with metallic gold ink.

Since 1995 Larsen, from Torino Italy, has released 18 full-length albums and 4 EPs to critical acclaim. Collaborations with such artists as Johann Johannsson, Michael Gira, Martin Bisi, Lustmord, Deathprod, Nurse With Wound, Z'EV, Baby Dee, Julia Kent, sci-fi icon Christine Schell, plus the project -- a band in itself -- XXL (aka Xiu Xiu + Larsen) also stand out on their record. In 2008, legendary dub-diva Little Annie (aka Annie Anxiety Bandez) joined the band as lead singer and lyricist appearing on "La Fever Lit" and "Cool Cruel Mouth" and live on stage on the related tours.

Alessandro Sciaraffa (Torino, 1976) studied architecture, electronic music, and sound design, and specialized at the Karlheinz Stockhausen Foundation For Music in Kurten. He won the ninth edition of Italian Council and is the founder of the experimental music collective WHYOFF. Focusing on sound and its multiple relationships between material, space and time his artistic research expresses itself through performances and the elaboration of installations and sound sculptures.

2023 repress, first reissued in 2008. LP version with bonus 7". "1973: Connecticut native Gary Higgins and his friends record Red Hash and release it on Gary's own Nufusmoon Records. Following the release, legal issues halt all promotion and sales, rendering the small pressing of Red Hash a hotly-rumored and much sought-after 'lost' album of rock and roll lore. 2005: Drag City is honored to present the first-ever authorized reissue of Gary Higgins' acid-folk gem Red Hash -- mastered from the original master tapes with two previously unheard bonus tracks. The reviews are glowing: the haunting sound of Gary's meticulously arranged folk-pop is a sound that everyone can relate to, and Red Hash makes many year-end lists around the world as Top Reissue. And so, after thirty-five years, Red Hash vinyl is back in stock, with a limited-edition LP that includes a 7" single featuring the first-ever vinyl pressing of the CD bonus songs 'Don't Ya Know' and 'Last Great Sperm Whale.' This is your chance to grab at a letter-perfect reproduction of a folk-rock classic from the early 1970s."

Reissue, originally released in 1974. Blending Native American references into a body of sonority that draws on free improvisation, experimental electronic music, and spiritual jazz, Pygmy Unit's Signals From Earth -- originally self-released by the band in 1974 -- forges a singular and almost entirely unknown path, and stands almost entirely on its own in the history of west coast American jazz. First appearing on the San Francisco scene sometime during the early 1970s, almost nothing is known about the Pygmy Unit, a seven-piece band steered by Darrel De Vore, who contributed flute, bass, percussion, piano, and vocals to the band's lone LP, first appeared with percussionist Terry Wilson within the psychedelic folk rock band, The Charlatans, who belonged to the legendary Family Dog scene. Jim Pepper, a Native American tenor saxophonist known for being a member of the Mal Waldron Quartet, played with Charlie Haden, Don Cherry, and numerous others, and produced the cult favorite, Pepper's Pow Wow, for Embryo Records in 1971. John Celona, who contributes parts on sax, synthesizer, and percussion, would later go on to be regarded as an electronic composer of some note. Of the remaining members, saxophonist Frank Albright, bassoonist Ron Grunn, and percussionist Marvin Kirkland, very little else is known. It seems this LP is more or less all they recorded. While undeniably jazz -- riding a remarkable line between avant-garde electronic music, spiritual jazz, and free improvisation -- the band was very much a product of the diverse creative ferment that developed in their hometown of San Francisco during the 1960s. Embodying the raw spirit of DIY (many of the instruments used in the recordings were made by DeVore himself, self-described as an "itinerant flute-maker") the ensemble channels references -- via passages of chanting and percussion, as well as conceptual underpinnings -- from Jim Pepper's Native American roots, intuiting them with the soulfulness of spiritual jazz, wild moments of avant-gardism centered around synths and electronic effects, and explosions of wild free improvisation. "Development of new music is a continuous path that grows directionally according to psychoacoustical phenomena available for unification. This record is evidence of that development, containing 12 performance pieces, at 12 separate times in different acoustical spaces with various combinations of musicians and instrumentation. The music is shaped by signals, received and sent by life forms on this planet. It is unwritten, unrehearsed, utilizing new and traditional approaches to energy, motion, and form. Eventually, music develops as a natural extension of the environment in which it exists. It is the aim of the traditions... to signal the universe from the Earth." Includes two booklets/replicas of original DeVore's publications; edition of 500.

