"Ghost Dog - Original Motion Picture Score, produced by The RZA, is now available on official Vinyl and CD editions! This masterpiece was previously only given a limited Japanese release, and is the first film score produced by The RZA and features appearances by Wu Tang Clan."

LP version. "Quatermass Seven, the meeting of minds between guitarist Barrie Cadogan, bassist Lewis Wharton and drummer Malcolm Catto represents a re-birth of sorts for Little Barrie, with these their first recordings since 2017's Death Express and the untimely passing of their gifted drummer and friend Virgil Howe. As Lewis explains, the sessions played a part in the healing process, a way to re-connect through music without any intentions to necessarily come away with a finished record. 'It was good to get in the studio again after such a long break especially as we didn't go in with any agenda or expectations,' he explains. 'There was no preconceptions that we would make a new Little Barrie record, it was just an opportunity to work on some things Barrie had written for fun with zero pressure.' With most tracks recorded live with minimal overdubs, and produced by Malcolm at his Quatermass studios, The Heliocentrics' main man brings new flavor to the band's rhythm section by blending his power behind the drum kit and his expansive skills behind the mixing desk to take Little Barrie's music forward into new territories. Recorded on Catto's treasure trove of analogue gear, and mastered onto ¼" tape, the overall effect is guitar, bass and drums finding a sweet spot where genres collide, delivering a record that takes the influences of the past and pushes them towards somewhere more contemporary. 'I definitely hear in Barrie's songs a lot of common musical ground' explains Malcolm. 'It felt like a great thing to do, work with Malcolm while we're figuring out what we wanna do,' Barrie concludes, 'let's just go in and do some playing and see what happens, and we came out with more than we ever intended.' Quatermass Seven delivers a dark, deep and expansive set of grooves, layered with frazzled and flawless guitar and flowing melodies, as well as pointing toward a future of exciting new musical opportunities. 'Still here, so fine, just a little darker state of mind' sings Cadogan on 'Steel Drum', words which sum up hope in times of uncertainty, whilst unintentionally offering a perfect description of Quartermass Seven."

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

LP version. Gatefold sleeve. Includes extensive liner notes and a download card to WAV files of the full album. "Previously unreleased disco-soul-funk album with mixes by Kenny Dope. Tucked in the back corner of a linen closet in Macon, Georgia since 1979 sat a box that very few people knew existed. Lost and presumed forgotten, this box contained reel-to-reel tapes of the lost album by the band that issued the lauded Black Gold as The Mighty Chevelles in 1977. By 1979, while transitioning to the name Music Makers Band, the band entered Capricorn Studios and recorded this previously-unreleased disco funk opus, finally issued as You Can Be as part of the Now-Again Reserve series."

"An essential time capsule of Townes Van Zandt acoustic performances. A re-imagined collection available on vinyl for the first time in the USA. Includes classic Townes Van Zandt songs, 'If I Needed You', 'Pancho & Lefty', 'Waiting Round To Die', and 'I'll Be Here in The Morning', (duet with Barb Donovan). Include digital download containing bonus interview tracks with KUT's Larry Monroe. From the liner notes by Harold Eggers Jr.: 'These recordings are as close to the bone of Townes as you can get. They give the listener a very unique and detailed insight into and overview of his songwriting, music, and life as no other. Townes often made light of the dark, living in the shadows more than not. This album and Townes spoken words (bonus tracks) are significant because Townes personally chose each track, and in his own words revealed the private person and singer/songwriter/artist he was. These recordings and spoken words were very important to Townes for the world to hear his music and life story as he lived it, as told from the man himself.'"

2020 colored vinyl repress (half swirl/half blue/magenta). "I first heard Michael Yonkers via the Microminature Love reissue (Sub Pop) and was immediately hooked. I started collecting any piece of his legend that I could... some true, some likely not. He had hand-built all of his gear. He had broken his back. He was part of experimental surgery that left him in lifelong pain. He was a dancer. He was still kicking around making some of the oddest and most contrary-to-contemporary-popular-norms type of music. (A man after my own heart) And then I heard Goodby Sunball, recorded and released in 1974, the year I was born. I had and have a very deep connection with this set of songs. I wasn't sure why, but when I finally met Michael, I understood. He was kind and seemingly a pretty regular guy. But he was also a weirdo. A rare bird, waving the true freak music flag, and it didn't matter what kind of music he made, I loved it all. So, this record was recorded as a way to reboot and reconnect with some songs that have heavily inspired me over the years. It was hard to pick from his vast catalog, so I just sort of jumped in, with Tom Dolas, Nick Murray, and Brigid Dawson as my band (along with a bevy of others along the way) and these are the tunes that stuck to the wall. I will forever be grateful to Mr Yonkers for bringing me a little joy with his music and inspiring weirdos everywhere." --John Dwyer, Feb 2020

2020 repress. Ennio Morricone's incredible score for the 1977 cult thriller starring Kirk Douglas. Holocaust 2000 was one of those gems from the maestro best era late '70s to early '80s. Complete edition for this first vinyl reissue ever. Splatter vinyl.

