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

"This is the second volume of our series collecting the odds & sods of the immortal Nudge Squidfish. Nudge is one of the singular figures to emerge from the Columbus sub-underground rock scene of the 1970s. He was a member of The True Believers (along with Mike Rep & Tommy Jay). He cut a single for the New Age label in '82, and couple of odd solo LPs while he was living in Nashville later in the '80s. He was a member of V-3 (along with Jim Shepard) after that. He also released a bonkers full-length cassette on Old Age that was subsequently vinylized by Columbus Discount. More recently, he has become a highly regarded disseminator of UFO videos (Google it). The first volume of this series, You Can't Have Aliens Without The Squid (FTR 321LP, 2017), was met with gasps of amazement and other tomfoolery. Robot Wars, featuring material recorded between 1974 and 2017, covers even wider stylistic ground than Aliens, and is certain to provoke as many questions as there are answers. The material here is performed by Nudge solo, Root Cellar (a band with Charles Cicirella on smutty vocals), Jayfish (Nudge + Tommy Jay), and V-3. And while Nudge (left to his own devices) has shown signs of being a pop artist, the music here does not hew to that notion. From fine, straight bar blues readymades to spaced-up electro doo-dads to neo-Nig Heistian raunch polemicism, to guitar bursts worthy of Crazy Horse, Robot Wars presents many the faces of the Squid. And yeah, it includes his pop side, but the breadth and balance are kinda staggering. Roll on, Big N!" --Byron Coley, 2020 Edition of 200.

"Here is the third of our LPs documenting the new work of Vienna-based expatriate guitarist, Eric Arn. The first was the solo Orphic Resonance (FTR 281LP), the second, Paranza Corta (FTR 384LP), documenting duo work with Austrian guitarist Margaret Unknown. And now the third features duet recordings with English avant garde cellist Jasmine Pender, who also performs more noisily using the soubriquet, Rotten Bliss. Pender and Arn first met at a 2018 festival in Krems, Austria. They played a duo show soon after, and this recording session followed in August of that year, when Ms. Pender was passing through Vienna. The blend of their instruments is a strange and delicate meeting. The music involves a conversation of tonal improvising in which the separation of the instruments (so different on the surface) manages to blend in a way that component parts submerge fully into a sort of Third Mind-style musical language. The material here is basically live and, according to Eric, 'lightly-edited, no overdubs or post-processing.' The first side-long piece. 'In illo tempore,' is a mosaic of layered sheets of sound, fitted together as they gently float through space and time. The second side-long piece, 'The Serpent Ophis,' is a slowly built, chiming, breathing mass of circular gesticulation that effortlessly rises to create a shimmering, expanding plateau of sound. As with Eric's other LPs, Hyrdomancy is a wonderful dive into the unknown. Can't wait for the next one." --Byron Coley, 2020

"Vinylization of an insane and legendary CDR that Nashville's Cherry Blossoms collective issued when they did a 2007 tour of Upper and Lower Rangoon with Josephine Foster as a special guest member. The Cherry Blossoms are a musical entity not easily described, but I feel as though their essential whatsis was grasped by Michael Hurley. We were talking a few weeks ago and when the Blossoms were mentioned, Mike said, 'Oh Yeah. I remember the last time I played a gig with those guys. Their van pulled up, and each of them got out, already playing an instrument and singing, and each of them was doing a different song.' And so it is here. This is a blend of roots music unimaginable to the average No Depression type listener. Various threads of beauty are woven together into a tapestry of such psychedelic magnitude you can barely comprehend the individual elements. Listening to this album one hears a blend of Pindar Family-style Bahamian ecstasy, slightly tipsy Protestant psaltery, jump rope songs, and just the sort of rag-taggery that Snock described. Josephine's distinctive voice is deep in the mix sometimes, at others it emerges for semi-solo highlighting. And the whole thing is a thoroughly provocative series of unfolding wonders. So sad you missed the tour. So glad we could help." --Byron Coley, 2020 Edition of 400.

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

LP version. The first part of Hans-Joachim Roedelius's Selbstportrait (Self-Portrait) series was originally released under the title Sanfte Musik on Sky Records in 1979. Now, some forty years later, a new instalment has arrived in the form of an album entitled Wahre Liebe. One of the initiators of the Berlin Zodiak Free Arts Lab in 1967, Roedelius went on to co-found Kluster/Cluster and Harmonia, unleashing a new and free form of music which, with the benefit of hindsight, can be considered a milestone in the historical context of kosmische musik and krautrock. In the late 1970s, Roedelius began to increase his activities as a solo artist, building up an extensive and multifaceted body of work over the ensuing decades. Across this timeline, the Self-Portrait albums represent an intensely personal and noteworthy corpus in their own right. Over the past ten years, the Hamburg-based label Bureau B has reissued numerous Hans-Joachim Roedelius albums, both solo and collaborative efforts, introducing him to a new generation of potential devotees. In 2014, label founder Gunther Buskies approached Roedelius to suggest that he record a new instalment for the Self-Portrait series, using the same instruments which dominated his productions in the late 1970s: a Farfisa organ, drum machine, tape-delay and a Rhodes. Together with Onnen and Wolf Bock, the album Wahre Liebe (True Love) was created. Roedelius explains the process: "The Wahre Liebe album was commissioned by Gunther Buskies, who wanted to know if the elderly Roedelius, armed with vintage tools, was capable of 'beaming back' to his youthful years, reaching into the sonic past of the Self-Portrait series to deliver similarly persuasive results. What better proof could there be that true love, age-old love never dies..." Sure enough, this album successfully and seamlessly connects with its antecedents. Miniatures, improvisations, atmospheric images, and dreamlike introspections of an individualist are articulated in that innate Roedelius language which is at once brittle and as light as a whisper, a pastel ribbon weaving its way softly through the full range of sonic topographies. Hans-Joachim Roedelius is pleased with the outcome: "Roedelius has been granted the opportunity to become intimately acquainted with his own self in order to achieve that of which he is ultimately capable, namely his calling: to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors, to create authentic art, be it music or words, or anything and everything else which fascinates him."