LP version. Clear 180 gram vinyl; includes six color pencils to color album cover.. Anton Newcombe -- frontman, songwriter, composer, studio owner, multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, father, force of nature -- returns with the Brian Jonestown Massacre's 20th full-length studio album Your Future Is Your Past on his own label A Recordings. The lead track Fudge was released on 30th September. It is 30 years since the release of their first single "She Made Me / Evergreen", released in 1992. As leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Newcombe had already established himself as a visionary songwriter, a man to whom making music wasn't a lifestyle choice or a hipster haircut but the very fabric of existence itself. Instead of saying yes to everything like many of his peers Anton Newcombe was different. He was going to say no to everything. Much of this was documented on the controversial documentary Dig!, one of the best rock documentaries ever made. Brian Jonestown Massacre's shoegazing-tinged debut album Methodrone (AUK 008CD/LP) was released in 1995 and since then numerous bandmembers have joined Newcombe on his sonic escapades, but he has remained the sole constant and creative mastermind. There have been a further 19 albums under the Brian Jonestown Massacre moniker since then, each embarking on their own mind-expanding adventure and exploring the outer realms of rock n' roll; psychedelic rock, country-blues, snarling rock n' roll, blissed-out noise-pop and more. Along the way, Newcombe has established himself as a once-in-a-lifetime talent who saw the direction in which mainstream indie-rock was heading and opted to take the long way round. He's hopped around the globe, from the West Coast to New York, from Manhattan to Iceland, and then to Berlin, where he's lived for 14 years and has two flats, one to live in and one that's been converted into his studio. He goes there six days a week to work and write and record and produce. After a hugely prolific 2010s that saw the release of eight long-players and one mini-album, Newcombe had been going through a period of writer's block when one day he picked up his 12-string guitar and "The Real" (the opening track on previous album Fire Doesn't Grow on Trees) came out of him. After that, they tracked a song every day for 70 days and had two albums ready to go by the end. Joining Newcombe in the studio for The Future Is Your Past were Hakon Adalsteinsson (guitar) and Uri Rennert (drums).

"Herewith is an extraordinary 45 RPM album of solo electronic music by NZ's great contrarian, Bruce Russell. The pieces were all created using machines built by Clinton Williams, whose musical work under the OMIT moniker has long been championed by Bruce. Unlike many of Williams's own recordings, which contain kosmiche extensions recalling the '70s work of Klaus Schulze, the 15 improvised Sonatas presented here mix a few of those sorts of sonorities with a variety of more harshly-edged tones. There are also post-techno references recalling the work of folks like Scott Foust and Stefan Jaworzyn, in addition to the artists to whom some of the pieces are dedicated -- musicians Ralf Wehowsky and Martin Rev -- as well as philosopher Paul Feyerabend. As with much of Russell's music, the music's surface feel is restless, ornery, and questing. The pieces often feel as though they were devised while attempting to answer specific questions or notions that Bruce was wrestling with. But as always, one suspects some pieces are just pure fuckery, for which a conceptual framework was built ex post facto. Or not. Regardless of intent (and/or imagined intent), Russell has come up with another album that ends up being both about itself, and also about something big and conceptual that keeps fidgeting just outside my brain's grasp. The best approach may just be to dive in a float around in this excellent music. Context be damned. Because, really, sometimes a Sonata is just a Sonata. Y'know?" --Byron Coley, 2022

WRWTFWW Records announce the first ever release of the soundtrack for the sci-fi Amiga demoscene wonder Odyssey by the Alcatraz group, with music from Greg. Possibly the first ever vinyl release for an Amiga demoscene soundtrack, if not the first ever vinyl release for a demoscene soundtrack whatsoever! Wikipedia says: "The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual art, and musical skills. Demos and other demoscene productions (graphics, music, videos, games) are shared at festivals known as demoparties, voted on by those who attend and released online." In the demoscene galaxy, one era was particularly exciting: the Amiga years during which the demos were created for the Commodore Amiga home computer -- a time of intense rivalry between programmers, graphics artists, and computer musicians, testing the limits of the (fixed) Amiga hardware. The Odyssey demo was one of the largest productions ever released by an Amiga group, a real sci-fi movie on five floppy disks made with 3D sequences. It was presented at a demoscene party in 1991 and won the competition, setting a new standard for Amiga demo possibilities. One of the highlights of the demo was the funky cosmic music from Swiss composer Greg, a true space opera, the '90s galactic soundscape you didn't know was missing from your life. And so here it is, available for the first time, ten tracks of pure video game music joy, adventurous computer pop, pixelated techno-trance, Star Wars gone floppy disk, and interstellar beats for days. Features the complete soundtrack of the demo sourced from the original masters as well as printed innersleeve, a 24x24 inch double-sided poster with extensive liner notes on the fascinating history of the Amiga demoscene on one side and a floppy disk print on the other, and a WRWTFWW sticker sheet.

