Double LP version. Includes download card & sticker collection. The Subs celebrate their tenth anniversary with A Decade of Dance. 2016 marks the tenth anniversary of The Subs: Ten years of partying, touring, making friends but most of all, ten years of making music. Since 2006, The Subs have become a household name in the Belgian (electronic) music scene. They've released three full albums to date, wrote numerous high-rotation-radio-hits and performed at the best venues & festivals Belgium has to offer: Pukkelpop, Rock Werchter, Tomorrowland, I Love Techno. The Subs have performed live in the Netherlands, France, UK, Italy, China, Japan, Australia and so on. It's been an amazing journey so far and The Subs have no intention of slowing down, but while they gear up for the future, this tenth anniversary is also the perfect moment to look back at their heritage with A Decade of Dance, a best-of-album containing 18 previously released tracks and one new single. Tracks feature: Colonel Abrams, Friends In Paris, Etienne De Crécy, Jean-Pierre Castaldi and Party Harders.
BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE, THE: Take It from the Man 2LP (AUK 005LP)
2016 repress. Originally released on CD in 1996, now reissued on A Recordings, Anton Newcombe's own record label. Released on 180 gram vinyl -- one blue LP & one red LP. The Brian Jonestown Massacre's obsession with the Rolling Stones continues unabated on the brilliant Take It from the Man!; where the group resurrected psychedelic-era excesses on the previous Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request, here they jump further back in time to the Stones' mid-'60s period, with even more superlative results. From the opening "Vacuum Boots" onward, Take It from the Man! is gritty, swaggering R&B-influenced rock, delivered with remarkable assurance and attitude; singer Anton Newcombe is half-madman and half-shaman, and he commands each delirious moment with absolute mastery, emerging not so much a disciple of Mick Jagger but as a serious threat to the throne.
BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE, THE: Give It Back! 2LP (AUK 006LP)
2016 repress on vinyl; 2013 release. This is the first time this release has been available on vinyl, remastered for this vinyl release. This 1997 album is seen as a classic Brian Jonestown Massacre release. The Brian Jonestown Massacre is a psychedelic rock band originally from San Francisco, California, led by guitarist/singer Anton Newcombe. Since 1995 The Brian Jonestown Massacre has released numerous albums, first for Bomp! Records, the label which gave them their start, and later for TVT, Tee Pee, and now on Anton Newcombe's own A Recordings label. BJM has been essential in the development of the modern U.S. garage scene, and many L.A. and SF musicians got their start playing with Newcombe, including Peter Hayes of The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Originally Newcombe was heavily influenced by The Rolling Stones' psychedelic phase -- the name comes from Stones guitarist Brian Jones combined with a reference to cult leader Jim Jones, but his work in the 2000s has expanded into aesthetic dimensions approximating the UK shoegazing genre of the 1990s, and incorporates influences from world music, especially Middle Eastern and Brazilian music.
COBRA LAMPS, THE: The Cobra Lamps EP CD (AUK 123CD)
Barrie Cadogan has fronted garage-surf-soul outfit Little Barrie since 1999 and since moving to London in 2000, he's developed a reputation as the premier go-to alt-rock guitar wing-man for the likes of Primal Scream, Johnny Marr, Morrissey, Edwyn Collins, Damo Suzuki, Paul Weller, Spiritualized, Anton Newcombe and The Chemical Brothers, amongst many others. The Cobra Lamps is Barrie's first solo project. Barrie wrote a handful of songs that didn't quite fit with the band. "I've always been interested in more cinematic music which we did delve into a little bit with the last Little Barrie record but I wanted to take that further," he explains. The four songs he set aside for the first EP under his solo moniker found Barrie indulging his interest in Skip Spence, The ByrdsThe Notorious Brothers album (1968), Ennio Morricone and Dion. "With things like 'Little Drones' I was trying to blend the psychedelic vocals with a cinematic, spaghetti western vibe." Reconnecting with Little Barrie's early producer Mike Burnham, the pair jammed around Barrie's new songs and, over three days, created music that used Burnham's plentiful vintage equipment and classic experimental methods. "Can't Uncorrupt" is a future rock blast of fuzz garage and is a primal track. "Little Drones" is an absorbing psych-folk ballad that uses drone warfare as a metaphor for how coldly and distantly we can destroy relationships. The rusted, low-slung R&B rock of "The Indicator" is a song about "looking for guidance, battling to trust your instinct even though it's all you have." The psych noir lead track "Known To All" concerns the secrets we all keep for the sake of our loved ones: "your thoughts should only be your own," Barrie sings, "the truth will not be known to all". "It's about classic British family behavior," he says, "The 'sweep it under the carpet' kind of attitude." Recorded towards the end of 2014, the EP loitered for a while but before long, via San Francisco based musician and former Stooges guitar tech Derek See, word of The Cobra Lamps reached Anton Newcombe, singer of The Brian Jonestown Massacre and owner of his own A Recordings label. "I loved the way, not just the records he does, but the way he puts them out and the way they're presented, the packaging and the artwork," Barrie enthuses, and Newcombe loved his EP in return.
John Frusciante's Foregrow doesn't sound like any Acid Test record, or any other record. After the unlikely alliance between the Los Angeles label and the iconoclastic Venice, CA musician, all bets are off. This one's truly a passage through night. Foregrow is a lurching, lysergic beauty which offers glimpses of his platinum pop instincts, but only behind the veil of true experimentalism.
MILLER, ALTON: More Positive Things (DJ Spinna Remix) 12" (ADEEN 001EP)
Beijing-based deep house label Adeen, run by Jason "Adeen" Wilkins, presents its first release, a 12" by Detroit house master Alton Miller with remixes from DJ Spinna and MsJones. Supported by David Morales and Louie Vega.
MARCHETTI, WALTER: Concerto For The Left Hand In One Movement LP (NMN 100LP)
LP version. The Concerto For The Left Hand In One Movement, for piano, is the last unpublished composition of Walter Marchetti to be performed in public before the death of the author on May 12, 2015. This performance by Reinier van Houdt was recorded on April 29, 2015, at Onder De Linden in Valthermond, Netherlands, and is presented with liner notes by Gabriele Bonomo, translated from the Italian by Philip Corner. Composed in 1994, the Concerto For The Left Hand belongs to a series of works written between 1994 and 1997 -- along with "Con vista sui suoni," "Eight or Nine Movements for String Quartet," and "La perdita del tempo" -- which develop from a preceding composition titled "Canonic Variations for Orchestra on Prolapsed Time From Development to Hiccup of Black Cherry Jam." In these works Marchetti made a systematic and assertive return to conventional music notation, while also not excluding performance and installation practices and the use of pre-recorded "concrète" sounds, which, since the '60s, had been his privileged field of action (a modality shared principally within the exquisitely iconoclastic and desecratory activities of the ZAJ group). What was particularly interesting to Marchetti in this recourse to musical writing was the weakening of the meaning of the rigid normative apparatus of a musical score with the purpose of annihilating the factual potential of his system of prescriptions. The title alone is used to hide a paradox in which the notes to the performer intervene to subvert the following paradigm: "The pianist is obliged to hold a black umbrella opened over his head in his left hand during the whole performance of this concerto." From here the performer is confronted with two conceptually convergent possibilities in de-potentializing the apparatus of signs in the score: on the one hand, the restrictive imposition of the paradox by which the music cannot manifest itself while respecting the letter of the enunciation, which leads to the impossibility of the music's "existence" (i.e. the obligation of holding an open black umbrella in the same hand) or, on the other hand, the transgression of this encumbrance in favor of the implicit possibility of playing the score with the right hand, leaving the music subjected to its own manifestation no longer able to coincide with its own realization -- "a magic made free from the lie of being truth." Limited edition of 300. Full-color sleeve with printed inner sleeve bearing photos and the liner notes.