LP version. During the legendary Forst years, Roedelius had a private workspace with a Farfisa organ, a Revox-A77 tape machine, an echo device and a synthesizer which he borrowed from the Cluster studio next door now and again. Here he experimented, practiced, allowed his imagination to flow, at any hour of the day or night, whenever he was not in the studio with Dieter Moebius and/or Michael Rother at work on new Cluster or Harmonia material. Roedelius always let the tape run, in order to analyze the ideas thus captured more effectively on repeated listening. For the first time ever, this Roedelius audio sketchbook had been digitalized and available to the public in 2014 on a limited three-LP box set called Roedelius Tape Archive 1973-1978. The recordings offer a deep insight into the creative process of his music. Fleeting notes, slivers of ideas, so to speak, moments of inspiration. Finger exercises, experiments in harmony, studies in rhythm are also preserved on these magnetic tapes. Since the box set has been sold out for a long time, Bureau B decided to release the essence of those three LPs on a one-disc compilation: Roedelius Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978.

LP version. Al Bilali Soudan are Abellaw Yattara, Aboubacrine Yattara, Mohamed Ag Abellaw, and Thialé Ag Aboubacrine. Fathers and sons, uncles and cousins. Forgeron, griot, bards from Tombouctou/Timbuktu, Northern Mali instrumentation is tehardant/ngoni and calabash. Traditional repertoire adapted and improvised. Lightning fast, sometimes looping, sometimes lyrical. This is dance music, this is culture preserved, this is to encourage people who have fled from their homes. This is modern music performed on ancient instruments. Like the polyglot region where they live, their lyrics are in Tamasheq, Songhai, French and English Al Bilali Soudan perform frequently at celebrations and festivals.

2020 repress. Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Sun Ra Discipline 27-II, originally released on El Saturn Records in 1973. Arguably the last great original-era Saturn LP to be reissued on CD, Discipline 27-II has long deserved to be more familiar to Sun Ra fans and layfolk alike. Recorded during the same sessions in 1972 at Chicago's Streeterville Studios that produced Ra's most popular and best-known record, Space Is The Place (1973), it's got much the same vibe, from the 24-minute four-part suite of the title track -- an important conducted piece that Ra performed frequently in these years -- to the opening cut, "Pan Afro", with John Gilmore's sensational tenor work. Sporting a percussion-rich 18-piece Arkestra, the music can be thick, voluble, and dense or it can winnow down to a small group, as on the delightful track "Neptune", a vehicle for June Tyson's singing and the site of the indelible Sun Ra space chant: "Have you heard the latest news from Neptune, Neptune, Neptune?" This marks the first time Discipline 27-II has been reissued on CD. It has been remastered from the original tapes, includes a never published period photo of Ra by Charles Shabacon, and ends with an explosive bonus track from the same session, showing quite a different side of the same ensemble. Personnel: Sun Ra - electronic keyboard space age instruments, Moog synthesizer, vocals; John Gilmore - tenor saxophone, percussion, vocals; Marshall Allen - alto saxophone, flute; Danny Davis - alto saxophone, flute; Pat Patrick - baritone saxophone, bass; Danny Thompson - baritone saxophone, flute; Eloe Omoe - bass clarinet, flute; Akh Tal Ebah - trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals; Lamont Kwamie McClamb - trumpet, percussion; Russell Branch - percussion, congas; Stanley Morgan - percussion, congas; with Alzo Wright, Harry Richards, Lex Humphries, Robert Underwood on drums and vocals by June Tyson, Cheryl Banks, Judith Holton, and Ruth Wright. Cover art by LeRoy Butler; cover design by Alton Abraham. Recorded by Ed Michel at Streeterville Studios, Chicago, October, 1972; LP produced by Alton Abraham for Infinity Inc.

John Paul returns with his second album Subjects produced by Ratman. John Paul first started supplying vocals on various Sleaford Mods tracks before releasing his debut album No Filter on Harbinger Sound (HARB 177CD/LP, 2018) which saw him playing shows with the Sleaford Mods, Steve Ignorant, and many more and headlining a sold-out show at The 100 Club. Subjects is a natural progression from No Filter, crunchier and more precise, but still retaining a punk rock grimy DIY sound. John Paul has honed his unique ability to expertly bleat words into a sharp and wry observation of modern-day decay. Ratman (More Rockers, Mr Scruff, On U Sound, Anika, Smith & Mighty) continues to produce the tunes that manages to create a soundtrack to an odd forgotten dance party that mixed lo-fi, dub, and UK garage. Features Diane Charlemagne and Miss Innit.

"In Chicago there weren't a lot of dance clubs or places youth could go to enjoy the nightlife, meet girls OR boys, and get loose on the dancefloor... so there became a strong revival of the 'house party'. Where one person would get a sound system & DJ, red or black lights, few beers or bottles of liquor, and throw a party in the basement of their own (or relatives) house. You would invite your close friends and all the cool people in your neighborhood, and the later into the night it got... the more packed it would get. The music they played at these became known as 'House Music!' Now Chicago has always been rough and these parties happened on the South or West sides of the city, so you couldn't just rock up on your own and you couldn't necessarily just walk into an outside neighborhood's house party to jam. You would go to the House Party with your whole crew, it eventually turned into a community showcase of all the different factions in the local area, but here you didn't compete with fists or weapons, at the house party your crew represented on the dancefloor. Each different crew had dance routines plus call & response phrases they would sound out during the best jams to the beat (one would say something fly and his crew would repeat it, or respond and it also had to be clever, catch everyone's attention). This would 'turn the party up' and get everyone going, and soon became as much a part of House music as the beats and melodies that everyone loved to hear. 'In the House' is Hypnotic's ode to that era, our band's attempt to explore the original principles of that style of music. We wanted to present it with our own Brass twist but definitely going back to the root of what it is the music was meant to display. HBE prides ourselves on being musical historians and enjoying the ability to explore ALL styles of music in our stage performances and albums. We touched on this with song 'Lets Get the Party Started' from our 2009 self-titled album. On this track we just took it a bit further, and gave the people something for dancefloor that they can bump in all elements of their life. It's always good when you can have fun while you work, and this track is one that's just as fun to play for us as it is for people to listen to. Also gives audiences a sneak peek into the Hypnotic Brass live concert and energy (right on wax), so it was natural to lead with this one as a single."