Astonishing smoldering R&B flex from Brooklyn's Dawuna, making strong debut moves on the ace O___o? label that gave you LA Timpa's first record. If u like it slow x dripping in a Prince/D'Angelo style with intricate. Almost concrète production -- this is as good as it gets. The debut of the decade? Aye, v possibly. Slow baked for a gooey core and crispy texture, and laced with sonic THC, Dawuna's Glass Lit Dream settles on the soul like the time delayed release of a good edible. It's a hugely accomplished first effort, drawing comparisons with everyone from Tricky to Prince at his wooziest and most downbeat, to the timeless frayed intimacies of Leila's Like Weather, or the asymmetric pop skew of Mica & Tirzah, yet patently possessed of its own worries. The magick lies in how Dawuna works them out, channeling a quiet stream of consciousness thru velvet vocals, ranging from aching croon to ASMR whispers, and most nimbly stitched to crunchy drums and nagging licks that feel like Burial and Timbaland productions re-imagined by Bernard Parmegiani. Occupying a shadowy fidelity that's too meticulous to be called lo-fi, but clearly not oozing typical R&B gloss, the ten songs hold a huge amount of broad appeal while boldly reserving the right to fuck with you and switch track at right angles without notice. They play out in mixtape form, crucially bridged with crafty transitions that make it feel like we're sleepwalking around Dawuna's dreams between the mechanical knocks, domestic rustle and close miked vox of "The Ape Prince" and bruised blooz of "The Lethe, The Sea." You'll be totally snagged on the stranger Afro-goth R&B lilt of "The General" (that ends with a remarkable ASMR/concrète spell), and the Timba-tight drums and sore vocal motif of "Bad Karma" lay a proper earworm, while "Moon, I Already Know" is an unmissable piece of gently curdled, alien gospel recalling a tempered, less flamboyant fusion of Arca and Autre Ne Veut to the lugs. Aqua vinyl; edition of 1000.

Reissue, originally released in 1978. A little masterpiece of soul Afrofunk with carpets of dreamy keyboards on their swirling, seductive sound and their really cool voices. The second album of Black Children Sledge Funk Band released in 1978 is a delight. Repressed for the first time.

Reissue, originally released in 1974. An aura of mystery is hidden on this magnificent album released on EMI Nigeria in 1974 and today a collector's cult object was the only one named Moonrakers Band. Steve Black tells: "We were the original members of The Moonrakers and were based in Zaria, then in 1972 we left band management and started The Elcados. The original management of The Moonrakers sold the name to his elder brother who had a club in Kano and they brought Prince Bola Agbana to get other musicians to continue The Moonrakers while we moved in as The Elcados." Moonrakers Band and the Elcados were the two bands that inflamed northern Nigeria in the early '70s with a more rocking and virtuoso sound, and especially with tons of rare grooves, then everything else around it. Coming to the album content tracks like "Wait For Me", "Cut Your Coat According To You Size", "Yara Manyan Gobe", but also "Enia Sa Pele" and "Move On", will make floating camels appear on the dancefloor, or in your house.

The debut release from a new collaboration between Samuel van Dijk (Netherlands) and Rasmus Hedlund (Finland). Both key proponents to the scene in Northern Europe, they come together with mutual understanding and a common vision to sound. Dialog acts as a conversational exchange that sees the interplay of dynamic frequencies, evocative imagery and contemporary sonic art. Spread across four sides, the album as a whole exists as a kind of metaphysical process, eternally growing and contracting -- change is the only constant, marked by a continuous progression of sound and space. Expansive, deep, and at moments arresting, Dialog unfolds with sweeping soundscapes and shimmers with tactile sonic details. A chasmic rift of scintillating drone structures, each layer exposes a series of ever-deeper shades. In a play of dynamic dualities, the pair harnesses both earthly materials as well as access to more ethereal dimensions in the music. Side A begins with sub-terrestrial ruptures, gestating in a process of constant elemental changes. Rattling hits sputter amongst a state of nascent chaos, yet continues to be maintained in self-regulating stasis. Side B sets a more introspective tone, whispering with ghostly artifacts and bubbling synth lines, before building into a driving energy of layered field recordings and mechanistic timbres. The essence of form continues to be contested, until it subsides into momentary calm on side C. A cleansing period of soft drones float into the space and the pace slows, washing away remnants of past. The journey continues with side D's conclusion -- a solemn contour that reaches its internal extent, to then finally return to its source.