LP version. Includes download. Kacey Johansing releases her album No Better Time on Night Bloom Records. The album is an exploration of love and how one accepts it into his/her/their life. It asks how can someone allow love when the past is full of trauma. Can we become someone new and leave behind our former selves? Can place allow us that freedom? How does one find the strength to try again? Across 11 songs, Johansing wrestles to find the answers, her unmistakable vocals always leading the way. Anchored by powerful performances pulled from three days of live tracking with her band all in the same room, the album is bounding and energetic at its core. First takes were prioritized and perfection was rarely the goal. Rather, capturing an emotion and honesty from herself and the players was the rule of the day. The album pulls from Johansing's love of classic pop -- it's her LA record -- the place where she now resides and initially struggled to understand. Joan Didion said, "The future always looks good in the golden land, because no one remembers the past." Kacey saw that and chose to tap into the creative buzz happening all around her -- at small clubs and while dipping in and out of playing in friends' bands, including in between tours as a member of Hand Habits. The resulting No Better Time is the sound of letting go and faithfully falling into step with a new way. There are vibraphones and swooping strings, grand pianos, and doubled acoustic guitars, washes of tape delay and woodwinds -- but it is the songs that continue to set Johansing apart. Here she unveils her strongest set yet. Produced by Johansing and multi-instrumentalist Tim Ramsey (Vetiver, Fruit Bats), engineered by Tyler Karmen (DIIV, Alvvays), and mixed by Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith, Cat Power). Includes contributions from Todd Dahlhoff (Feist, Devendra Banhart), Trevor Beld Jimenez (Parting Lines), and Amir Yaghmai (Julian Casablancas + The Voidz).

John Townley is associated with various musical projects by different groups of people. For some, he's the driving force behind the double-album by The Family of Apostolic (1968), for others the guitarist of folk-rock garage-heroes The Magicians (1965-66). Yet other folks think of him as the musician/producer behind maritime albums like his own Sailor! (1991) and A Chesapeake Sailor's Companion (2000) or the two albums by The Starboard List (1976-77). But in the end it's always the one and only John Townley -- a man of many talents with an incredible scope of musical abilities and sensibilities. Having studied guitar with Rev. Gary Davis in the early 1960s, John played the blues and folk circuit of coffee houses in New York City, meeting almost everyone you could imagine in that scene. He played in a duo with David Blue, formed an all-electric folk-band in 1965, The Psychedelic Rangers, before joining The Magicians. His next venture was to found the Apostolic Studios, the first 12-track-facility in New York. There he recorded The Family of Apostolic-album and the follow-up with Ocean (1969) as well as various projects for Vanguard Records and other labels. From the 1970's onward John's been researching, playing and producing mainly maritime folk music, making the aforementioned albums and sailing (often literally) around the USA and Europe. Now he's back with this new solo album -- and being the multi-instrumentalist that he is, he played every instrument you can hear on it by himself. The project started in 2014-15 with recordings at Marc Greene's studio in Brookville, NY and it was finished when Grammy-winning engineer John Kilgore did the final mixes in New York City in 2019-20. As John always has been fond of eclectic album concepts (just listen to the albums by the Family of Apostolic and Ocean) this new album also covers a lot of ground. His folk and blues roots are represented by new interpretations and re-inventions of some real classics, on top there are also some wonderful new original songs. Everything is tied together by John's incredible guitar playing -- acoustic and electric -- and his great voice (plus harmony vocals and around ten other instruments). John Townley returns with a folk n' blues-pickin' smasher of an album. Deluxe fold open cover. Includes insert with liner and song notes by John Townley.

"This winter sees the release of four albums by The William Loveday Intention. They will be staggered, one a month beginning in October with People Think They Know Me But They Don't Know Me. This is the second album in the series, entitled Will There Ever Be A Day That You're Hung Like A Thief? For the uninitiated, The William Loveday Intention is the latest band put together by Billy Childish. The four-album project includes guest appearances by James Taylor (The Prisoners, JTQ), Dave Tattersall (The Wave Pictures) and Huddie Hamper (The Shadracks) amongst others."

"Secret Pyramid is the nom de nocturne of Vancouver, BC's resident ambient explorer Amir Abbey. Having perfected his brand of elegant elegia over the past decade heard on albums released by illustrious imprints as Students of Decay, Ba-Da-Bing!, and Nice Up International, Abbey makes his Geographic North debut with Embers, Secret Pyramid's most sincerely solemn and curiously calming work to date."

"Peregrination is the centerpiece of a cycle that began with the release of Retinue (2019) and will find its completion in a final recording yet to come. Where the universe described in Retinue is an expat's new home, Peregrination packs up, throws open the doors sets out on a pilgrimage whose immediate focus is found among the uncounted details discovered along the path of any and every journey. Built of rhythms, timbres, scales, and voices gathered from an imagined archipelago, Peregrination is simultaneously a walk away and towards a music that shifts between tradition and experiment. In the pilgrimage described in these pieces, Gregory Taylor continues his long exploration of the intricacies, voicings, structures, and meanings of Gamelan traditions with an ear steeped in minimalism, and contemporary electonic- and computer-based musics. Across four long form compositions these often lush and occasionally harsh aural excursions shimmer, shiver, and rest; strive, take form, and collapse in a myriad of manifestations both subtle and overt. The journey of Peregrination and its mirrored returning twin to come represent the summa of Taylor's renewed cryptohistorical Javanese traditions."