Argentine born, French based composer Beatriz Ferreyra has played a hushed but utterly critical role in the development of musique concrète since its early days. Working alongside Pierre Schaeffer during the writing of Solfège de l'Objet Sonore, Ferreyra left GRM to pursue her compositional research outside the confines of the institution. Echos+, one of only a few collections of her work available on vinyl, collects three of her most affecting pieces; each of which explore questions of mortality and the afterlife.

Lawrence English: "I'm not really sure when I first heard Beatriz Ferreyra's music. My best guess would be in the early to mid-2000s when I was working alongside the curatorial team at Liquid Architecture. Given the focus of the festival at that time, GRM and musique concrète more generally was very much a point of focus. That said, it wasn't until this decade that her work was sharply in focus for me (and I am guessing a great many others). In 2017, I had the great pleasure to meet Beatriz in Braga, where we both were performing as part of the excellent Semibreve Festival. Subsequent to that I invited her to perform in Australia and we also had the pleasure to send time together this year in Rio during the Novas Frequencies Festival. Across these meetings, I have come to realise the incredible focus, generosity and vision that Beatriz has maintained across her life in sound. Beatriz Ferreyra is one of only a few female concrète composers who were active across the second half of the 20th century through to today. Her work, which is still very much an active investigation, is simultaneously complex and elegantly simple. Often drawing upon singular object of focus, Ferreyra's use of tape and other forms of manipulation radically reconfigure her chosen sound materials, opening them outward. 'Echos' for example is sourced entirely from recordings of her niece who was killed in a car accident and 'The Other Shore' (composed as a response to the Tibetan Book Of The Dead) uses only percussion. Echos+ brings together three of Ferreyra's most engaging compositions. Each of the works are deeply personal, but transcend that position, effortlessly welcoming us inside them. They collectively chart out a broad framework that not only defines her philosophical interests as a composer, but also marks out critical moments in her creative and technical approaches; shifting from her roots in tape music to more digital approaches."

Room40 present a reissue of Rafael Anton Irisarri's The North Bend, originally released 2010. From Rafael: "The North Bend is about the Pacific Northwest region of the USA, where I lived at the time the album was made. Still, today I consider that region my spiritual home, even though I am now living on the East Coast. I had met Lawrence English in Poland back in 2009 and he kindly invited me to make a record for the label. I was a fan of his releases so this was really an obvious thing for me to say 'yes' to and a chance to create something special. I had released a few EPs and an LP under my name, all influenced by the so-called 'modern classical' ambient style pioneered by the late great Jóhann Jóhannsson and minimalist composers like Harold Budd and Arvo Pärt. The North Bend is the first work that dealt with 'place' and explored a locality, the first in a series of recordings all released with Room40. Since this album came out, I've left the Pacific Northwest for another location, New York state, which couldn't be a starker contrast from the life in the PacNW. I had to start from scratch here in NY, as everything I owned until age 36 was stolen the night before I left to drive to NY. It was both a curse and a blessing. Not having the baggage & pitfalls of old ideas was wonderful, but also losing all the recorded & written works I had was harrowing at the time. Remastering The North Bend seemed like a natural thing for me. Not so much as revisionist history, but rather thinking how to make a record sound in a certain way without being able to revisit any of the mixes. In other words, the creative choices I made at the time (2010) are 100% preserved, there wasn't any opportunity to revisit those, but rather make the record sound as good as I can framed through hindsight and a decade of separation from the period it was created."

2020 repress. Soundway Records present the eponymous debut LP from in-demand Amsterdam five piece, The Mauskovic Dance Band -- fusing no-wave dance punk, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, and space disco in a "controlled explosion" (The Quietus). Entirely self-produced, the band has reiterated their favorite elements of the '70s and '80s legacy of the Afro-Latin psychedelic music of Colombia and Peru, interpreting it through the context of modern-day Amsterdam. The output is a lo-fi no wave groove all its own -- rooted in a deep love of champeta, Palenque, psychedelic cumbia, chichi, classic Afrobeat, and picó soundsystem culture. Since the release of their Down In The Basement EP EP on Soundway Records in early 2018 (SNDW 12029EP), the band have found themselves on a hectic European touring schedule -- not to mention being involved in other side projects. Following stints with Turkish psychedelic folk rock group Altin Gün, and touring with the re-formed '70s Zamrock outfit W.I.T.C.H., Nic Mauskovic also teamed up with Dutch neo-psychedelic artist Jacco Gardner to form the "cinematic Balearic disco" duo of Bruxas (released by Dutch institution Dekmantel) -- and together, they mixed The Mauskovic Dance Band debut album in Lisbon. Lead single "Space Drum Machine" encapsulates the band's prototypical brand of busy rhythmic patterns interwoven with insistent synth stabs and vibrant disco toms, layered with an elastic guitar riff drawing inspiration from Kenyan kikuyu and benga styles. High-pitched vocals describe being on a flight together and inciting each other to press a button of unknown consequence with "push it, push it" -- and push it they do, at breakneck pace. And of course, the undeniable influence of Amsterdam's hotbed of underground dance producers shines through as it does on all tracks - with the vintage psychedelic swirl of synthesizer, lo-fi drum machines, and tape recording. RIYL: Jacco Gardner, Bruxas, Nu Guinea, Voilaaa, Sofrito, Meridian Brothers, EUT, Altin Gün.