An attempt to bring forth the notion that the future could provide more than what we are doing now. A series from Growth (1994) and Expanded (2004) under the same concept.

Reissue, originally released in 1981. An outstanding yet obscure release by two Art Ensemble of Chicago members, multi reeds player Joseph Jarman and drummer Don Moye, along with legendary bassist Rafael Garret (mostly remembered for his presence on Coltrane's masterpiece Kulu Se Mama) and young lion Craig Harris on trombone. Four great individuals digging deep between ancient African rituals and modern urban multidimensional grooves. A tribal ecstatic sound based on a multitude of instruments: reeds, bamboo flutes, didgeridoo, trombone, conch shell, panpipes, and a sea of percussion. A beautiful example of AACM "Ancient to the Future" aesthetic. A magic mixture of elements from the African American music continuum.

Reissue, originally released in 1971. The sole self-titled album by English progsters Chillum was in fact an offshoot project of famous psychedelic icon Second Hand. They shared three members -- George Hart, Ken Elliott, Kieran O'Connor -- with the former band, giving birth to a more experimental act. The record originally saw the light of day in 1971. The LP was supposed to be the third Second Hand album, but apparently the members decided to change the band's name. Their heavy swinging approach was in the end similar to such contemporary luminaries like Atomic Rooster, Leaf Hound, and Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come. A jam album with lots of roaring percussion and an impressive organ to make big sound. Personnel: Ken Elliott (keyboards, mellotron, organ, vocals); Kieran O'Connor (drums); Tony McGill (guitar); George Hart (bass). Fully licensed; edition of 500.

On Upon This Fleeting Dream Clive Bell's Twinkle3 embraces medieval and 16th century Japanese poems and haiku about death and saying farewell. Twinkle3, consisting of Dave Ross and Richard Scott besides Clive Bell, expand their sonic borders to unknown territory: bringing these pithy epigrams to a new Fourth World where electro-acoustic sounds glitches into a hypnagogic, if not unconscious level of fragile beauty. The distinctive voice of David Sylvian, who reads the English version of the poems and created field recordings and the artwork for this album, blends in the most organic way with the shakuhachi, Thai reed flutes, and mouth organs played by Clive Bell. The narrative voices of David Sylvian and Kazuko Hohki's (Frank Chickens, Kahondo Style) velvet timbre are the cornerstones of this compelling journey while the tangling and abstract rhythms transcending from Dave Ross's modular synths and Richard Scott's sampler and analogue electronics, unravel and unfold a mesmerizing universe with unknown dimensions and frequencies of a fleeting dream. Vinyl edition with printed inlay and extra insert Recommended if you like: David Sylvian, Japanese poems, Jon Hassell, Pan Sonic, Laraaji, Brian Eno. Personnel: Clive Bell- Shakuhachi flute, pi saw, khene mouth organ; Dave Ross - Droscillator, modular synths, various wind and string instruments; Richard Scott - sampler, modular synths, analog electronics; David Sylvian - vocals, field recordings; Kazuko Hohki - Japanese voice.

Devin Brahja Waldman is a New York saxophonist, drummer, synthesizer player, and composer who leads the group Brahja. Waldman has accompanied his aunt, poet Anne Waldman, since the age of ten. Waldman is a co-founding member of Radical Reversal, Diva of Deva Loka, and Notable Deaths. He has performed with Patti Smith, William Parker, Nadah El Shazly, Malcolm Mooney, Thurston Moore, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Charles Hayward, Luke Stewart, and Yoshiko Chuma. Waldman is also a member of NYC's Heroes Are Gang Leaders (led by poet Thomas Sayers Ellis and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis), of Sam Shalabi's Land of Kush, and of the Norwegian hardcore group MoE. As a youngster, Waldman was taken under the wing of avant-garde giant Paul Bley. Along with Anne Waldman and cousin Ambrose Bye, Waldman is a co-producer for Fast Speaking Music, a NYC poetry and music label which has released recordings with Amiri Baraka, Meredith Monk, William Parker, Laurie Anderson, Eileen Myles, CAConrad, Fred Moten, Daniel Carter, Clark Coolidge, Thurston Moore, Joanne Kyger, and many others.