LP version. Gatefold sleeve. The Acid Lands, created by the Prague-based Opening Performance Orchestra, was first heard in public in 2014 at the Movement-Sound-Space festival in Ostrava, to mark the centenary of William S. Burroughs's birth. The piece was performed live by Opening Performance Orchestra and their guests, the theremin player Martina Potucková, and the poet, musician, and performer Pavel Z as the narrator. The studio version of The Acid Lands was made in late 2019/early 2020 in collaboration with Bill Laswell and Iggy Pop, who undertook the role of the narrator. The piece, which pays tribute to William S. Burroughs, features fragments from the novels The Western Lands (1987) and Junkie (1953). In addition to the title composition, The Acid Lands, the record contains Bill Laswell's instrumental remix, as well as the collective piece "Naming Seven Souls", featuring samples of William S. Burroughs reading his own work.

Double LP version. Tokyo Dreaming is a superb selection picked from the highly collectible Nippon Columbia label and its Better Days sub-label. Wewantsounds have teamed up with journalist and Japanese music expert Nick Luscombe. The selection mixes electro, synth-pop, funk, and ambient and includes many sought-after rarities and hidden gems which have never been released outside of Japan and the set has been newly remastered by Nippon Columbia. Nippon Columbia, one of Japan's oldest music labels is also one of its most collectible thanks to its sub-label Better Days which, in the late '70s, became a hotbed for Tokyo's new generation of pop artists eager to experiment with ambient, electro, and funk. Armed with a string of new Japanese-made synthesizers and drum machines that would soon take the world by storm, they made cutting-edge music, which has since become highly sought-after by a new generation of Japanese music lovers. Nick Luscombe, who has long been a leading advocate of Japanese music from this era, has handpicked a selection of some of the sharpest music released on these labels at the time. Tokyo Dreaming starts with "The End of Asia" by Ryuichi Sakamoto from his 1978 ground-breaking debut Thousand Knives Of... (WWSCD 024CD/WWSLP 024LP, 2019). The track became a staple of Sakamoto and Yellow Magic Orchestra's live shows and was even re-recorded by the group for their 1980 album X Multiplies. The track is followed by Mariah's cult Armenian folk flavored synth pop classic "Shinzo No Tobira" (1983). Chika Asamoto's "Self Control" (1988) and Jun Fukamachi's "Treasure Hunter" (1985) are perfect songs in the synth-pop canon, while Yumi Murata's rendition of Akiko Yano's "Watashi No Bus" and Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama's "Rainy Driver" both from 1981, move closer towards the slicker, funkier sound of city pop. Tokyo Dreaming superbly showcases the breadth of '80s Japanese music and the way electro pop was a playing ground for musicians to experiment with many styles, as showcased by Akira Sakata's dub-infused "Room" from 1980, Kazumi Watanabe's discoid "Tokyo Joe" (1980) and Juicy Fruits' techno pop song "Jenie Gets Angry". The selection flows effortlessly between many shades of synth and ends with two cult classics in the form of Yasuaki Shimizu's "Semi Tori No Hi" and Shigeo Sekito's ambient-jazz masterpiece "The Word II" from his highly sought-after album Kareinaru Electone (The Word) Vol.2 (1975). Tokyo Dreaming showcases the groundbreaking sounds of a city turned giant sonic lab which was restlessly inventing the music of the future. Album designed by famed London-based designer Optigram. Also features Yumi Seino, Kyoko Furuya, Kazue Itoh, Haruo Chikada & Vibra-Tones, and Colored Music.

Ocean Moon is a solo project from Jon Tye of Seahawks. A long-time explorer of the sounds of spaciousness, having released the ambient classic LP iO in 1994 as MLO, Crystal Harmonics is a document of Jon's latest discoveries. Island Visions (BEWITH 077LP), the recent collection of music from Seahawks for KPM, touched on the deeper, more spatial side of music and led to Jon exploring this territory in greater depth, again for KPM, under his Ocean Moon alter ego. This time he brought along some of today's most visionary musicians: Jon Brooks (The Advisory Circle, Ghostbox) for his intuitive melodic mastery, Seaming To (Graham Massey's Toolshed) for her extraordinary vocal talents, Steve Moore (Zombi) for his sophisticated and inventive rhythmic sensibility, and Richard Norris (The Grid) for his sensitive and deeply resonant ambience. The initial recordings were made at The Centre Of Sound in Cornwall, with the collaborators various contributions coming from London, Derbyshire and the US. The supremely serene electronic flute and bells of "Crystal Drift" ease you into the journey and you take the next steps with "Rainbow Ripples" as it gently folds space with arpeggiated synth swells and delicate machine beats. Light vocal tones, bells, and breath FX on "And Breathe" keep you going, accompanied by synth drones and billows of electric piano. You travel through the synth-space-surf haze of "Lost Oceans", with soft bass and warm ambience, to reach the "New Infinity" of revolving melody, spacious pads, and light electronic beats. The celestial tone floats of "White Mirror" close out the first side. Temple bells ring out to running water flowing together with deep resonant vocal tones as the second side opens with "Peace Bells". "Revolving and Evolving" follows, a tranquil electronic meadow of lush pastoral synth tones where you rest for a while for "Mountain Dreaming", a light rhythmic dance of zither and birdsong. The undulating "Forest Motion" ripples with synth arpeggios, dreamy Solina strings and percussive modular electronics before allowing the crackling ambience and Cantonese whispers of "Sleep Golden" to wash over you. Finally, you find yourself on "The Long Path", its warm temple ambience of drones and chants guiding you home. Crystal Harmonics is inspired by four particular albums from KPM's catalog: There's The Electronic Light Orchestra by Adrian Wagner (1975) and then Temple Of The Stars, Breath Of Life, and finally Keith Mansfield's Circles, these last three coming from KPM's mid-1980s run of modern classical/new age gems. Mastered by Simon Francis, cut by the legendary Pete Norman.