When Max Ravitz created a few tracks under his new alias Pizzaboy, they were never meant to be released. One friend passed them on to another, until the tracks were in the hands of Mike Servito -- quickly becoming regulars in his rotation. As the name aptly suggests, Deep Dish is a body-ode to Ravitz's upbringing in Chicago. Known for his varied production aliases and prolific releases as Patricia, Ravitz finds a vehicle for some of his earliest midwestern influences in this debut release for The Bunker NY. An avid listener of booty house in his youth, Ravitz gravitated towards the genre's quintessential jacking energy, but couldn't relate as much to its lyrics. He says, "I've always loved it, but didn't totally connect with some of the messaging, so the first song I made was me trying to flip the archetype and make consent-focused lyrics." Deep Dish is an expression of Ravitz's love for the genre, though he refashions and recontextualizes some of its central characteristics. For example, lyrics from "No Affection", subvert the standard, sexualized vocal tropes; instead you get "Face up, ass down / Let me pull out your chair / I'm a different kind of man you see / I'm more self-aware." Deep Dish is booty house for 2020, envisioned through a different, perhaps more sensitive lens. Despite Pizzaboy's alternate take on booty house, these four supreme cuts are still built for peak-time floors. Baked with just enough acid and heat, Deep Dish is primed to be a dancefloor classic, feeding both body and soul.

Three Phase is the self-titled debut LP by mysterious Cairo based artist, 3Phaz. Falling in a dark dystopian area between Mahraganat and Shaabi on one side, and hardcore techno and grime on the other, this record is like nothing you've heard before. Three Phase is a brutal, hard-hitting, deconstruction of the already raw and explosive Mahraganat sound.

Container is the project of American noise veteran Ren Schofield, originally from Providence, Rhode Island, and now based in London. Editions Mego offshoot Spectrum Spools -- run by old friend John Elliott of the band Emeralds -- took the punt to release his debut LP, a collection of mutated techno tracks simply titled LP (SP 007LP). The record gained attention quickly in the electronic music scene largely thanks to Schofield's unique production style that separates him from forms of conventional dance music. Whilst the music of Container sits perfectly fine within dance music, years on the US noise circuit have given Schofield's brand of techno a rawness and direct intensity that stands out in the club and crosses over into other sub-sections of the underground. His modest set up of Roland MC-909, a four-track porta studio and an array of pedals allowed him to hone his scuzzy and bewildering beat music over the years, leading to three more well-received, and literally titled, LP's. Over this time period Container also released some EPs on Morphine, Liberation Technologies, and Diagonal, did a variety of remixes for acts like Four Tet, The Body, Panda Bear, and Fucked Up, plus maintained a healthy touring schedule that reached over every continent. Almost a decade since his debut, Container arrives on Alter with his first non-LP titled album called Scramblers. The title taken from both a Baltimore street drug and a Rhode Island Diner he used to eat at with his father. Schofield elaborates: "The juxtaposition between these two Scramblers is a great one. I wanted to pay homage to a nice name that lends itself to both depraved and wholesome contexts and do my part to carry on the tradition." The eight tracks have their origins in live performance and a more high-octane delivery is noticeable when compared with previous Container albums. "Mottle" sits in a mysterious zone between the productions of EVOL and early Ruff Sqwad. Fierce electro cuts like "Trench" and "Nozzle" work alongside the nauseous slink of "Duster", which in typical Container fashion morphs into a frenzy in no time. A frenzy which may be linked cosmically to the fact that Scramblers was recorded, mixed, and mastered in one day, reinforcing further his unorthodox and fun approach to club music. CD packaged in mini LP style sleeve with inner wallet.

2020 repress. "Unquestionably Portland's most well-loved punk group, the Wipers formed in the late 1970s and in 1980 released their debut LP, Is This Real? -- twelve songs of stabbing, jittery guitar, snapped vocals, and unabashed teen angst. Full of desperation and yearning, the LP has stood as a blueprint for wretched youth for over 25 years. In the early 1990s Is This Real? was given mainstream attention when Nirvana covered two tracks off the record and Cobain announced it was one of the primary influences on his group. While it was reissued on compact disc and available as a part of the Wipers Boxed Set (Zeno), this is the first time Is This Real? has been available on vinyl in the U.S. since its initial release. Remastered from original tapes as provided by Greg Sage himself, the LP is pressed on audiophile grade vinyl and housed in a deluxe tip-on sleeve. Complete with a printed insert that replicates the original innersleeve, the Jackpot Records reissue of Is This Real? is a lavish tribute to one of the greatest recordings of the last 30 years."

2020 repress; double LP version. 2005 release. The former wife of Miles, Betty Mabry Davis is perhaps the only woman in the world who could rightfully have the following legend tattooed across her rear: THIS ASS INVENTED FUSION. While their marriage only lasted a year (1968-1969), Betty pointed the way to Miles, introducing him to the musical and material gods of revolutionary style: Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, which would have an enormous impact on his electrified musical Frankenfusion masterpiece known as Bitches Brew. Betty ruled as the mentor-muse for the original man and his music. She was a woman with the strength of a Black Panther, a "nasty" woman in total control, but unfortunately for Betty, America was not yet ready to embrace a woman with such an explicitly sexual persona. She had a much rougher edge to her music than other female funk and soul artists of the '70s. Betty Davis' is one of the most extreme sounding debut records of the decade, which just like Bitches Brew takes equal parts inspiration from Hendrix and Sly. One critic aptly described their sound as something like a cross between Tina Turner, Funkadelic, and Sly & The Family Stone. Add the futurist fashion sense of David Bowie, and the flair of Miles Davis, and you have quite a cocktail. This is the best of Betty Davis' three much-sought albums.