The moment the first bass note of Luke Stewart kicks in on Watermelancholia, followed by the swelling drum roll of Malick Koly and the lush leading voice of Janice Lowe you feel Devin Brahja will take you on a deep mind-blowing spiritual journey. Channeling wild seventies Impulse vibes on "O.P.K" or, could you say, even resonating the guts of early Art Ensemble of Chicago and the tempering spirit of Max Roach's We Insist era: Brahja is soul searching their spirit on Watermelancholia. A poetic stream of consciousness, backboned by top-notch musicians, transcending the cosmic universe, trying to find answers and musically connecting. Watermelancholia is a meditation on healing the inner schism between the sense of self -- the ego -- and the inner being. It is about bringing the ego to justice; putting it on trial, as it were. Includes booklet with extended liner notes.

"Ancient to the future 2.0. Watermelancholia is about the law of Karma: a law so obvious that it often goes unspecified and ignored. Neglecting this law invites a world of chaos. It's been articulated in endless ways. Some have called it Cosmic Law or Natural Law. Others translate it as Do No Harm." --liner notes excerpt

"In the late '70s Wild Fire was one of the more popular groups in Trinidad. Formed by Oliver 'Stompy' Chapman back in 1962 the group was originally named the Sparks. By the disco era Wild Fire were the house band at night clubs like Disco Tracks and the Upper Level. The group was very influenced by disco, especially the famous British group, Hot Chocolate known for the classic disco hit 'You Sexy Thing.' Hot Chocolate's chief songwriter, Tony Wilson was originally a Trinidadian native and also great friends with Oliver Chapman. The opening track on this compilation is 'Try Making Love', a floor-filling track written by Tony Wilson in 1977 and recorded at Coral Sound Studio in Port of Spain. It was there that Oliver Chapman laid down the unforgettable bass line, solidifying its status as a surefire hit. The infectious tune held steady at the number one slot for six weeks in Trinidad and eventually climbed to the top of the charts in Barbados. Recorded at KH Studios, 'Living On A String' with its unique disco synth sound by keyboard player Calvin Duncan was about the hard living of one trying to survive as a musician and hoping to one day partake in the material strappings of fame. 'The Rebels' was more about the political struggle for the young in the country at the time. There was a lot of corruption in the government and a lot of young people out of work. The song called to stand up and rebel against the regime. And years later in 1990 it did happen when the Muslim group Jamaat al Muslimeen stormed the Red House (Trinidad's Parliament House) and took cabinet members hostage. Wild Fire would go on to tour the Caribbean extensively including stops in Barbados, Antigua, St. Thomas and Guadeloupe. The group had a massive local hit with their track 'Say A Little Prayer.' The group would disband in 1985 and Oliver Chapman would move to America. Dance Hits is a collection of Wild Fire's more dance friendly material."