Lebanese musician, producer, and sound engineer Fadi Tabbal's work consists of guitar pieces ranging from stripped acoustics to ambient and electronic-inspired treatments. He has released four solo albums since 2013, including The Museum Of Disappearing Buildings (BNSD 023LP) and Music For The Lonely Vol. 1 (2017-2018) and recently spearheaded the Beirut Musicians Fund, set up to aid musicians in Beirut who lost equipment in the explosion at the Port of Beirut. Tabbal is a full-time member of several Lebanese bands including electronic duo Stress/Distress and The Bunny Tylers (with Charbel Haber) and has collaborated with Mike Cooper, Postcards, Sharif Sehnaoui, Kinematik, and Oiseaux-Tempete, to name but a few.

Lebanon's capital city of Beirut sits on one of the world's most turbulent fault lines, with a hostile and expansionist neighbor to the south (the settler-colonial apartheid state of Israel), a civil-war-riven country to the east and north (Syria), and a domestic situation that features a deeply-corrupt sectarian ruling elite, millions of refugees from Palestine and Syria, months of revolutionary protests, and a collapsed economy. Beirut, however, has long been a vibrant and diverse beacon of Arab and Mediterranean culture. Recent decades have seen the emergence of an internationally-recognized contemporary music, art, and dance scene; a vocal LGBTQ+ movement; and an interconnected web of efforts around refugee rights, democratic government, public health, and environmental concerns. Equal parts heartbreaking and inspiring, the city carries on, even thrives, against all odds. The massive explosion at the Port of Beirut on August 4th, which decimated some of the city's most beautiful and progressive neighborhoods, stands indeed as a tragic example of some of the worst ills afflicting humanity in 2020. But it also revealed a few long-simmering reasons for hope: citizens coming together in widespread acts of mutual aid, emphasizing what brings people together over what divides them, and rising up en masse against a corrupt economic system and the geopolitical power structures it engenders. As American cities revolt against totalitarianism and for racial justice, with Portland at the forefront, Lebanon beckons as both a cautionary tale and an example of the persistence necessary in order to take down a dying order in an era of existential threats.

Recorded and mixed between January and April 2020 at Tunefork Studios and at home, Beirut. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll. Release by Beacon Sound and Ruptured. Includes download; edition of 300.

Out-of-print on CD for almost two decades, Cold Spring announce the official reissue of a much sought after Best Of set by the acclaimed esoteric experimental pioneers Coil, with A Guide For Beginners - The Voice Of Silver and A Guide For Finishers - A Hair Of Gold being made available together in one deluxe set. Officially licensed from FEELEE, this edition spans Coil's entire career, featuring tracks from all their major albums. They were hand-picked by Coil to represent their best work and originally released to mark their first performance in Moscow in 2001. The artwork (text in English and Russian Cyrillic) sympathetically features the rarest of the images previously used in the original Russian and English editions and is packaged in a deluxe, glossy eight-panel digipak with spot matt-laminate varnish.

"Divine Horsemen were a band formed & led by Chris D between the years 1983 and 1988, while he was on hiatus from the Flesh Eaters. Divine Horsemen (taking their name from one of the Flesh Eaters' most powerful stompers) emerged as a byproduct of Chris' gorgeous solo album, Time Stands Still. He met singer Julie Christensen a few months before the recording, and the mix of their voices was such a perfect pairing of honey and gravel, they knew they had to keep working together. Taking a more measured rock tone (as compared to the raging word-zonk of the Flesh Eaters), Divine Horsemen recorded three great LPs and one EP for SST. They were also an amazingly solid live band, combining Chris' gonzo pulp imagery with those incredible twinned vocals, massive guitar riffs and a truly locked-in rhythm section. The two shows from which this album is harvested were recorded just before the Devil's River album came out in '85, and close on the heels of '87's Middle of the Night. It seems wild to me, listening to this disk for the umpteenth time, how together these songs are as rock-qua-rock monsters. I realize I'm biased and all, but I'd say half of the tunes are nothing less than goddamn classics. I somewhat prefer the later version of the band with Peter Andrus on guitar (he replaced Wayne James, Cam King and Marshall Rohner), but that's just picking nits. The core of the line-up was stable -- Julie and Chris singing, the late Robyn Jameson (the sole holdover from the Flesh Eaters) on bass, Rex Roberts on drums -- and they always sounded real damn good. Sadly, the band didn't last as long as hoped. Chris and Julie got married, but that was a collaboration that burned too hot to last. The band split when the couple did, which ended a truly ecstatic vocal pair-up. Julie went on to work for almost a decade as Leonard Cohen's angelic foil, but I was more excited to hear she was guesting on 2019's boss Flesh Eaters' album, I Used to be Pretty. And her vocal spots at a few of their live shows were spine-tingling. But there's nothing quite like the sound of Divine Horsemen. From the hot rod thuggery of 'Mother's Worry' to the sweet massage of 'Middle of the Night,' their music will take you where you want to go. So, lay back and dig this disk, while you wait for their new studio LP, Hot Rise of an Ice Cream Phoenix, on In the Red. There is also talk of a live tour, which would be fan-fucking-tastic. More than that I cannot say. Selah." --Byron Coley, 2020