"Esoteric Recordings are pleased to release a remastered edition of the classic 1969 debut album by Juicy Lucy. Formed out of the ashes of the legendary group The Misunderstood, the band featured Ray Owen (vocals), Glen Campbell (steel guitar), Chris Mercer (saxophone), Neil Hubbard (guitar), Keith Ellis (bass) and Pete Dobson (drums). One of the first signings to Vertigo Records, Juicy Lucy's debut album was a fine work and spawned their classic interpretation of Bo Diddley's 'Who Do You Love?', a top ten UK hit. This Esoteric Recordings reissue has been remastered from the original tapes and fully restores the original album artwork and features the bonus track 'Walking Down The Highway'."

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; included download code. On Tamotaït, Tamikrest's fifth studio album, the music blazes bright and long. With the political situation so volatile and desperate in the Saharan ancestral lands from which Tamikrest come, this is more than an album. Tamotaït means hope for a positive change. Change as in an end to the fighting that's plagued northern Mali and the wider region for the past several years; change such as the chance to prosper within their own homeland -- Azawad -- a proto nation that the nomadic Tuareg (or Kel Tamasheq as they prefer to be called) briefly possessed in 2012. It's assouf, music forged in exile. Because of the toxic regional conflict, for much of the last decade the founding members of Tamikrest have not lived in Kidal, Mali, the desert crossroads town where the band began in 2007. They live in Tamanrasset (Algeria), Paris, and at times along the desolate Algerian/Malian borderlands. Yet, exile can also mean the hope of return, and on "Amzagh" and "As Sastnan Hidjan", the two tracks the group sees as pivotal to understanding the themes of Tamotaït, Tamikrest sing of the possibilities that lie ahead for the Kel Tamasheq people. The music builds and builds, the dual, intertwined guitars of Ag Mossa and Paul Salvagnac relentless and insistent, until it finally all boils over. It also brings light and warmth and comfort, and its glow fills the beautifully aching "Timtarin", where the band is joined by an ideal collaborator, the renowned Moroccan singer Hindi Zahra. Tamotaït is the most expansive and adventurous album that Tamikrest have made, exploring every corner of their sound. There's even music they made far from the Sahara -- in Japan. On tour there, Ag Mossa had been very taken by the sound of their traditional instruments. Tamikrest's plans to record there were almost derailed by a typhoon. But one track does appear on the album: the final cut, "Tabsit", with its atmospheric, gossamer melody. The shamisen and five-string tonkori of guests Atsushi Sakta and Oki Kano glide around the guitars to create a piece where the desert truly does meet the Rising Sun. Most of Tamotaït, though, was recorded in rural France, working with producer David Odlum (Glen Hansard, Gemma Hayes, Tinariwen), stepping up from his mixing role on the band's 2016 release, Kidal (GB 043CD/LP). Tamikrest have become one of the best rock n' roll bands in the world.

Finally, Massicot's second album is here! As ever the groove is the key to Massicot's sound. Simple, seductive, and human. The band choreograph their way around the spaces between traditional spiritual story telling mysticism of Northern European pagan folklore and Latin and Middle-Eastern inspired polyrythms topped off with a little post-punk. As ever the arrangements are full and juicy whilst formed from the simplest elements. The bouncing percussive tapestries are coupled with thick pulsating basslines which form the meandering but tightly-wound rolling beats. Over which goes the accenting citric guitar hooks and the soothing Latvian chant-like choral vocal melodies. Massicot create a carnival dance that locks in the mind whilst luring the body. In true collaborative spirt this record is released in conjunction with our sister-label Spurge Recordings and also the good folks at Bongo Joe (Geneva) and Red Wig (Hamburg). No borders, ever.

"Transversal Time was composed by Rhodri Davies in 2017. For its starting point it assigns different time systems -- Standard Time, Decimal Time, and Hex Time -- to individual musicians. As a composition it encompasses many of those sensations and perceptions of time that are embodied by music. Improvising musicians develop acute sensitivities to body clock, breath, pulses and the silent transformations of time-between-time. So, a musician's heightened, fluid time becomes enfolded in this narrative situated within the house of clocks, all of them 'telling' different times. Also buried under the surface of the piece is François Jullien's book, In Praise of Blandness (1991), an exploration of the ancient Chinese value system based on simplicity, extreme subtlety, and the paradox of sounds that deepen in the mind of the listener if they are not fully sounded, better still left silent so that they retain something secret and virtual within. 'In short,' writes Jullien, 'they remain heavy with promise.'" --David Toop

Personnel: Rhodri Davies - pedal harp, electric harp; Ryoko Akama - electronics; Sarah Hughes - zither; Sofia Jernberg - vocals; Pia Palme - contrabass recorder; Adam Parkinson - programming; Lucy Railton - cello; Pat Thomas - piano, electronics; Dafne Vicente-Sandoval - bassoon. Co-commissioned by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Chapter, and Counterflows and supported by PRS Foundation's Beyond Borders. Live performance recorded on the April 13th, 2018 at Chapter, Cardiff by Simon Reynell. Mastered by Simon Reynell.

Indonesian music has enraptured ears across the globe for many years, and few styles hold such a colorful history and place in the hearts of the people of West Java as Jaipongan. Hive Mind Records announce a collaboration with Kai Riedl of Javasounds to bring you these superb recordings of one of Java, Indonesia's most famed music styles of the '70s and '80s, Jaipongan. The album, recorded at the famed Jugala Studios in Bandung, Java in 2007, features the incredible vocals of Idjah Hadidjah, the country's most iconic singer of the genre, backed by members of the Jugala Studios house band. The album comes with a second disc of reworks of the original tracks by boundary pushing electronic musicians from around the world. Known for its rapid gamelan (gongs and metallophones) playing, angular and dynamic drumming, and erotically charged dancing, Jaipongan was invented by composer and choreographer Gugum Gumbira (1945-2020) in reaction to the Indonesian government's ban on rock and roll. As a form of rebellion, Gumbira took the core elements of a local, erotically charged harvesting ritual music and contemporized the sound by adding the gamelan instruments, dynamic drumming, the speed and urbanized subject matter of rock 'n' roll, and sensual dance moves. Idjah Hadidjah, a professional singer with Sundanese Shadow Puppet Theatres was approached by Gugum Gumbira in the early '80s and asked to sing with his Jugala Orchestra. Their collaboration was to last through the decade as she quickly became one of the country's most beloved Jaipongan singers. The Javasounds recordings saw her reunited with both Bandung's famous Jugala studio, and members of its famed house orchestra for the first time in a number of years.