LP version. "Meg Baird's songs are rarely made up of tidy stories. In fact, for Meg, mystery itself is often the medium. With Furling, Meg's fourth album under her own name, she explores the breadth of her musical fascinations and the environments around them -- the edges of memory, daydreams spanning years, loose ends, loss, divergent paths, and secret conversations under stars. Furling moves through these varied spaces with the slippery, misty cohesiveness of a dream -- guided by an ageless, stirring voice that remains singular and unmistakable. Since co-founding the beguiling and beautiful Espers in the mid-aughts amid Philadelphia's fertile underground music community, Meg's solo recordings have constituted just a fraction of her work. Her first solo LP, the disarmingly out-of-time Dear Companion (2007), saw her carve a quiet, sunlit space away from the flickering swirl of Espers. Since her last solo releases, Seasons on Earth (2011) and Don't Weigh Down the Light (2015) Meg has lent thunderous drumming, lead vocal, and poetry to Heron Oblivion (Sub Pop) . . . She collaborated with harpist Mary Lattimore on the mesmerizingly hazy Ghost Forests (2018). She's played drums with Philadelphia scuzz-punks Watery Love (In The Red, Richie Records) and explored her deep familial folk roots in the Baird Sisters (Grapefruit Records). She also contributed her vocal arrangements to albums from Sharon Van Etten, Kurt Vile, Will Oldham, and Steve Gunn, and toured with Angel Olson, Dinosaur Jr., Bill Callahan, Thurston Moore, and Bert Jansch, among others. Yet Furling is the album that most irreverently explores the span of her work and musical touchstones. It showcases her natural tether to '60s English folk traditions. But it also reveals her deep love for soul balladry, the dubby Bristol atmospherics of Flying Saucer Attack, the solitary musings of Neil Young shackled to his piano deep in the foggy pre-dawn, the melancholy memory collage of DJ Shadow's Endtroducing, and the delicious, Saturday-night promise of St. Etienne. Furling was primarily recorded at Louder Studios by Tim Green (Bikini Kill, Nation of Ulysses, Melvins, Wooden Shjips). Additional piano and vocal recording were captured at Panoramic Studios in Stinson Beach, CA with Jason Quever (Papercuts). It was mastered in Brooklyn by Heba Kadry, who mixed Bjork's Utopia and mastered LPs for Slowdive, Cass McCombs, and Beach House. For all its adornments, Furling remains deeply intimate. The entire album was performed by Meg and her longtime collaborator, partner, and Heron Oblivion bandmate Charlie Saufley. While her prior solo work hinted at more expansive horizons, Furling explores the idea of Meg Baird as a band much more freely. Venturing beyond the musical confines of fingerstyle guitar, she plays drums, mellotron, organs, synths, and vibraphone over her piano and guitar foundations. Her distinctive, simultaneously elegiac and uplifting vocals, meanwhile, connect surreal dream montages, graft sunshine sonics to swooning meditations on romantic solidarity in trying times, and weave odes to the simple gestures of friendship -- and the loss of family and friends..."

Mt. Hadamard National Park is the Hallow Ground debut by composer, programmer, and instrument designer Matthias Puech. Informed by mathematical and artistic approaches that aim to both contemplate on and control complexity, the eponymous five-part composition explores natural and mystical forces through what he calls "audio-naturalist noise". The composition is complemented by two further pieces that follow similar concepts: "Suspension" emulates the chemical phenomenon of the same name, while "Imperceptible Life" hinges on the musical possibilities of stridulation. Over the course of the entire album, Puech's singular take on electro-acoustic and electronic music creates unique sonic spaces as much as it pays its dues to the unpredictability of the world that we inhabit. Jacques Hadamard was a pioneer among physicists and mathematicians who, in the early 20th century, were puzzled by processes that are deterministic but hard to predict. The sounds, arranged in sweeping and tense dynamics, serve as multiple agents within a complex system. The synthetic flora and fauna created through the use of the composer-performer's instruments feels uncannily familiar or even disturbingly hostile at times... This process is mirrored in aquatic yet tangible sounds as well as dynamics that slowly converge towards density before the composition ends on a quiet note. The 14-minute-long "Imperceptible Life" is based on a 2019 live performance first conceived as a full-scale test drive of some new electronic equipment Puech was designing at that time. It explores the musical potential of stridulation, the act of creating sounds by rubbing together certain body parts -- in the insect world, a common means of communication. Again, Puech's approach is neither purely naturalistic nor only mimetic. Rather, "Imperceptible Life" offers yet another artistic reflection on the theme of chaos and order, and how human perception and emotion relate to it. As a whole, Mt. Hadamard National Park thus not merely mirrors natural phenomena but transforms them in ways that are emotionally evocative: the complexity and apparent arbitrariness of Puech's compositions reveal an underlying beauty that is equal parts haunting and comforting.

Kalita Records announce the first ever official 7" single release of Carrie Cleveland's highly sought-after soulful disco masterpiece "Love Will Set You Free", backed by her equally elusive promotional version of "Make Love To Me". At long last, Kalita collates Carrie's two most in-demand recordings on one 7" single, housed in a picture sleeve limited to just 500 copies. Originally written, produced and performed by Carrie and her husband Bill in their home garage studio and privately released over a space of three years between 1978 and 1980, the two recordings showcase both Carrie's captivating vocals and Bill's musical prowess. Although Carrie's album and singles were originally soon lost to memory without the promotional tools of the major labels at the time, her music has since become highly sought-after on the soul and disco scene, with original copies of her album and singles reaching £300+ on the rare occasion that they come up for sale. Now, in follow up to their 2018 discography retrospective on Carrie's life and music, Kalita showcase her two greatest songs on this limited 7" picture sleeve single.