Great Waitress present their third album, Hue. First performing in 2009, the trio's debut album, Lucid (2011), on Splitrec was a dazzling offering on Jim Denley's institutional imprint. Their follow-up was Flock (2013), on Portuguese label Creative Sources. Hue is a sophisticated distillation of these. On Hue, free improvisations offer flourishing moments of intensity that give way to shy, tender passages. The deep, textural explorations of each instrument confirm the accomplished musicianship of Magda Mayas, Monika Brooks and Laura Altman and at times the record is so minimal it sounds closer to field recordings. This sparse real-time arrangement shows the performative class and collective listening of this trio, honed over seven years of working together. Great Waitress is strengthened by a staggering number of collaborations and solo works by its members. The wide-reaching influences and technique of each member converge on Hue in a way that makes close listening unavoidable.
Arlen presents To The Lighthouse, the third album from Plantman and their first since 2013 - following the critically-acclaimed Whispering Trees (ARLEN 003CD, 2013) and subsequent first full release for its precursor, Closer To The Snow (ARLEN 006CD, 2010). To The Lighthouse represents a subtle but significant step forward in the evolution of Plantman, as main song-writer, Matthew Randall (ex-Beatglider) shifts further from the well-trodden path of many of his contemporaries and establishes a defined identity as a singer-songwriter, with his distinct yet gentle delivery creating an atmosphere and intensity that many yearn for but never achieve. For admirers of Bedhead, The Durutti Column, Yo La Tengo, Nick Drake and Bill Fay.
SYROSSIAN, DARIUS: Balance Presents Do Not Sleep 2CD (BAL 018CD)
Balance Music proudly presents Do Not Sleep from UK hero, Darius Syrossian. Darius Syrossian has risen up the ranks of the house/techno scene since first emerging on the global stage in the '90s. Best known for his pumping house and techno stylings, Syrossian displays a full gamut of musical ethos across this engrossing two-part mix. Both halves are created using his no-frills setup of three CDJs, two Technics 1210s and a Pioneer mixer. Disc 1 is a live club recording showcasing his spontaneity in his natural environment. Disc 2 is a carefully constructed and prepared studio mix. Disc 1 was recorded live at The Bow in Buenos Aires, and is a master class in slow-building energy. Kicking off with jazzy cuts from Demarkus Lewis and Tim Deluxe, Syrossian's own "Andranik" picks things up with subtle tribal energy before the nagging synths of Dennis Ferrer's "The Red Room". Grooving ensues via Apollonia and DJ T, trippy undertones amassing as Burnski's rolling "Changes" pushes towards an departure from Laurent Garnier's 303 classic "Crispy Bacon". Syrossian's "What You Say" continues with wonky pitch-bent synths, before the funk-fueled rhythms from Ian Pooley and Matt Tolfrey & Heartthrob. "Pacific State" and Deetron's thumping "Photon" deliver an anthemic crescendo. Disc 2 delves into headier material with moodier, more atmospheric undertones. Francesco Tristano's piano mastery kicks things off, with Smokin' Jo and Two Armadillos getting the rhythm rolling before Syrossian delivers a triple-helping of new productions. The squelching synths and tense strings of "Give It To Me" recall classic acid, while the intricate percolations of "Unicorn Zone" recall vintage tech house and minimal funk. Layers of techno pressure build in the mix's machinistic mid-section, with Sleeper Thief pulling things back into a more stripped-back place. There are moody vocals from Kacob Korn & Break SL's "You And Me" featuring Tabitha Xaiver, and mystical tribal drama from Silicone Soul, leading into a Larry Heard classic. Syrossian enlists the help of Bwana and KiNK to reach the mix's climax. This is the sound of Darius Syrossian at his purest: a mean, lean DJ with an impressive arsenal of his own productions, flawless mixing and the experience needed to seamlessly weave together the DNA of house and techno music past, present and future. Also features: Bas Ibellini, Mar-T & Luca Donzelli, House Of Virus, Barber & Finn, Marc Faenger, Makam, Prompt & Onuba, Mr White (Chad White), DrDr and Jimpster.
THEE J JOHANZ: Move Your Butty (Prins Thomas Remix) 12" (BALL 103EP)
The original "Move Your Butty" (1993) gained cult status and the time seems right for a re-release of this gem. Thee J Johanz decided to replace samples with synths, which gave him the freedom to create a totally fresh and moody remix. The strings of the Elka Synthex give you wings, while the typical "Move Your Butty" bassline is pumpin' you up. Expect the unexpected from Prins Thomas' remix: very refreshing funky eighties electro-vibes. An original approach with an oasis of "Move Your Butty" references in the middle. An excellent remix of the remix.
Finally an official vinyl release of what was only previously released as a bootleg CD-R in the early '90s, based on the original recordings and with new mastering. Two LPs full of Wipers rarities, including their almost impossible-to-find debut single from 1978, "Better Off Dead," as well as other rarities from B-sides, compilation tracks, and acoustic and electric performances from 1978 to 1990. A totally necessary release for all fans of this legendary American band that put down the roots of '80s and '90s noise and underground rock! Deluxe gatefold sleeve with full details.
Jeff Mcdonald, co leader of Redd Kross, recorded this self-titled music gem back in 1997 in Los Angeles and now it is being released on vinyl for the very first time. Recorded between Redd Kross' master pieces Phaseshifter and Show World, that is exactly what this record sounds like, a mix between both albums. Spine shivering melodies full of rock, glam, pop melodies, choruses and beauty, Jeff McDonald gives us the opportunity now to discover this wonderful record which will make all Redd Kross fans worldwide feel in heaven.
CHILTON, ALEX: Dusted In Memphis (And Elsewhere) 2LP (BIGAL 666LP)
First time re-issue of the legendary Alex Chilton album Dusted In Memphis, originally released in 1980. For many, this is Alex's finest. Includes a second bonus album full of unreleased material; covers, alternate versions, fantastic demos, and infamous complete KUT radio session. All culled from the period between 1975 and 1980, a troubled - but prolific and brilliant - time for Chilton. This is deconstructed rock n roll, perfect pop songs perversely pureed, punkabilly before the term was coined, chaotic, trashy, beautiful. Allegedly, the only copy of these recordings that anyone associated with was lost in the house fire that claimed Alex Chilton's mother's life. If this is true, and the masters have been lost, it is truly a great, great shame as these are possibly the best post-Big Star recordings of Alex's long solo career. This quite legendary bootleg bridges the gap between Sister Lovers (1978) and Like Flies On Sherbert (1979). It contains the Elektra demos with some songs that might be regarded amongst Big Star's finest if they would have found a proper release. This is a great shame as it is an excellent document of where Alex was at during this stage of his career (he wooed the critics during his time in NY, but not the major labels). File between: Skip Spence's Oar (1969), Panther Burns's Behind The Magnolia Curtain (1981), Neil Young's Tonight's the Night (1975) and early Cramps.