The Remix Project: For the past few years Kai Riedl was executive producer and curator of Moogfest, the annual celebration of experimental electronic music and of the work of Bob Moog. As a musician himself, Riedl wanted to connect the musicians in Java with others around the world, and he was keen to make multitrack recordings in Java so that other musicians could have access to high quality recordings of individual instruments to work with. For + Reworks, he gave a number of artists from around the world access to the original multitrack recordings with the understanding they had free reign to work with them in an intuitive and open-ended way. Features Bana Haffar, Bergsonist, Lightbath, Sarah Belle Reid, Signals Under Tests, Fahmi Mursyid, Kai Riedl & Suny Lyons, and Ultrabillions.

LP version. Italian sound artist Giulio Aldinucci returns with his third album on Karl, Shards Of Distant Times, a masterfully composed and sound-designed ambient masterpiece. It's a more-than-worthy follow-up to the critically acclaimed Borders And Ruins (2017) and Disappearing In A Mirror (KR 055CD/LP, 2019) which both made it onto several year's best lists. Over the course of six solo albums on labels like Dronarivm plus EPs and collaborative albums with musicians such as Ian Hawgood (Consequence Shadows (HOMEN 094CD, 2018)) Aldinucci successively has been refining his skills as composer and sound designer. His elegant style blending ambient and field recordings came to full impact on his previous Karl albums Borders And Ruins and Disappearing In A Mirror which gained the Italian sound artist a lot of critical praise and made it onto several year's best lists, such as that of Acloserlisten.com. Aldinucci's latest effort is again not only a musical masterpiece of sublime beauty and sacral majesty, it also deals with philosophical concerns. Where Borders was a reflection on the instability of borders and Disappearing In A Mirror raised the very personal question of identity, Shards Of Distant Times explores the liminal areas of the contemporary soundscape that are characterized by the presence of human voice coming from old and time-worn recordings. Like in the auditory pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon in which the mind hears indistinct voices in random noise where none exist, voices and music emerge from the everyday soundscape through the omnipresent internet connected devices, creating glitches between time and space.

Quinze -- "fifteen" in Catalan -- is the title of the new release from Barcelona's Lapsus Records. Lapsus celebrates its fifteenth anniversary with the launch of a new compilation comprised of today's most compelling, experimental, and ground-breaking electronic music. Fifteen unreleased songs from artists that best define the Lapsus sound: Attraktta, Chevel, Gábor Lázár, Gacha Bakradze, Johanna Knutsson, Karen Gwyer, Leif, Machine Woman, Patricia, Pye Corner Audio, RRUCCULLA, Steve Hauschildt, Telefon Tel Aviv, The Belgium, and Ylia. Double-LP on marbled vinyl: solid yellow, solid orange, and solid red.

Available again for the first time since original release in 1974, Outernational Sounds presents one of the deepest custom press jazz recordings of all: Jaman's spiritualized and funky Sweet Heritage. The history of jazz is often told as though it was principally a history of releases and recordings. On those terms, it's easy to mistake a small recorded footprint for obscurity or silence. The true history of the jazz is the story of the music as it was played night after night in the clubs, bars, concert halls, and backrooms of cities and towns across America and the world. Only a tiny fraction of this living tradition ever makes it onto a recording. And even though 1974's Sweet Heritage is James Edward Manuel's only release, the pianist and educator better known as Jaman has undoubtedly lived it. Brought up in Buffalo, New York, Jaman studied classical piano before beginning formal jazz studies under greats including Earl Bostic and Horace Parlan. Quickly becoming a respected regular on the club scene in Buffalo, Jaman held down innumerable residencies and worked with top local musicians -- one of his early trios included the renowned bassist John Heard and drummer Clarence Becton, both of whom were poached one night by a visiting Jon Hendricks; sometime Sun Ra Arkestra bassist, Juini Booth, and regular Ahmad Jamal sideman, Sabu Adeyola (also of Kamal & The Brothers), have graced his groups too. At famous night spots all over Buffalo's East Side and on excursions to Manhattan's storied jazz clubs, Jaman has shared the stage with some of the most illustrious names in jazz and blues: Big Joe Turner, Muddy Waters, Joe Henderson, Ruth Brown, Frank Morgan, Woody Shaw, Sonny Stitt, and many others. His eponymous group, Jaman, was formed in 1970; they toured the US and Canada steadily. He became one of Buffalo's true jazz stalwarts, and so he remains. But despite a life lived deep within the music, Jaman only recorded a single LP, 1974's Sweet Heritage. Pressed in tiny quantities by the Mark Records custom service, Sweet Heritage featured the regular Jaman group playing a mixture of covers and originals. The whole LP showcases an ensemble in complete control, and with the flying, spiritual sound of "Free Will" and the Latin-tinged "In The Fall of The Year" -- both Jaman originals -- the album has since become a legendary collector's classic. 180 gram vinyl.

Repressed. Saltern presents its fifth release, Performances & Recordings 1998-2018, the first comprehensive collection of recordings surveying the career of renowned, American cellist Charles Curtis. Selected by Curtis and Tashi Wada from recordings spanning the past two decades, the collection offers a broad, inclusive view of Curtis's activities across the diverse worlds of music he inhabits, containing rare, unreleased recordings, and never-before-released music by Terry Jennings, Richard Maxfield, Éliane Radigue, Alison Knowles, and Curtis. The wide-ranging scope of this release speaks not to a musical restlessness, but to a genuine spirit of inquiry, as these areas of activity for Curtis have existed concurrently in dialogue, not simply in succession, for decades. Over two hours of music by composers and artists with whom Curtis is closely associated including Éliane Radigue, Guillaume de Machaut, Tobias Hume, Silvestro di Ganassi, Terry Jennings, Morton Feldman, Anton Webern, Olivier Messiaen, Alison Knowles, Richard Maxfield, and Curtis himself. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu with liner notes by La Monte Young, Spencer Gerhardt, and Tashi Wada. Custom packaging and screen printing by Alan Sherry.