Four CD version. Includes two remastered versions, each on two CDs. Four-CD version includes two remastered versions, each on two CDs; first remaster by Dierks/Flüchter and then a completely different mastering by Dieter Wegner, who has already remastered many albums of the krautrock catalog, including the albums of the Cosmic Jokers. Remastered by Dieter Dierks and Dennis Flüchter. Walter Wegmüller (1937-2020) was a Swiss-Jenish artist who grew up in difficult circumstances in Bern. After training in Basel, Bern, Paris, and London, he began his artistic career. In addition to painting and sculptural works, Walter Wegmüller occupied himself with the entire spectrum of art. He gained widespread international attention, especially from 1974 onwards, with the publication of his Zigeuner Tarot. He was successful at countless exhibitions in Europe and overseas and was repeatedly awarded prizes and distinctions. However, he never forgot his origins as a Verding child and "Rome child from the Kalderasch tribe." In 1973, he released the album Tarot with an all-star band. Successful musicians such as Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching, Harald Grosskopf, Dieter Dierks, Hartmut Enke, Jürgen Dollase, and Walter Westrupp played in the band. It remained Walter Wegmüller's only foray into the world of music. The album was last released on vinyl in 1976, the CD in 2000. This version here is the first remaster ever.

"The union of composers Lawrence English and loscil aka Scott Morgan is seamless, sublime, and long overdue. Born of a conversation centered on the notion of "rich sources" as a forge for electronic music, Colours Of Air is a collection of recordings of a century old pipe organ housed at the historic Old Museum in Brisbane, Australia, which were then processed, transformed, and elevated into eight majestic electro-acoustic threshold devotionals. The timbre of the instrument and spatial fluctuations of room tone infuse the music with a subdued, sacred feel, like vaulted light in a nave of stained glass. They describe the album as 'an iterative project, a reduction and eventual expansion,' sifting the swells and drones of the organ for every shivering shade of radiance. The tracks are named for the hue each piece suggests -- from the gauzy levitational miasma of 'Yellow' to the pulsing melancholic mirage of 'Violet' to the seething twilit sandstorm of 'Magenta.' Morgan and English are both adept at conjuring moods of muted grandeur, like landscapes veiled in dusk, still looming and luminous. Here their combined powers open pathways to heightened realms of deep listening and bewitching restraint, finding flickering infinities in ancient configurations of wind, brass, stone, and dust."

Reissue, originally released in 1980. Welcome to the realm of creator and mentor Michael Wadada, the man behind the exotic maneuvers of Suns of Arqa, one of the most sought-after world beat fusion project of the early eighties. His main goal was to increase the vibrations of classical Indian raga with the rhythms of Niyabinghi drumming, epitomized in England by contemporary dub producers. Released in 1980 on Manchester's own Rock Steady Records, Revenge Of The Mozabites is an essential masterpiece paving the way for future over the border contamination. Deeply informed by cosmic mysticism the album still reverberates with the hidden sounds of earth and soul. Fully remastered and licensed; edition of 500.

"Keyboardist and composer Weldon Irvine is among the most celebrated jazz-funk artists of all time. A longtime bandleader for Nina Simone, he wrote the lyrics for Simone's iconic civil rights anthem 'To Be Young, Gifted and Black'. Throughout the 1970s, Irvine released a series of seminal albums full of deep, soulful, funky grooves, many of which were later mined for samples. The Sisters is a collection of lost tracks and demos from his late-1970s studio sessions with fellow jazz-funk luminary, Don Blackman. Featuring the hit single 'Morning Sunrise' (later famously sampled on Jay-Z's 'Dear Summer'), the album contains a potent mix of instrumental and vocal tracks that stand up with the best work in Irvine's impressive catalog."

2023 repress. "The Tribe founders' collaborative debut, remixed from the original mutli-track master tapes under the direction of its creators and lacquered by Bernie Grundman. Phil Ranelin's side has been pitch-corrected and restored to a suite, as was originally intended. Wendell Harrison's side contains extended, full versions of two songs. The definitive reissue of this SPIRITUAL JAZZ masterpiece. The Tribe label, one of the brightest lights of America's 1970s jazz underground, receives the Now-Again reissue treatment. This is your chance to indulge in the music and story of one of the most meaningful, local movements of the 20th Century Black American experience, one that expanded outwards towards the cosmos. In the words of the collective themselves, 'Music is the healing force of the universe.' Included in an extensive, oversized booklet, Larry Gabriel and Jeff 'Chairman' Mao take us through the history of the Tribe, in a compelling story that delves not just into the history of the label and its principals, but into the story of Black American empowerment in the latter half of the 20th Century. The booklet features never-before-seen archival photos and rare ephemera from Tribe's mid-1970s heyday."