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; includes download code. Liraz, the highly touted Israeli-Persian singer, returns with a buoyant and border-busting new album. Shimmering electro-pop meets pulsing dance rhythms and retro Persian sonics. Includes clandestine collaborations with Iran-based musicians and composers. For her second album, Zan ("Women" in Farsi), the Israeli- Persian singer collaborated online with composers and musicians from Iran. Everything had to be secretive to avoid the gaze of Tehran's mullahs and secret police. The result is her private revolution, songs with a true message, music to make people dance and smile -- and above all, think. The songs on Zan are the fulfilment of a dream, taking Liraz deep into the soul of the country that fills her heart and populated the stories her parents told her as a child -- but one she's never seen. Her family, Iranian Jews, moved to Tel Aviv in the 1970s. Yet although Liraz was raised in Israel, she's always believed that "my culture is Iranian." The real revelation came when she moved to the US for three years to work as an actress, appearing in several big-budget movies, including A Late Quartet and Fair Game. In Los Angeles she found a huge Iranian community. When making Naz (2018), she wrote and sang in Farsi, the music at times exploring the sounds of pre-revolution Iranian pop music. On Zan, she worked with Iranian musicians, some anonymously, and let her voice and her music resonate further. One of those anonymous players, a female percussionist based in Tehran, features on the opening track, "Zan Bezan," (in English "Women, Sing") alongside Liraz's Israeli band. It's an insistent, catchy piece of electro-pop with heavy musical nods to Iranian pop stars of the 1970s like Googoosh; the message of female empowerment, however, is absolutely contemporary. Another secret Iranian collaborator worked on the powerful earworm that's "Joon Joon," where the dance beats erupt straight from a 1970s Tehran disco, while the big chorus implants itself in the brain and refuses to leave. Zan is an album of contrasts, like "Shab Gerye," the ballad that Liraz knew she needed to include "because the words and music fit so perfectly. It's a love song about reality," or the aching closer, "Lalai." The album continues breaking the walls her mother and aunts began to dismantle. But it does much more: it burrows under borders. It connects countries and cultures. Zan, Liraz insists, is the second chapter of the story that began with Naz. But it's also one that stands alone.

Double LP version. "The fourth release from Jazz Is Dead records features Azymuth, one of the greatest bands in Brazilian history, redefining Popular Brazilian Music since 1973. Having released almost 20 albums in their career, Azymuth proves to be a consistent source for an innovative mix of jazz, pop, MPB, and electronic music. Composed and produced by Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad and recorded in the Linear Labs analog studio."

Magic Box present reissue of The Beat of the Earth's self-titled album, originally released in 1967. Recorded by the legendary, enigmatic Phil Pearlman (and a few friends) as an art project whilst at University of Southern California, this pioneering improvised psychedelic album has been compared to the Doors, the Velvet Underground, and others. Only 500 copies were manufactured back in 1967, and distributed via hitch-hikers, making original copies almost impossible to obtain. This vinyl reissue comes with an insert offering background information about the album.

Los Angeles based artist Geneva Skeen returns to Room40 with her second full-length edition. Born out of the ashes of 2020's cascade of heartbreak and uncertainty, Skeen unpacks the chaotic and unruly events with agency, heaping the distorted eruptions of her day to day into a soldering pyre of voice, pulsing rhythm, textured electronics, and masked field recordings. This is a reflexive music, made for unlocking the possibilities of the moment rather than being caged in by their particulars.

Poet Aristilde Kirby writes: "Flower branches dowsing rod against their doubles in the wind's aimless static. Spindled fog verglas plants, caressed by white rays of absolute eyelash. [A wisp of fresh respiration] 'The world has no visible order & all I have is the order of my breath,' says the fifth track on Double Bind. [A ribbon of a scream] It has the incandescent & incantation-like quality of the title of Fushitshusha's 2014 album: Nothing Changes No One Can Change Anything I Am Ever Changing You Can Only Change Yourself. [Asemic voices from anywhere] What can you count on these days in 2020, outside of the pacing of your breath as we all struggle to cleave to each passing beat pair & repair? [Spirals of a finger on glass] Between two right hands, neither really righter than the other, we have no choice but to hold on to the you one holds dearest to: the beads of just being. [Sinewaves in phase] When I comb my hair to get ready for the day, I realize that the black static it collects was always meant to fall away. [Synthetic graupel in flames] Here, Skeen specializes in ambient music as the pellucid space of an emotional landscape, limned in Timothy Morton's ethos of dark ecology & Gloria Anzaldua's idea of nepantla. It is equally phenomenological, psychological, spiritual & visceral. If you ask me, Geneva is a poet who works in sound sculpture. She cures slabs of lived time as if flesh marble & makes of her subconscious an underworld for the listener to locate themselves in. [Bats that clamor as strata of bleeding leather] The through-lines of her past works are clear as a fault crack & in this instance, glimmer like quartz veins. [Tiny harmonic partials prick like an ice pick] Skeen knows that to protect the lit wick, you have to cup the darkness. [Anvil & shelves of overcast guitar drop into a weak bell pulse] She knows that to get past a hard period, like timing a total eclipse's black sun, you have to account for every degree, every granular shift, of lost movement..."