$30.39 UPC: N/A ROCK
LP 1 - Dusted In Memphis:
A1. Take Me Home And Make Me Like It (Memphis '75)
A2. Walking Dead (Memphis '75)
A3. Can't Seem To Make You Mine (Wallingford '77)
A4. Tennis Bum (Memphis '80)
A5. Baron Of Love Part 2 (Memphis '78 Like Flies On Sherbert Outtake)
A6. Bangkok (Alternate '77)
B1. Shakin' The World (Wallingford '77)
B2. My Rival (New York '78)
B3. Little Fishy (New York '78)
B4. She Might Look My Way (New York '78)
B5. Window's Motel (New York '78)
B6. Lovely Day (Memphis '75)
B7. No More The Moon Shines On Lorena (Memphis '79)
LP 2 - Unreleased Material - (Side D - Complete KUT Austin Radio Show, 1978):
C1. All The Time (Elektra Demo '77)
C2. Surfer Girl (Sam Philips Studios)
C3. Marshall Law (Peter Holsapple Sessions '78)
C4. Train Kept A Rollin' / Mona (Peter Holsapple Sessions '78)
C5. Take Me Home And Make Me Like It (Wlyx Memphis '75)
D1. Rock Hard
D2. Riding Through The Reich
D3. The Lion Sleeps Tonight
D4. I've Had It
D5. No More The Moon Shines On Lorena
D6. Waltz Across Texas
D7. Lili Marleen
D8. The Way I Walk
D9. Death Cab For Cutie
Baum welcomes YWF to their label with his first release on the label, Platane EP. The style is raw dub techno with an edge. The B side contains a fantastic remix by Sven Weisemann.
The incomparable Piero Umiliani (under his mysterious Moggi moniker) weighs in with another AWOL library gem of 1979. The Italian maestro goes resolutely left field and off track with an intra-personal exploration of the disturbed inner psyche within the human condition. Distressed electro beacons are unleashed as de-tuned predatory Carpenter-esque synth patterns come to the fore (check "Clavinet Suspence: for primal audio blastings to a lost unnamed '80s slasher movie). With the electric eighties buzzing on the horizon, Umiliani was quick to capitalize on this cultural shift, utilizing his Moog synthesizers to tap in to changing musical zeitgeists via cost cutting experimentations for TV, adverts and documentaries. Followers of the esoteric and strange can finally dig in here with this lavishly created reissue featuring original artwork, master tape laquer cutting and Umiliani's autograph notes on the project.
M. ZALLA (PIERO UMILIANI): Mondo Inquieto LP (BS 022LP)
Maestro Piero Umiliani returns in the alter ego guise of M. Zalla for the 1974 compositional library piece Mondo Inquieto (Restless World) via his far reaching, experimentalist imprint Sound Work Shop. Ambient tensions are represented via a dramatic cross fertilization of orchestral strings, layered synths and primeval percussion with the Maestro on moody, reflective compositional duties. Stand out cut "Strategia" ("Strategy") harnesses the dopest Wu Tang beats alongside swathes of high end electro blankets and is a sample classic aching to be reworked into further outer cosmos soundscapes. Black Sweat has again transferred the elements of this little known Umiliani microcosm into a respectful reissue via an integration of the stark, haunting sleeve design, laquer cutting from the original master tapes and Umiliani's autograph notes on the project.
UMILIANI, PIERO: Genti e Paesi del Mondo LP (BS 036LP)
The mid '70s presented mature, fertile grounding for maestro Piero Uimiliani's Sound Workshop Studio, exploring side ways explorations in to gravitational soundscapes and beyond. Released in 1975 via his prolific Omicron imprint, Genti e Paesi Del Mondo (Peoples and Countries of the World) is a return to the ethnic flavors so beloved of Umiliani's zeitgeist. Umiliani turns anti-clockwise, launching a left field mental audio pad to uncharted territories. On Genti e Paesi Del Mondo sparse, eerie electronic confections spar in unison alongside moody transgressional vibes. Umiliani's mysterious pathways unlock a trinket box echoing the Germanic stylings of Wolperath's Plank Studio and Herzog-era Popol Vuh. This loving reissue recreates the original artwork, master tape laquer cutting and Umiliani's autograph notes on the project.
CAROLINE K: Now Wait For Last Year LP (BLACKEST 050LP)
Limted repress! First ever vinyl reissue of Caroline K's outstanding 1985 album, Now Wait For Last Year. This haunting, wistful work of post-industrial synthesizer music - the late Nocturnal Emissions co-founder's only solo record - has accrued a fervent cult following over the past 30 years, and copies of the original pressing are today extremely sought-after. Tags like industrial, minimal synth or proto-techno can't really do justice to the richly cinematic sound-world that Caroline Kaye Walters, aka Caroline K, describes as "from the sustained ambient tension of sidelong opener 'The Happening World' to the future-primitive rhythms and stately piano flourishes of 'Animal Lattice', and the melancholic, deep-frozen synth sequences of 'Chearth'." Fans of Wendy Carlos's A Clockwork Orange, Chris Carter's The Space Between, and early Detroit techno should pay special attention, but this searching, future-proof masterpiece demands to be heard by all.
Bureau B reissue Rolf Trostel's Inselmusik (1981). Rolf Trostel is a protagonist of the so-called Berliner Schule, or Berlin School (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze). On his first album Inselmusik, he explores the sonic possibilities of the recently introduced PPG wavetable synthesizer. The music is based on live performances from the late 1970s by Trostel and Krautrock guitarist Günter Schickert. Formally speaking, Inselmusik is a demonstration of the PPG Wave Computer 360, a synthesizer. Rolf Trostel had worked briefly as a distributor for the manufacturer, affording him ample opportunity to play the instrument for presentation purposes. In terms of content, Inselmusik is minimalist, meditative and contemplative music, enriched with remarkable choral sounds, flutes and effects. Overlapping sequencer lines and dominant expanses with feel-good harmonies are carried along on calm, soothing beats. Trostel described his music at the time as "Klangfarbenkompositionen" - tonal, textural compositions. Wavetable synthesis is commonplace now - in considerably advanced form - and integrated in many soundcards or digital synthesizers. The version which featured in the PPG Wave Computer 360 was purist, to say the least. The clanging tones it created could be harsh or brittle at times. This highly distinctive sound, particularly in combination with the charming Roland CR-78 CompuRhythm drum machine amounted to a real surprise package back then. The latter's mighty kick has stood the test of time, sounding no less powerful today. Our ears have long since grown used to digital sounds and patterns crafted with wavetable technology. But the filterless, purist methodology deployed here serves to emphasize the work's unique sonic qualities. Inselmusik thus allows us to grasp just how astonishing these often raucous sounds must have seemed when first unleashed. Trostel's early releases have legitimately assumed the status of valuable contemporary documents, rarities amongst the few albums which illustrate how the sonic pioneer of wavetable synthesis played such a fundamental role in sonic development; Rolf Trostel recorded Inselmusik exclusively with this very synthesizer, a corresponding sequencer and CR-78 drum computer in his own home studio. The original pressing of 1000 LPs sold out in no time, encouraging Trostel to continue.