2023 repress. "The Tribe co-founder's debut, lacquered directly from his master tapes in an all-analog transfer by Bernie Grundman. The definitive reissue of this spiritual jazz album which set the stage for his Vibes from the Tribe. The Tribe label, one of the brightest lights of America's 1970s jazz underground, receives the Now-Again reissue treatment. This is your chance to indulge in the music and story of one of the most meaningful, local movements of the 20th Century Black American experience, one that expanded outwards towards the cosmos. In the words of the collective themselves, 'Music is the healing force of the universe.' Included in an extensive, oversized booklet, Larry Gabriel and Jeff 'Chairman' Mao take us through the history of the Tribe, in a compelling story that delves not just into the history of the label and its principals, but into the story of Black American empowerment in the latter half of the 20th Century. The booklet features never-before-seen archival photos and rare ephemera from Tribe's mid-1970s heyday."

From the artists: "Nothing untoward happened. Actually, that's not true, many unexpected things happened that can't really be described, not in words at least. Maybe communicated in a look, through touch or some kind of psychic pulse. Nobody got hurt though, quite the opposite. If you'd passed us by you wouldn't have noticed anything. We keep a low profile. We might have seen you. We might have see you in your entirety or perhaps a silhouette, a glimpse of an essence. On the other hand, at that point we might not have understood what existence means. Or we might have understood all of it at the same time. Your passing by being merely a brief glimmer in a torrent, a miniscule fluctuation. For all intents and purposes imperceptible. That's OK. We lost some details, we left soft debris in our heads, to be arranged and processed later on. We knew what we saw and felt and we'll know it again when we return. None more real. We were pinned to the earth and free to go anywhere we wanted. Anywhere, if we dared. We walked through lands suddenly divined, then everything faded away."

New double album from Anthony Child (Surgeon) and Daniel Bean, aka The Transcendence Orchestra. RIYL: classic Namlook/Fax, the spectralism of Iancu Dumitrescu, Jóhann Jóhannsson's Englabörn, Roedelius x Cluster. Cover print by Trudy Green. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Edition of 500.

Live in Soest, Germany, in Winter 1970, WDR-TV. Right before the definitive incarnation of the man-machine and all along the ocean of sound also known as krautrock. An early line-up of the Düsseldorf legend consisting of the two original members Ralf Hütter (organ) and Florian Schneider-Esleban (flute, violin, vibraphone, electronics) augmented by future Neu! drummer and motorik engineer, Klaus Dinger. From here to eternity!

2023 repress. Brace Up! is the first ever studio release from the duo of Chris Corsano (drums) and Bill Orcutt (guitar). Recorded in Brussels at Les Ateliers Claus by Christophe Albertijn on March 19th and 20th, 2018. Stage dive photograph by Jason Penner. "Over the past six years or so, drummer Chris Corsano has proven to be one of Bill Orcutt's most reliably flexible collusionists. Regardless of whether Bill is cluster-busting electric guitar strings, weaseling around with cracked electronics, or playing relatively spacious free-rock, Corsano is able to provide the proper base for his aural sculpting. A lot of Orcutt's instrumental work has traditionally felt hermetic even though he's exploring caverns of explosive ecstasy. One often got the impression Bill was operating in the way John Travolta did in the classic 1976 ABC television drama, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. Orcutt's actual interaction with collaborators emerged not from communication so much as pure observation. While he was fully cognizant of his musical surroundings, his reactions to it were walled off. This approach did not encourage sonic dialogue so much as parallel streams of discourse. These streams could interact with each other, but not in particularly standard ways. On Brace Up! , their first ever studio release, this precept has changed considerably. Whether it's a function of emotional familiarity or an intellectual choice I dunno, but there's a whole new kind of duo exchange going down on this record. Bill and Chris are clearly playing off each other's moves throughout the album. And it really raises the level of the music to an all-time high. From the cop car see-saw of 'Poundland Frenzy' to the mutual pummeling of 'Paranoid Time' (possibly a Minutemen tribute?) to the lazychicken- gets-stung-prog of 'She Punched a Hole in the Moon for Me,' the sounds on Brace Up! display a constant flow of ideas and instantaneous conjugation of newly forged verbs. As great as Bill and Chris's previous duo records have been, this one's greater." -- Byron Coley