"Emerging out of Amsterdam's vibrant squat scene in 1979, The Ex -- a name chosen for the ease and speed with which it could be spray-painted onto a wall -- have for four decades been an entirely self-sustaining musical entity, charting a course through the global underground with a spirit of freedom and radical exploration. Originally released in 1982, History Is What's Happening features one of the most harrowing title/cover art combinations in recent memory. What at first glance looks like a firing squad is, upon closer inspection, a concentration camp orchestra. On their second album, The Ex advance into a distinctly more post-punk style: textural guitar shards and tumbling motorik drumming with Bas Masbeck's thunderous bass shouldering much of the melodic load. Railing against political duplicity and the illusory nature of 'freedom' in an age of manufactured consent, G.W. Sok offers some of punk's most bracing and memorable agitprop lyrics. These twenty songs are a quick-moving and caustic trip, a DIY studio rendition of the band's explosive live set from this era. History Is What's Happening remains an important signpost in the history of both Ex-evolution and the cataclysmic '80s. With their sophomore LP, the group would put Holland on the underground music map. Indeed, many now-lifelong fans around the world were just beginning to take notice and get down with the mighty Ex. This first-time vinyl reissue comes with 23" x 16" poster and 24-page booklet."

We Release Jazz presents the first-ever live performance and recording by Marc Moulin's sought-after jazz-funk band Placebo, captured at Casino Kursaal during the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1971 and never released on CD before. June 17th, 1971, the Montreux Riviera, its delightful microclimate and postcard scenery, its fabled music history and the luscious wines of the region. A dream setting for Marc Moulin to lead his ensemble on a 26-minutes+ jazz adventure -- Nick Kletchkovsky on bass, Freddy Rottier on drums, Johnny Dover on bass clarinet, Alex Scorier on soprano saxophone, and Richard Rousselet on flugelhorn. The magic of that night is dripping through Placebo's sumptuous "Showbiz Suite", a soulful piece in two parts in which every instrument gets enough room to shine, smoothly navigating between cozy cognac-by-the-fireplace funk and heartfelt grittiness, served with a pinch of Soft Machine vibes. It's the night Placebo was born, when foundations were laid for three classic albums: Ball of Eyes (on which you can hear a shorter studio version of "Showbiz Suite"), 1973, and their final self-titled album. Born in 1942 in Ixelles, the multifaceted Marc Moulin had one of the most fascinating careers in the history of Belgian music, from his jazz roots and Placebo to founding electronic disco pop band Telex ("Moskow Diskow", "Rock Around The Clock"), producing a vast array of French and Belgian hits (notably for Philip Catherine and Lio), pioneering downtempo and electro jazz with three albums on Blue Note, and exploring other avenues of expression such a radio hosting and comedy. He sadly left us in 2008. His incredible legacy shall live on.

After two years since her debut full-length release, Grand River presents her second album Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes on Editions Mego. The eight track LP shows an evolution towards a more experimental side of the Dutch-Italian composer which is here superbly combined with her ability of creating melodies previously heard on her double-LP Pineapple, released on Spazio Disponibile in 2018. Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes expresses how acoustic instruments can be perfectly merged with electronic and analog synthesizers to become one new organic whole. The composer, whose birth-name is Aimée Portioli, brings the listener along on her personal explorational journey of expressions within a certain genre. The title of the album indicates the desire to explore what is new and see what is around us from different perspectives. The album opens with the track "Side Lengths", a complex and dreamy sequence made with one of her favorite synthesizers, the Yamaha DX-7. From there we are brought from extended panoramic sound design and cinematic ambiences, back and forth to synthetic melodies, field recordings, strings and for the first time ever, Aimée's own modified voice in the closing track, "All There Now". Recorded primarily at her home base in Berlin, Grand River's music is pure, magnificent and elegant which documents a solemn atemporal story where her experiences are translated into another language. Mastered by Giuseppe Tillieci at Enisslab Studio, Rome. Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin. Original artwork by Nathan Melaragno. Typography by Marco Ciceri.

No Love Is Sorrow is the third solo album by American singer-songwriter-guitarist Buck Curran. The album's primary influence draws upon personal experience, along with an idiosyncratic musical style developed over many years as a solo artist and member of the psych-folk duo Arborea. The album presents a body of soundscapes... acoustic and electric instrumentals, psychedelic poetic folk songs... compositions inspired by visions of the surreal landscapes of life: love, hope, loss, fear, transformation, the light of expecting a newborn child, dreams, the realization of impermanence with the recent losses of family members and friends. Further inspiration was drawn from music as wide-ranging as experimental music, '60s, and '70s folk and psychedelic blues-rock, jazz, Western classical music, and Indian classical music. "Ghost on the Hill", "Deep in the Lovin' Arms of My Babe", "Odissea", and "One Evening" are very personal songs that include lyrical themes of love, memories, and fear: "Ghost on the Hill" is a haunting and poetic memoir of life past, "One Evening" (in the poetic style of Bob Dylan's "It's Alright, Ma, I'm Only Bleeding") is a harrowing statement charged with scenes of contemporary life: love and hope, uncertainty and fear created by society, technology, and politics. "Blue Raga", "No Love Is Sorrow", "Marie", "For Adele", and "Chromaticle", and "Lucia" are experimental tone poems created through improvisation on acoustic guitar. "Django (New Years Day)" is Curran's debut on piano inspired by the music of Claude Debussy and Erik Satie. CD version includes six additional tracks; includes "Lucia", an experimental tone poem created through acoustic guitar improvisation, "War Behind the Sun", a searing psychedelic electric guitar instrumental, and four alternate versions.