Bureau B reissue Rolf Trostel's Der Prophet (1982). Electronic pop was the musical goal of the Berlin School musician Rolf Trostel on Der Prophet, which was released in the same year as its predecessor Two Faces. Der Prophet is the culmination of this phase of Trostel's oeuvre, which was tightly coupled to the PPG Wave Computer. As on his previous releases, the sonic peculiarities and clanking sounds of wavetable synthesis are emphasized. Yet here they are obviously more interlinked with the rhythm computer, the Minimoog solo synthesizer and the analog string synth. Additionally, Trostel spatially layered the sounds with different amounts of reverb, which gives the sound the necessary depth for electronic pop and especially emphasizes dry effect sounds. Compared to the previous albums, simpler sequencer lines with less layering provide for a more airy sound. The reason for this was the fact that Trostel had now replaced his PPG 350 Computer Sequencer and Roland CR-78 drum machine with the Roland TB-303 bass synth and step sequencer and the TR-808 drum machine. This at-the-time brand new equipment formed a dream team for electronic pop - the machines are now highly coveted and sought-after cult objects among musicians. "With this production, the rhythmic element is at the foreground, specifically the variable programming of drum computer. Der Prophet was my most commercial production," explains Trostel. The album also benefits from the assertive sound of the TB-303/TR-808 combination and their sync-able sequencers. By 1981, Trostel was no longer using the PPG Wave Computer 360 A as a spearhead to explore new soundscapes. It had been replaced by more modern developments. Wolfgang Palm, the developer of this synthesizer and inventor of wavetable synthesis, presented the PPG Wave 2 with integrated analog filters, which quickly became a best seller and was further developed until 1984 with the PPG Wave 2.3. It was a mainstay in every professional keyboardist's setup during the 1980s. In parallel, the functions of sampling, phase and frequency modulation became increasingly important for sound tinkerers. In retrospect, one gets the impression that Trostel's enormously productive creative period, during which he released three albums within two years, was triggered by the PPG 360 A Wave Computer and the PPG 350 Computer Sequencer and concluded when they became obsolete. To a certain extent, these instruments channeled and conveyed Trostel's classical piano training.
Camera presents their third album, Phantom of Liberty. The beat hammers like the pulse of a pair of lovers on the run from a gang of racist thugs - the sound is manic, but from it speaks a seemingly insurmountable inner strength. This arch of tension is home to Camera. The Berlin band is rightly compared with icons of seventies Krautrock such as Neu! and La Düsseldorf, with a tight and driving sound, yet they are still somehow unpredictable. Hardly any other band understands how to mutate tiny musical nuances into volcanic eruptions like they do. Camera is a motor running at full throttle, where an explosion could occur at any second. Once you have embarked on this crazy journey, you will be fascinated by the alternating current somewhere between a flash flood and roller coaster running off the rails. The cascades of sound convey a blurry image of a boundless desire to revolt, with each blink of an eye threatening to end in purgatory, yet it is damned near indestructible. Michael Drummer is the ethereal Indian paleface who pummels his drums at every show as if we're in the midst of a 17th Century incarnational ritual. In Steffen Kahles, who hails from the world of film music, he has found the musical partner he needed to enrich the tribal kraut beat with diverse motifs and bold sounds. On Phantom of Liberty, there is clever use of playful sounds such as synths that beam the listener back into the Commodore 64 computer games of 1984; or slightly cranky keyboard pads, as if created by deliberately manipulating the speed of an old tape machine. With Phantom of Liberty, Camera show that they have become more mature and complex without losing any of their tremendous energy.
Project ALMA is a collaboration between Luciano's Cadenza Records label and the ALMA Sounds, bridging Luciano's love for music and ALMA astronomer Antonio Hales's love of the universe. The ALMA observatory is an astronomical interferometer of radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Luciano, alongside Felipe Venegas and Diego Errázuriz, have produced this release using sounds collected from the ALMA resource library. Luciano takes us on a trip to Orion, Venegas goes deeper with a truly spatial piece and Errázuriz opts for a beat-less excursion that marries soft and atmospheric piano to the planetary tones.
It is 1960. Rock 'n' roll has just lost a couple of its protagonists during this and the previous year. The time of the great balladeers has just begun but soon will run out, due to the new and exciting beat invasion. In the US mainstream, the tiki culture has reached a certain peak and is about to collapse, but still goes strong, and with it comes the so-called "exotica" music, a crossover between smooth jazz and swing, Latin grooves, and haunting melodies rooted in global folk traditions, plus weird sound effects that often create a spooky jungle or dreamy island beach atmosphere. See palm trees growing out of your speakers; witness monkeys and parrots having fun in your room. eden ahbez (1908-1995) lived a consistent dropout and hippie lifestyle way before the movement was born in the mid '60s. As a poet and composer, he wrote the hit tune "Nature Boy" that gave Nat King Cole his first big success in 1948. On Eden's Island, originally released in 1960, he approaches the field of exotica music from a different point of view, creating an epic concept album about a utopian society living in peace and harmony on an island far away from the modern western world as we know it. Relaxed grooves; easy-listening swing; Latin patterns; peaceful, dreamy, even transcendent vocal melodies; tinges of folk music from around the world; and a whole color palette of mind-expanding sounds, with narrated lyrics and eden ahbez's wood flute. A truly unique effort; highly recommended to exotica aficionados who, for example, love Frank Hunter's 1959 White Goddess album. Psychedelic music before the term was even invented.
Orphan Swords are a Brussels-based duo that crafts some of the most menacing modern electronics in the game. Their music - described as "a brutal hypnosis" by Ransom Note - is widely critically acclaimed. It has been released on Idiosyncratics, Desire Records and Clan Destine. They have played alongside Vatican Shadow, The Body, Black Rain, Extreme Precautions and Kyoka. The Weehawken EP, their first proper release on Clan Destine, features both brand new and classic Orphan Swords material that hadn't been released on vinyl yet.
OFF FEAT. SVEN VATH: Electrica Salsa Revisited 2x12" (COR 140EP)
Limited premium edition. Electrica Salsa (1986) revisited in 2016 with remixes by Roman Flügel and Henrik Schwarz. In 1986, one electronic track turned the European music charts upside down: "Electrica Salsa" by the Frankfurt project OFF, a collective producing their tracks at Master Music Studio. The founders of "Organisation For Fun": Michael Münzing, Luca Anzilotti and then 21- year-old Sven Väth writing hits like "The Power" or "Rhythm Is A Dancer". "Michael and Luca were the masters of equipment, responsible for the mixing desk and the recording tape we used to make the master tapes. I was the one providing song ideas, grooves and bringing a good mood to the studio." Electrica Salsa prompted a new feel in pop culture, adopting modern techniques like the use of sound samples driven by a unique beat, creating what would be called balearic-fusion. "OFF happened quite naturally as we were trying out some things at the studio. We had a concrete 4/4 bass drum playing and the other two were experimenting on the bass. So I went over to the microphone and tried out some word and syllable sounds. Somehow my lips formed 'Electrica Salsa' and then 'Ba Ba Ba'? we added trumpets and timbales that I recorded live. The thick 'boom' sound on the other hand is a sample from a Mercedes S 500 door being slammed!" The spontaneous session produced a powerfully anarchic song mastered on a 24-track tape that got all three musicians euphoric. "I was most happy about the great success we had with Electrica Salsa in Ibiza and Italy, where we actually made number one," Väth recollects. "Ibiza was the greatest source of inspiration. The island really had a strong influence on us with its eclectic sounds at the times. The balearic sound was a mix of Italo disco, wave, funk and African percussion. The track 'Electrica Salsa' is a cornerstone of techno history. Roman Flügel is a friend and estimated colleague of mine and he created a really smart version of the track. Henrik Schwarz on the other hand actually invited a brass combo to the studio and recorded them with strings and Latin bass which makes a great modern version." as Väth describes this production.