Song Cycle present the first reissue of Wounds by David Toop and Paul Burwell. Originally released in 1980 on Toop's Quartz! label, the album is representative of a seminal moment within the British music scene evolved around the London Musicians Collective in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Founded in 1976 by a group of improvising musicians and sound artists including Evan Parker, Peter Cusack, Lol Coxhill, Sylvia Hallet, Max Eastley, the LMC contributed to shape a new generation of free improvisers with broader interests ranging from the music of John Stevens, Evan Parker, and Cornelius Cardew, to non-western music experiences. David Toop and Paul Burwell came to know each other precisely in these crucial moments, to start a long-lasting collaboration on two separate but intertwined projects a trio with the artist and poet Bob Cobbing, and an improvisation duo. As result of the latter, the nine tracks included in Wounds are edited from a single performance at the LMC, date 30.6.1979. Recorded by Max Eastley and Russ Wood, these shows saw the employment of different musical instruments as well an odd number of found objects placed in front of the artists, on the floor, ready to be picked up and played. Electric guitar, flute, cassette, water, rubbish, explosives, six strings harp, bamboo fiddle, whistle were only a few of the wider arrange of instruments at the disposal of the two. The result is an ambivalent album, suspended between the unfolding of the time of performance, and the circularity of the ritual. And if the collage of texts appearing on the artwork demonstrates a certain disapproval and skepticism toward the progress of society, Wounds seems also suggesting a possible cure. The improvised music, the use of non-canonical instruments, the presence of pre-recorded sounds coming, seems indeed to be an open invitation to the listeners to abandon the old conventions and to search for a new system of relationships.

Teranga Beat presents Ormenion, a record by the group Evritiki Zygia. Ormenion is a historical region that dates back to the Byzantine Empire. It is the northernmost inhabited region of Greece, where the last railway station of the country is located. During the 1920s, it was inhabited by refugees coming from the North and Eastern Thrace. Immigration is central to the history of the region of Thrace, where many songs refer to refugees and moving populations. The name of this particular place was selected as the album title due to its delicate cultural and geographic status: Ormenion coincides with the borders of three different countries (Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey) and its history counts several waves of immigration that gave way to cultural and even linguistic exchange -- elements that obviously left their mark on the group. The group Evritiki Zygia was founded in 2007 by five musicians who played mostly in local festivals, their main concern being the preservation and evolution of the Thracian musical tradition. The collaboration with Teranga Beat helped this project evolve even further. Forms of arrangement different than the ones used in local feasts and festivals, were introduced giving more space to the dynamics of the instruments and allowing musicians to show both their improvisational and compositional skills. The distinctively psychedelic element of Thracian music was enhanced with the introduction of the CRB-Diamond 800 organ and the Moog, giving the whole project a hybrid sound with a unique identity. The album contains both covers of traditional songs and original compositions. The band's highest point was their appearance at the Womex Festival in 2018, where their music was presented for the first time in front of an international audience. Ormenion was recorded on an analog 24-track tape Otari MX 80 in two sessions that took place on May 18 and 19 2019. It is a live recording that captures the energy of the group's live performances. CD version comes in digipak with slipcase, and includes a booklet with photos and liner notes outlining the story of the band.

LP version. Gatefold cover; printed insert and download code. Teranga Beat presents Ormenion, a record by the group Evritiki Zygia. Ormenion is a historical region that dates back to the Byzantine Empire. It is the northernmost inhabited region of Greece, where the last railway station of the country is located. During the 1920s, it was inhabited by refugees coming from the North and Eastern Thrace. Immigration is central to the history of the region of Thrace, where many songs refer to refugees and moving populations. The name of this particular place was selected as the album title due to its delicate cultural and geographic status: Ormenion coincides with the borders of three different countries (Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey) and its history counts several waves of immigration that gave way to cultural and even linguistic exchange -- elements that obviously left their mark on the group. The group Evritiki Zygia was founded in 2007 by five musicians who played mostly in local festivals, their main concern being the preservation and evolution of the Thracian musical tradition. The collaboration with Teranga Beat helped this project evolve even further. Forms of arrangement different than the ones used in local feasts and festivals, were introduced giving more space to the dynamics of the instruments and allowing musicians to show both their improvisational and compositional skills. The distinctively psychedelic element of Thracian music was enhanced with the introduction of the CRB-Diamond 800 organ and the Moog, giving the whole project a hybrid sound with a unique identity. The album contains both covers of traditional songs and original compositions. The band's highest point was their appearance at the Womex Festival in 2018, where their music was presented for the first time in front of an international audience. Ormenion was recorded on an analog 24-track tape Otari MX 80 in two sessions that took place on May 18 and 19 2019. It is a live recording that captures the energy of the group's live performances. CD version comes in digipak with slipcase, and includes a booklet with photos and liner notes outlining the story of the band.