Survival Research present a reissue of Horace Tapscott's Songs Of The Unsung, originally released in 1978. Distinguished Los Angeles-based jazz pianist Horace Tapscott is probably best-known as the founder of the Pan-Afrikan People's Orchestra of PAPA, also known as The Ark, though he began his career as a trombonist, working with Lionel Hampton and others during the late 1950s. The 1978 solo album, Songs Of The Unsung, released in small number on pianist Toshiya Taenaka's Interplay label, features Tapscott alone on piano, delivering a superb set of freely interpreted jazz tunes, including an unfettered reading of Lester Robertson's "In Times Like These" and Cal Massey's "Bakai," along with two of his own heartfelt originals. Licensed from the Horace Tapscott Estate

2020 repress. "Cultural phenomena streak through popular consciousness like meteorites. There's a significant, even life-changing, impact made somewhere, but for many it's only a moment that flickers by, soon to be swallowed back into the cosmos. Chicha might have been like that. Instead, a once-obscure music that enjoyed a fanatic embrace in the Peruvian slums of the 1970s has become a full-fledged global occasion -- thanks to the stunning success of a 2007 CD called The Roots of Chicha. The album, released by the Brooklyn-based Barbès Records, was a passionate act of cultural appreciation: a heartstrong effort to turn the world on its ear with something it had never expected to hear. It took listeners back to the late 1960's, when a number of Peruvian guitarists from Lima and the Amazon created a new electric hybrid, which mixed cumbia, surf, Cuban guaracha, rock, Peruvian folklore, and psychedelic touches. This new wave of Peruvian cumbia came to be known as chicha. Scorned by the middle-class and the official tastemakers, chicha remained mostly associated with the slums of Lima, where the ever-growing population of Andean migrants embraced the music and its players as their own."

The Harry Smith B-Sides box set contains the flip side of every 78-rpm record that Harry Smith included on the Anthology of American Folk Music. In 1952, Folkways Records published the legendary six-LP series entitled the Anthology of American Folk Music, compiled by eccentric record collector, filmmaker, artist, and anthropologist Harry Smith. Many historians cite Smith's reissue, with its recordings of country, blues, and gospel music from the 1920s and '30s, and its booklet containing idiosyncratic liner notes, esoteric artwork, and handmade design as a major impetus for the folk music revival of the 1950s and '60s. 68 years later, The Harry Smith B-Sides offers both a resonant listening experience and the closing of a collector's circle. Sequenced in the identical order that Smith created, this new box set offers the flip-side of each record selected by Smith for the original Anthology of American Folk Music. Newly-remastered audio under license from Gennett Records, Paramount Records, Sony Music Entertainment, and Universal Music Group. This box set represents a mirror image of the Anthology of American Folk Music's tracklist. However, the producers have omitted the following tracks due to lyrics containing racist language: track 5 on disc 1, track 4 on disc 2, and track 16 on disc 4. Cigar box, full-color 144-page book featuring original artwork by Harry Smith and four CDs; 84 newly-remastered tracks on four CDs with a full-color 144-page book featuring archival images, original artwork by Harry Smith, and essays by John Cohen, Lance Ledbetter, and Eli Smith. Transcriptions and annotations for each track by more than 80 artists, writers, and musicians that have been inspired by Harry Smith's work including Daniel Bachman, Devendra Banhart, Sarah Bryan, Rosanne Cash, Dom Flemons, Steve Gunn, Will Oldham, Amanda Petrusich, Steve Roden, Art Rosenbaum, Nathan Salsburg, and Peter Stampfel.

Features Dick Justice, Nelstone's Hawaiians, Clarence Ashley, Coley Jones, Buell Kazee, Chubby Parker & His Old-Time Banjo, Uncle Eck Dunford, Burnett and Rutherford, Buster Carter and Preston Young, Carolina Tar Heels, G.B. Grayson, Kelly Harrell, Edward L. Crain, Carter Family, Williamson Brothers & Curry, Frank Hutchison, Charlie Poole with the North Carolina Ramblers, Mississippi John Hurt, William & Versey Smith, Furry Lewis, The Masked Marvel, Uncle Bunt Stephens, J.W. Day, Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers, Delma Lachney and Blind Uncle Gaspard, Andrew & Jim Baxter, A.C Eck Robertson and Family, Hoyt Ming and His Pep-Steppers, Henry Thomas, Jim Jackson, Columbus Fruge, Joseph Falcon, Breaux Freres, Cincinnati Jug Band, Frank Cloutier and the Victoria Cafe Orchestra, Rev. J. M. Gates, Alabama Sacred Harp Singers, Middle Georgia Singing Convention No. 1, Sister Mary Nelson, Memphis Sanctified Singers, Elders McIntorsh and Edwards, Rev. Moses Mason, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Blind Willie Johnson, Ernest Phipps & His Holiness Singers, Rev. F.W. McGee, Rev. D.C. Rice and His Sanctified Congregation, Cannon's Jug Stompers, E. Segura & D. Herbert, Richard "Rabbit" Brown, Dock Boggs, Mr. & Mrs. Ernest V. Stoneman, Stoneman Family, Memphis Jug Band, Joseph Falcon & Cleoma Breaux, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Sleepy John Estes and Yank Rachell, Ramblin' Thomas, Julius Daniels, Uncle Dave Macon, J.P. Nestor, and Ken Manyard.