Damaged Goods present a reissue of Johnny Moped's Cycledelic, originally released in April of 1978. Described by Jon Savage in his book England's Dreaming (1991) as "certainly one of the more curious albums to emerge from the first wave of UK punk. Moped was a clumsy singer even by the standards of early British punk, given to moaning and gurgling when he couldn't think of something to say, and guitarist Slimy Toad had chops and wasn't afraid to show them, so some of the longer songs like 'Maniac' and '3D Time' veer off into what sounds like a thug's version of prog-rock. And even when the band did tear into something short, fast, and loud, they sounded like '60s pop gone mad on speed; Cycledelic may be one of the only albums from punk's first wave that displays almost no audible Ramones influence. But if the Mopeds were following a path all their own, they were clearly having a lot of fun doing it. Johnny Moped was a little too odd to serve as a true 'every kid', but the absurd brilliance of the best moments on Cycledelic are a shining example of the punk credo that anyone could do it -- and that sometimes amazing things could emerge from unexpected places."
$14.99 EAN: 5020422046016 ROCK
01. Mystery Track
02. V.D. Boiler
03. Panic Button
04. Little Queenie
05. Maniac
06. Darling, Let's Have Another Baby
07. Groovy Ruby
08. 3D Time
09. Wee Wee
10. Make Trouble
11. Wild Breed
12. Hell Razor
13. Incendiary Device
THIS COLD NIGHT: An Enigmatic Individual LP + 7" (DEADWAX 013LP)
An Enigmatic Individual is a compilation of the most beloved works by This Cold Night, the moniker of solo artist Chase Morledge who began experimenting with music in a tiny, shared apartment room in Austin, Texas in 2014. This young Texan offers an overwhelming array of dark, pulsing, danceable songs but loaded with his innermost feelings as reflected in his lyrics. Inspired by late '70s and early '80s music movements (from cold wave or post-punk to goth pop or dark wave) and modern equivalents, This Cold Night sought to release a wholly uncompromising portrayal of the wicked thoughts in his addled little brain. Sixteen songs chosen amongst the eight digital only releases that Chase offered through his Bandcamp site since he started publishing music in 2014. Most of the songs have been mastered specially for vinyl from the original mixes, a few others retouched from the original masters to suit the vinyl format. This is an essential work of art presented by Dead Wax Records. Housed in a matte sleeve with black & silver pantone finish and a printed matte inner sleeve. The included 7" comes in its own folded insert-sleeve and with hand-stamped disc label. Includes a download code. Edition of 260 (numbered).
VAKULA: Cyclicality Between Procyon And Gomeisa 3LP (DKMNTL 040LP)
The Ukraine based producer, Vakula, presents his triple-LP album, Cyclicality Between Procyon And Gomeisa, on Dekmantel. "This album is about cycles, repetition and interaction", says Vakula. Cyclicality Between Procyon And Gomeisa is a dashing experimental record that evokes the endless and captivating potential of electronic music, creating a mesmerizing journey through various music genres, exhibiting a singular sonic experience, whilst he works through a process of improvisation and refinement. Once again, the mastermind proves to be capable of creating complex, yet diverse musical pieces beyond genres and trends. The result: an audio adaptation of his fascinating mind; "There are two parallel processes that come together in my work: me writing music and working on the sound I want to achieve and the energy from outside that flows and transforms into thoughts, correlations, and actions." The track titles relate to the source of Vakula's inspiration and connect the dots between his obsession for the vastness of the universe and electronic music; ''To wonder about the universe and to dig into mythology and scientific research discovering at least some of its secrets is what keeps me endlessly motivated as a producer.''
VOISKI: I'll Be Your Maple Pecan Tonight 12" (DKMNTL UFO3-EP)
French DJ and producer Voiski brings his versatile skills together on the third installment of Dekmantel's UFO series, serving up five completely different yet coherent sounding tracks. The beat lacking ambient synth jam "Go To A Mountain" is a display of Voiski's ear for mesmerizing soundscapes, while the pulsating, Nintendo-core fueled "Happy Piece" and the dark, bass-heavy "Seriously No" are two peak-time beasts. On the B-side, "Come Back" gives a glimpse of what the future of techno sounds like, whereas "Drama In the Futurists' Cabaret" echoes hi-tech soul gone breakbeat.
Equiknoxx is one of the hottest, most innovative dancehall squads from Jamaica. Bird Sound Power is their debut collective show of strength, packing twelve avant, crooked riddims by core members Gavsborg and Time Cow, plus Bobby Blackbird and Kofi Knoxx, with vocals by Kemikal, Shanique Marie and J.O.E. (R.I.P). The set was parsed and pieced together by Jon K & Demdike Stare, and now thanks to link ups via Swing Ting's Balraj Samrai, it is issued on Demdike's DDS imprint, replete with Jon K's sleeve design. Easily identified by the squawking bird idents peppering their cuts, Equiknoxx productions have been big in the dance since Gavin Blair, aka Gavsborg, produced Busy Signal's billboard hit "Step Out" in 2005, followed by key instrumentals for Beenie Man, Aidonia, Masicka and T.O.K. - with many released on 7" through their Equiknoxx Musiq label, and some of which, such as Aidonia's "Negative", are included in this set. Bird Sound Power arguably marks up the most striking riddim album from Jamaica in 2016, weighted with the potential to open up perceptions of current dancehall thanks to the mad character and broad reference points of its producers, encompassing King Jammy's foundational digi-dub and Dave Kelly's Mad House sound as much as rugged New York hip-hop and the wigged-out, feminine pressure of Virginia Beach's Timbaland or The Neptunes. The oldest tune inside dates to 2009, but the rest are relatively recent dancehall mutations, including a number of exclusives produced in the last 12 months. Each one represents Equiknoxx's unique aspects, such as Jordan Chung's, aka Time Cow, brilliantly bizarre, layered arrangements of film samples, sawn-off hooks and digi-tight beats, whilst also a result of as their distinguished family vibe, Bird Sound Power exists in a paradox, contemporary but classic, and with as much potential to turn new heads onto current Jamaican sounds as Mowax's Now Thing set back in 2001. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton. All on vinyl for the first time ever.