LP version. Transparent blue vinyl with insert. Container is the project of American noise veteran Ren Schofield, originally from Providence, Rhode Island, and now based in London. Editions Mego offshoot Spectrum Spools -- run by old friend John Elliott of the band Emeralds -- took the punt to release his debut LP, a collection of mutated techno tracks simply titled LP (SP 007LP). The record gained attention quickly in the electronic music scene largely thanks to Schofield's unique production style that separates him from forms of conventional dance music. Whilst the music of Container sits perfectly fine within dance music, years on the US noise circuit have given Schofield's brand of techno a rawness and direct intensity that stands out in the club and crosses over into other sub-sections of the underground. His modest set up of Roland MC-909, a four-track porta studio and an array of pedals allowed him to hone his scuzzy and bewildering beat music over the years, leading to three more well-received, and literally titled, LP's. Over this time period Container also released some EPs on Morphine, Liberation Technologies, and Diagonal, did a variety of remixes for acts like Four Tet, The Body, Panda Bear, and Fucked Up, plus maintained a healthy touring schedule that reached over every continent. Almost a decade since his debut, Container arrives on Alter with his first non-LP titled album called Scramblers. The title taken from both a Baltimore street drug and a Rhode Island Diner he used to eat at with his father. Schofield elaborates: "The juxtaposition between these two Scramblers is a great one. I wanted to pay homage to a nice name that lends itself to both depraved and wholesome contexts and do my part to carry on the tradition." The eight tracks have their origins in live performance and a more high-octane delivery is noticeable when compared with previous Container albums. "Mottle" sits in a mysterious zone between the productions of EVOL and early Ruff Sqwad. Fierce electro cuts like "Trench" and "Nozzle" work alongside the nauseous slink of "Duster", which in typical Container fashion morphs into a frenzy in no time. A frenzy which may be linked cosmically to the fact that Scramblers was recorded, mixed, and mastered in one day, reinforcing further his unorthodox and fun approach to club music.

"I Plan To Stay A Believer is the definitive document of William Parker's The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield project, featuring fully charged extensions & expansions -- both music & text -- of selections from the soul music legend's immortal songbook by an equally mighty & masterful 8-piece band featuring Parker himself in supreme rhythm section communion with drummer Hamid Drake and pianist Dave Burrell. Vocals by the exquisitely gifted Leena Conquest & additional voice/poetry/powerful singing as well by legendary scribe/force Amiri Baraka in one of his greatest/last appearances on record. The horn section takes it to next level, too. Parker brought this ensemble to festival stages in Europe (and Chicago & New York) during the first decade of this new millennium; many of these sets were recorded and this presents the distilled concentrate thereof anew. Gospel-tinged uplift, luminous swing, tight soul grooves, and wholly lit free jazz are rousingly delivered with clear-eyed joy and righteous purpose. This work brings Mayfield's and Parker's positive messages of hope and fortitude in the face of seemingly endless tribulation firmly into the present moment, exultantly so and with total commitment. This first time on vinyl limited edition features all new cover art & insert with Parker's liner notes + a previously unreleased, exclusive to vinyl version of 'People Get Ready/The Inside Song' + a download card for full-resolution download of 7 additional tracks/80 minutes of this profound music. 'It's hard to imagine Curtis Mayfield being anything but flattered by the immense thought and planning that clearly went into these arrangements. To pull and stretch these songs so much and still preserve their essential identity is a true feat of art.' --Pitchfork" Housed in a gatefold sleeve; includes full-res download with 7 additional tracks.

LP version. Frieder Butzmann and Thomas Kapielski's War Pur War was originally released in 1987 on Zensor and is here reissued by Bureau B. Composer, radio dramatist and performance artist Butzmann began exploring experimental music in the late 1960s. One of the pioneers of German industrial music and a member of the Geniale Dilettanten movement, Butzmann has collaborated with artists such as Genesis P-Orridge, Blixa Bargeld, and Santrra Oxyd, as well as releasing numerous solo works. Butzmann joined forces with author and artist Kapielski in the early 1980s. Most of their compositions are minimalist tracks interspersed with everyday noises and fragments of speech, as can be heard on War Pur War. This utterly unique work is an idiosyncratic mix of eccentric electro-pop and bizarre sonic collages and has gone on to become a sought-after collector's item. Remastered, includes new artwork, two bonus tracks, unpublished photos and liner notes by Butzmann.

"War Pur War was created in my small studio at 11-13 Erkelenzdamm, on the same floor as the Institut Unzeit, where the Freunde Guter Musik were also based. The record gathers together an incredibly diverse assortment of short pieces with different backstories. When we had finished recording, Thomas Kapielski and I headed for Hamburg with the two ¼- inch tapes to master the A and B sides of the LP. The engineer was a really friendly guy. He spotted a phase shift between the channels and I'm eternally grateful to him for correcting it! He wasn't quite so meticulous when it came to calibrating volume levels for the record. The three of us -- Kapielski, the engineer, and I -- had a lot of laughs together, but our man didn't take the music particularly seriously and perhaps lacked a little bit of focus. Distribution difficulties meant that only a few copies of the disc made it into the shops when it was released in 1987, ultimately increasing its collectability as a rare item. The album illuminates the spectrum of differing, even contradictory Butzmann/Kapielski productions, whilst also marking the conclusion of a short epoch which began with punk, post-punk, the Zensor record shop and Genialen Dilletanten in Berlin. It continued through a period of "high cultural relations" before ending in the late 1980s which, by no means coincidentally, is when the duo broke up." --Frieder Butzmann, November 2019

Dig This Way Records presents, Best of Jicco Funk Volume 1 , a door to a world of music that is high grade in quality, diverse, and open to interpretation even if the selected tracks are all from the same record label. One's questions might include: When did they start? Why did they start? Who was behind it? Where did the artists come from? What was their inspiration? By the time one reaches the end of the eight tracks included here, there may be more. In the early 1970s through to the '90s, Onitcha was one of Nigeria' most important cities, sitting on the banks of the river Niger about halfway between Benin City and Enugu. Aside from commerce, Onitcha was also an important center for music production; live music thrived and the city had a nightlife which embraced music. It's where labels like Tabansi and many other smaller companies had their headquarters. It's where in the late '60s, the label Jicco was also established, an enterprise which would commercialize Kenyan and Congolese music in Nigeria. By the mid-late '70s Jicco opened itself to new projects, launching a number of sub-labels, from Vox Africa to Guy, more specialized in highlife, native and soukous music, as well as jicco funk which was produced by small, local groups playing reggae, rock, and funk. Features: Jah Children, The Combats, Black Gold, Freedom Family, The Combats, The Sea-Men International, Felix Lebarty, and Jimmy Sky.