"Cassette reissue of a legendary LP, recorded live in Ottawa at the Dominion Tavern on March 23, 2012 during Damo's Canadian tour. Originally released in an edition of 100 on the band's own Birdman Sound label, this set finds the peripatetic Can singer (who, like Chuck Berry before him, tends to play with instrumental backing by local talent) in some of the best company he has yet found. TBWNIAS (in septet format this evening) lay down thick slabs of the distended heavy guitar psych with which they've made their rep. But they're always had underground Germanic influences that surface in their work, so when Damo switches into Tago Mago mode, they are on it, with exquisite Leibezeit drum patterns setting the stage for throbbing strings and a pulse Damo could follow in the dark. Totally improvised, the music and words move like a river flowing through your brain -- sometimes the slowly curling current floats you along like a dream, sometimes the foaming whitewater just about swamps you. But it's a thrilling ride, champ, and now you can have yourself a copy for just pennies a day. If this ain't your lucky say, what is?" --Byron Coley, 2020

Pulling inspiration from the weirdest depths of post punk and krautrock, Klämp inject elements of noise rock and horrific low end into the mix, all while kneeling at the altar of the riff. Hate You is Klämp's second album, and first to feature Lee Vincent on drums. The recording took place in March 2020 in East London as the world went on lock down with Covid-19. Capturing the palpable tension in the air, Hate You would make a fitting soundtrack to the apocalypse. Klämp is: Lee Vincent (Pulled Apart By Horses, Concentration Champ), Jason Stöll (Sex Swing, Twin Sister, Mugstar, God Unknown Records, Bonnacons of Doom), and Greg Wynne (Manatees).

2020 restock. West Coast psychedelia/bluesy acid-rock by this true hippie band led by the legendary Merrell Fankhauser (Fapardokly, HMS Bounty) and genius guitar player Jeff Cotton (Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band). This is their classic and sought-after first album from 1971. Remastered sound, insert with lyrics, photos and extensive liner notes by Patrick Lundborg. "The mix of bluesy urban L.A. exhaust fume vibes and tribal desert mystique is as archetypal an early 1970s SoCal trip as you can find. With strong songwriting and a pro-level recording, the album is given a clear musical identity via the excellent slide guitar, harmony vocals, and occasional sax." --Patrick Lundborg (Acid Archives)

Last copies of this now deleted edition. Recording is the Trip - The Karen Dalton Archives is a three-LP, three-CD box set, including a download card and a shirt. Three LPs: Includes for the first-time ever on clear vinyl, limited edition the 1962 double live album Cotton Eyed Joe remastered, the 1963 home recordings album Green Rocky Road remastered. The three CDs are the same albums as the LPs. Includes one download card of 13 unreleased home recordings including a mesmerizing take on "God Bless The Child". 56-page book with scans of Karen Dalton Personal Archives photographs, music sheets, lyrics, memos, all disclosed here for the first time. Includes a Karen Dalton recycled fabric t-shirt (featuring her own guitar tabs), press about Cotton Eyed Joe (1962/2007) and Green Rocky Road (1963/2008), Box set size: 12.4x12.4x1.5.

"All the informality of someone thinking aloud, which suits her signature vocals perfectly. In overdubbing, she seems to consider tempos and time signatures almost as restricting as a real studio. A particularly personal statement, a career marker" --Pitchfork (8/10)

"Like a lost book of the Old Testament. Less like a folk record and more like a warp in the space-time continuum. The most beautiful and harrowing album you'll hear this year. The results are startling. Her rendering of 'Katie Cruel' on In My Own Time has been hailed as definitive but she improves it here. Bewitching." --UNCUT (4/5)

Room40 release at 15th anniversary edition of Chris Abrahams's Thrown, originally released in 2005. A note from Lawrence English: "I've written quite often about my first experience listening to Thrown at Chris's place in Sydney. On that initial listening I was equal parts terrified and awestruck. The sensation of sitting there, in low light after midnight, listening with Chris and our mutual friend Clayton after an evening out at a NowNow event, is something I can recall vividly. Thrown is a record that, from the very outset, has roused me in a very direct, particular and profound, sense of affect. Recorded using Dx-7, piano and a positive organ, the album exists in some kind of parallel acoustic dimension where these divergent musical timbres are somehow brought together into a unifying (albeit unsettling) whole. It was the first recording Chris had made like it, and in my opinion, it set a benchmark which has guided his numerous releases for Room40. Now 15 years on from its original release, it seemed like a suitable moment to seed this edition back into the sonic consciousness. Time has cast little shadow on this edition - it still sounds absolutely outside of time. It creates its own microcosm upon each listening and remains one of the records from the Room40 catalogue that deeply resonates for me."

2020 repress. "Bruce Haack's 1970 electronic acid rock masterpiece is back into production! The Electric Lucifer is the third album in the ongoing Telephone Explosion X Bruce Haack series (previous releases include Haackula & The Electric Lucifer Book II)."