LP version. Kouhei Matsunaga's second album as NHK yx Koyxen - his label debut for Diagonal - is a pixel-pill gobbling, see-sawing wave of techno emotions presenting the Japanese artist at his most rugged and damaged. After recent LPs from Not Waving (DIAG 025CD/LP, 2016), Elon Katz (DIAG 029, 2016) and Russel Haswell (DIAG 024CD/LP, 2015), Diagonal now excel in drawing out powerful album statements from some of the most distinctive musicians in contemporary electronic music. As bonkers as the narwhal-cavorting-with-a-rhino artwork, Doom Steppy Reverb is the skizzo brother of new beta, a 3D spec'd rally thru some of NHK's darkest, most driven material, done with a gangster swang in deft minor key arrangements that hint at a certain rudeboy vulnerability. Its seven tracks toe a fine line between novel and nasty; sidewinding from warehouse acid to brukkin' garage techno by the brutal close of "1073+snare", or basic channeling Autechre/Reich-ian chords with sole-melting synth juice in "Y", only to unexpectedly turn out a baroque scally bubble, Zomby style, with "1082_s". Make no mistake, it's a record full of club bangers, though: "L gets on Lory D levels of neo acid house squirm and "1038_lo_oct" will demolish a big room at the right time thanks to some properly toned sub-bass, adding a new weapon to Diagonal's arsenal of world-scattered radge packets. It's proper fuel for DJs, dancers and headphone excursionists - and the artwork by Guy Featherstone, makes it just a good ol' laugh to look at. This is NHK's best work - and it demands to be felt. Mastered by Matt Colton. RIYL: Demdike Stare, Gescom, Blawan, Zomby.
Different Circles present Kazzt, Airhead's long-awaited return to vinyl. Label co-head Mumdance makes a rare foray into remix territory, twisting up the original and making it look really strange. Mumdance on Kazzt: "Kazzt is another milestone in the linage of our discography and is another very important step towards slowly carving out the different circles 'sound' - stripping things down to the very bare bones and focusing on sonics, weight and disorientation."
ROBERTSON, DW: Disco Carousel Vol. 1 LP (CREP 031LP)
The artist formerly known as Ergo Phizmiz, releases his first work under his birth name, DW Robertson with Disco Carousel Vol. 1, a demented ode to the power of mechanical music. Robertson on the record: ''Everybody knows that mechanical music is the highest form of entertainment, that's why the fairground, that age old uber-entertainment, rang with the chaotic splendor of Barrel Organs, Orchestrions, Bellenoens and Serinettes. In the 20th century, as the delicate mechanisms of automata fell out of favor to the machismo of electricity, all the music-boxes left the funfair, to be usurped by Euro-techno. Disco Carousel is an attempt to redress this balance with a little bit of time travel, a little bit of TLC, and atomic fusion between the discreet windings of the Pianola and the whirring innards of the computing-machine.''
$16.99 EAN: 5055869501095 ELECTRONIC
A1. Big Dip on the Big Dipper
A2. The Shooting Gallery
A3. Prizewinner
B1. Brief Sojourn on the Ghost Train
B2. Disco Carousel
MERIDIAN BROTHERS: El Advenimiento Del Castillo Mujer LP (CREP 032LP)
Discrepant present a vinyl release of Meridian Brothers's El Advenimiento Del Castillo Mujer. Originally released back in 2006 by Colombian label La Distritofonica as a limited CD-only album, El Advenimiento Del Castillo Mujer showcased a rare style of "abstract folk music" inspired on the experiments of some Bogota collectives from the time (2005-2006). Recorded and composed in Copenhagen between 2005 and 2006 by founding and core member Eblis Alvarez (vocals, guitars & electronics), each song is intended to explore a different energy and mood, from the pure abstract rhythms, to concrete vallenato, cumbia and currulao.
$18.39 EAN: 5055869501118 WORLD
A1. La industria del deporte
A2. Cancion del moderno templario
A3. El Cantinero experimental
A4. El ojo de la princesa
A5. Jornada Nacional para la utilizacion de antidotos
B1. Cancion de invierno
B2. El enamorado
B3. Me llaman cumbiambera adolorida
B4. Coplas pa' cantar al atardecer
Dubblestandart present Dub Realistic. Of course, Dubblestandart have been keeping a version of the dub flame alive for the last two decades, their formation coinciding with the phase in which Jamaican dub was on the way out. Formed in 1988 as a reaction to the stagnant Austrian pop scene, the group was heavily inspired by the Black Ark, On-U Sound and Jah Shaka, infusing such dub influences within their heady blend of hardcore reggae and new wave, which soon brought them into the European public's consciousness. Soon, they were so in demand as to be backing Lee Scratch Perry on the Austrian stage, followed by stints with dub poet Lilian Allen and ace toaster, Dillinger. At present, they have already issued over ten albums, collaborating with Ken Boothe, Sly & Robbie, Mad Professor, Marcia Griffiths, Chezere, Caron Wheeler (Soul II Soul) all the while working new technological dimensions into their sound, and although they have undertaken a dub tour of the US west coast, Canada, India and Russia. Dubblestandart's cavernous excursion into deep dub, chilling dub and dubble-tough dub are willed into perfection with Dub Realistic. Dubblestandart's handling of this mission has been exemplary: the productions are pleasingly individualistic, retaining plenty of originality and professionalism without seeming stoic, dull or contrived. Opening Dub Realistic with a slowed down adaption of Massive Attack's massive hit "Safe From Harm" presents Amanda Bauman going deeper, followed by a journey into the Middle East ("Arab Dub") & further examples of how we, as musicians, digest the world around us ("Earthshaker"). Populistic tendencies at home ("Welcome To Europe") or "effects" of the refugee crisis ("The Boat Stops") triggering questions: What is the role of us as artists ("Not Controlled by the Artist") and how do we contribute in a positive way? From Kingston/Jamaica, reggae & soul singer Tanice Morris appears on "Let It Flow" and "Dub version" and from Cairo/Egypt, Aisha E dubs on Bob Marley's "Sun Is Shining."
2016 repress; gatefold LP version. Returnal is the fourth album from Daniel Lopatin's Oneohtrix Point Never project, after Betrayed In The Octagon (Deception Island, 2007), Zones Without People (Arbor, 2009) and Russian Mind (No Fun, 2009). All 3 albums being superbly compiled on the Rifts double CD set (No Fun, 2009). It sees Lopatin fine-tune his craft for the creation of deep atmospheres and textures even further. Starting off with the mind-blowing triptych of "Nil Admiari"/"Describing Bodies"/"Stress Waves," which fires off into a noise/rhythm excess before entering a zone of relative calm, building to the melancholy of the final part. This sets the tone perfectly for the album's title track, a stunning, out-of-this-world ballad featuring Lopatin's near-desperate vocal delivery, ending what could be seen as one of his most chilling and thought-provoking sides to-date. The atmosphere is slightly lifted as the darkened sun comes up over the ruins on "Pelham Island Road" and "Where Does Time Go," with the album closing with edgy broken beats and the fourth-world possible landscapes of "Preyouandi," which fades into the distance with echoes of the "Returnal" chorus closing the loop. What's burnt into memory here is Lopatin's love affair with the long, slow path back home... the cycle... the hypnotic sector... the ghost in the machine... and whether people are making dance music or hip-hop or space head-music or metal, the ouroboros is present in every sector -- as it was in Bach's study, and in the elephant songs of the Ituri forests. Instrumentation: Akai AX-60, Roland Juno-60, Roland MSQ-700, Korg Electribe ES-1, Voice. Recorded using a personal computer. Mastered by James Plotkin. Tape-op & additional engineering by Al Carlson. Awesome spot-varnished cover design by Stephen O'Malley.
No other band channels the color, warmth and energy of the coastal SoCal scenery as well as San Diego's Monarch. Their debut album Two Isles was recorded and produced by local glitterati Brian Ellis. It's full of breezy Allman Brothers guitar leads gliding effortlessly on top of gentle, and sometimes not so gentle, prog-rock structures. With supreme musicianship, they somehow connect the dots between classic California rock, prog, pastoral pop and the vivid, expansiveness of early 1990s British shoegaze. Indeed these guys have created something that transcends sounding like a time capsule. While psychedelia might be the prism that everything is projected through, Two Isles reveals the fact that this is a group of people who grew up on a wide range of sounds available in the diverse San Diego scene: ambient, indie, math, jazz and whatever else was available to experience.
Immortal Light is the debut solo album by guitarist-singer-songwriter Buck Curran. Since 2005, Buck has recorded and performed as one half of the alt-folk duo Arborea. To date, Arborea has released five albums, including 2013's ESP-Disk' release Fortress of the Sun (ESPDISK 5002CD/LP). Buck's music is influenced by landscapes of nature and has developed through a decade of playing with Arborea, and the experience of playing blues and folk throughout the 1990s. He also draws inspiration from the deep well of folk and rock of the 1960s (Robbie Basho, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Tim Buckley), American blues and folk music of the 1930s, British folk and psychedelic folk/rock of the '60s and early '70s (Peter Green, Sandy Denny, Pentangle, Led Zeppelin, Martin Simpson), Indian classical music (Pandit Nikhil Banerjee) and jazz of the '50s and '60s (Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane). Bob Boilen, the host of NPR's All Songs Considered, listed Arborea among his favorite concerts and recommended live acts in 2012. Arborea's fourth album, Red Planet, was released in 2011 and received critical praise making: David Fricke's Rolling Stone "Best Under-the-Radar Albums of 2011", Guitar Player Magazine Editors "Top Pick", Uncut "Top 100 Albums of 2011", etc. Fortress of the Sun made AllMusic's "Favorite Folk Albums of 2013" and "Favorite Singer/Songwriter Albums of 2013", Acoustic Guitar's "Best Acoustic Albums of 2013", Best of Echoes 2013 Listener Poll, etc. Paste also listed Arborea in their profile of top musical acts in Maine for their "50 States Project". Personnel: vocals, guitars, harmonium, flute, banjo - Buck Curran; Backup vocals on "New Moontide" and "Bad Moon Rising". Featured lead vocals and harmonium on "Immortal Light." - Shanti Deschaine.
Setaoc Mass delivers Cipher, an EP of finely tuned and highly diversified techno deep space explorations. The melody of "Cipher" twists while airy breakbeats faintly hint at the producer's UK roots. "Lost Lakes" sticks to a metronomic stomp, making for a simple yet utterly effective tool. Choral howls and detuned synths merge on "Transform" for a gentle yet trance-inducing track. "Rain" sees Setaoc Mass recreate a thundering storm, complete with flashing strokes of lightning and a downpour of celestial scale. The breakbeat returns on "Flying Buttress" and explores the common ground between futuristic grime and techno.
Anne Briggs sang three songs during the launch episode of Folk-Song Cellar, broadcast on Saturday August 13th, 1966. When Fledg'ling approached Anne with the tentative proposal to release these songs, she was quick to respond: "Three songs on an EP is awkward. If you needed another song, there might be something recorded from a Nottingham folk club around that time". Anne's oldest friends recorded some songs in their local folk club and carefully preserved the recordings for decades. Al Atkinson offers some rare photographs for the sleeve. Rare, simple, unadorned and intimate performances make their first appearance on record here.
$8.39 EAN: 5020393100649 ROCK
A1. The Recruited Collier
A2. My Bonny Boy (A Bower In My Breast)
B1. Polly Vaughan
B2. The Verdant Braes Of Skreen
Eight new solo works from Gary Mundy, whose latest Ramleh album, Circular Time, received a lot of praise when released in late 2015. At times taking on a slightly more tempered approach this album still arrives stamped with Gary's own take on a descent into a black-hole where screaming can definitely be heard. Kaleidoscopic noise has rarely sounded so triumphant or majestic whilst paradoxically resigning to the flaws of the human condition. This album will complete the present trilogy of Kleistwahr releases for Fourth Dimension and is to be once again housed in an oversized gatefold sleeve based on the original Broken Flag style. Edition of 300.
FLIGHT FACILITIES: Live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra 3LP (FCL 166LP)
Repressed. Australian producer duo Flight Facilities present Live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, recorded under the stars at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, Australia, on October 17, 2015. That night 12,000 fans witnessed Flight Facilities recreate their journey from their first DJ mix in 2009 to the release of their acclaimed debut album Down To Earth in 2014. The 15-track performance was captured live and mixed by ARIA-winning engineer Eric J Dubowsky; it features musical guests Touch Sensitive, Surahn, Kurt Kristen, Owl Eyes, Katie Noonan, George Maple, Reggie Watts, and Emma Louise. Also includes remixes by Flight Facilities of tracks by James Curd and The Lowbrows (feat. Broadhurst), as well as a performance of a track by The C90s. Includes download code.
Fuzz, Fuzz, Fuzz! Killer Boogie present their debut album Detroit. Killer Boogie are well versed in the making of '70s riff making; a new machine in the "retro 'n' roll" scene adept at mixing bluesy frequencies into an extremely fuzzy sound with psychedelic shades. Killer Boogie are Gabriele Fiori on guitars and vocals (Black Rainbows), Luigi Costanzo on drums (The Wisdoom) and Matteo Marini on bass. Killer Boogie grounds its roots in the sounds of Blue Cheer, Cream, The Stooges, MC5, Cactus and Radio Moscow. Killer artwork by Starcade Designs.
Maurits Verwoerd, aka Nachtbraker presents Pollo Con Pollo EP. "Gotta Act To React" drives on a saturated bassline, a hypnotizing guitar lick, loose hi-hats and hard-to-place filtered hits. "Pollo Con Pollo" is potentially Maurits' most clear attempt at a straight-forward groove, with a lovely dreamy guitar loop running throughout the track. There are two versions of "Intermezz(l)ow" on the B-side, the one being a lovely textured interlude and the other a rough drum workout built around the same theme. Maurits remixes himself, with a great dubbed out acid-tinged flip of "Gotta Act To React".
Luna Semara presents an impressive slice of electronic emotion with Enuma. "Mustafa" opens the release in pure pleasurable fashion. Its steady bubbling synth line builds with waves of synth chords flowing back and forth. Continuing the blissful journey is title track "Enuma". A powerful, climbing synth line leads as warm pads and bongos pave the way beneath. A strong kick drum then builds momentum as the synth begins to growl. Whilst the intensity increases, the beauty is never lost and we're brought back down with a tender touch.
BRAXTON, ANTHONY: Live At The Rainbow Gallery '79 CD (HH 3027CD)
Anthony Braxton live at the Rainbow Gallery, Minneapolis in September of 1979. Having made his name as one of America's most uncompromising and prolific jazz modernists, by the late '70s Chicago-born saxophonist-composer Anthony Braxton had long since abandoned attempts to categorize his work, preferring it simply to be termed "creative music". Combining elements of minimalism, free jazz and modern classical with virtuoso technique and fiery intensity, he worked solo and with bands and orchestras throughout the '70s. This release presents the entire set originally broadcasted on KBEM-FM at the end of the decade. Digitally remastered. Presented here with background notes and images.
MINAMI DEUTSCH: Tunnel/New Pastoral Life 7" (HNR 016EP)
Pure kraut, live and direct from Tokyo. Minami Deutsch released their debut in 2015. Of course you can hear their love for krautrock legends such as Can and Neu! but more interesting, the bands members definition of themselves as repetition freaks. "New Pastoral Life" sounds like a repetitive mystic chant that wants to communicate with Klaus Dinger on a ouija board in a distant and deep forest. "Tunnel" offers a straight forward mono-kraut-riot. Kyotara Miula (guitar, vocals, synthesizer), Taku Rauschenberg (guitar), Keita Ise (bass) and Hikari Sakashita (drums).
Virginia Genta is a self-taught musician who plays all saxophones (tenor, soprano, baritone, alto) and is mainly known for being part of the Jooklo Duo, along with David Vanzan, which regularly includes guests, evolving into new forms. No matter how many musicians she's sharing the bill with, her saxophone is always standing out, clearly discernible, like an ear-massage introducing parts of your own auricle you didn't even know were there. And finally, for all those who always wanted to hear a solo recording of her, two short improvisations skillfully recorded by Riccardo Sinigaglia of Futuro Antico. Edition of 250.
Eklisia Sunday was recorded live in front of a small audience on May 15th, 2011 at Eklisia - an old chapel built in the 17th century in Gümüşlük, a small village near Bodrum. This improvisation features the Konstrukt collective - which is Korhan Futacı (tenor & soprano saxophones), Umut Çağlar (electric guitar), Özün Usta (double bass, djembe, gong, bells), Korhan Argüden (drums) - incredibly enriched by the presence of Peter Brötzmann (on tenor), Hüseyin Ertunç (acoustic piano, küstüfon, gong), Doğan Doğusel (double bass, küstüfon) and Barlas Tan Özemek (electric guitar). The result of the combination is simply marvelous, because Brötzmann's unique phrases perfectly match with the sound of what confirms to be a well-coordinated collective. "The Turkish free jazz outfit Konstrukt might be considered the most evolved improvisational band working in jazz today. Founded, not in the hotbeds of jazz, London, New York, Chicago, Wuppertal or Krakow, their isolation is the key to their success. Well, isolation and observation." -- Mark Corroto, All About Jazz. Edition of 350.
Holiday Records present a reissue of Hüseyin Ertunç Trio's Mûsikî, originally released in 1974 on Intex Records. This cosmic free jazz improvisation by this legendary trio guided by Hüseyin Ertunç - on drums - with his then-regular partners Michael Cosmic and Phil Musra - on saxophones and additional percussion - reveals the primitive and physical approach of the trio, with Ertunç's massive cymbals drumming building a carpet of trance-driving vibe where the reeds can freely dance without any structure. "A new world of improvisational freedom opened up for me when I first heard drummer Huseyin Ertunç's 1974 LP Mûsikî, with reedmen/multi-instrumentalists/brothers Phil Musra and Michael Cosmic. Ertunç returned to his native Turkey about twenty years ago (and performs with the Konstrukt collective), but Musra - this tune's composer - now resides in Los Angeles and, as regular readers of this blog know, is still active in music. Although I initially assumed that Mûsikî and Musra's companion LP The Creator Spaces (1974) were recorded at the same session, in truth Mûsikî was recorded months earlier. The Creator Spaces is a bit more spacious than Ertunç's date, though both are quite intense documents of self-produced and spiritually-directed improvisation. Knotty and weird, there's a folksy unhinged-ness that really spoke to me in a way quite different from Albert Ayler, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and other music I was spending time with when I dropped the needle on the trio's debut album. Ertunç's percussion work really shocked me and it's still absolutely fascinating, and Cosmic's organ playing behind/around Musra's tenor is just something else." -- Clifford Allen. Edition of 400.
"Recorded over two days yet retaining a continuous, immediate vibe, Gumusluk Sessions: At Lon's feature a stirring quartet with Hüseyin Ertunç on piano, Doğan Doğusel at double bass, the young drummer Cem Tan, and Umut Çağlar - a stalwart of the Konstrukt group - on reeds and percussion. In the caliber of multi-album statements like Cecil Taylor's Nuits de la Fondation Maeght (1969) and string instrumentalist and composer Alan Silva's Seasons (1970), Gümüslük Sessions: At Lon 's stretches out texturally and conceptually, although there's a loose, homegrown informality unique to these musicians' orbit (partly attributable to the dry, open recording quality). The initial marathon pace relaxes into nattering trails and the full ensemble falls away to reveal spare duos and trios over the course of eight sides. Ertunç's piano ebbs as zurna, flutes and bamboo reeds, auxiliary percussion and voices draw out the music's connection to folk forms, as well as the interleaved East-West textures of Yusef Lateef and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. As 'out' as the music gets, there's always a center in Ertunç's keyboard approach; moreover, his linkages with the pliable, allover percussive buzz and thrumming pizzicato create a constant burble of jabbing movement. This is a clunky, Monkish swing or a playful push-pull, rather than the 'tinka-tinka-ting' of bebop. Concentrated, unflagging and incredibly spiritual, Ertunç, Cağlar, Doğusel and Tan have convened to structure an incredibly personal artistic document that speaks to the universal possibilities of freedom." -- Clifford Allen. Turkish liner notes by Volkan Terzioğlu. Colored cardboard box set with printed inner sleeves. Edition of 200.
Home Normal present this collective work with artists who have inspired the label since their earliest days, spent wandering record stores in Tokyo, to the present, as rough-and-ready supporters of new and imaginative artists. Rough Imaginary features tracks from ISAN, Paco Sala, R Elizabeth and A New Line (Related). It's a summation of everything Home Normal have tried to do since 2009, as well as a playful dance into the future.
Asuna's Tide Ripples is a completely different beast than anything else on Home Normal. In collaboration with the beautiful vocals of Rima Kato, Tide Ripples is melodic and shows a playful use of guitar with minimal effects. It is a very direct album, retaining a tender purity which doesn't happen often given the recent output of over-produced records. This is probably the purest and most accessible, soulful album Home Normal have ever had the fortune of releasing.
SHACKLETON WITH ERNESTO TOMASINI: Devotional Songs CD (HJP 081CD)
Shackleton and Ernersto Tomasini present Devotional Songs. Devotional Songs is Shackleton's most expansive, ecstatic and hallucinatory music to date. Four long-form pieces developing the free-flowing compositional aesthetic of his recent Deliverance series (2014-2015) and Powerplant performances: fiery rhythmic-melodic turbulence channeling Congotronics way to the east - with an aura of restrained mania reminiscent of the feral pomp and gallows humor of Coil's "moon-musick" phase - all earthed by dub-wise bass. The pairing with Ernesto Tomasini - the cult singer, performer and artist whose history spans experimental theatre, cabaret and collaborations with Othon, Marc Almond, Sleazy, Julia Kent and David Tibet among many others - is a match made in heaven. With his four-octave voice swooping from deep growl to piercing falsetto, Tomasini's presence both heightens the taste for the theatrical that's always been integral to Shackleton's music, and makes explicit the latter's kinship to the occult energies of the UK's post-industrial underground. As the record's title suggests, these are shadowy songs rich with allusions to bodily ritual and psychic exploration, with Tomasini's lyrics framed by luminous whirls of hand-struck drums and synthetic gamelan, bells and tumbling organ melodies. "You Are The One" escalates from delicate choral chant to full-bore psychedelic organ freak-out. "Rinse Out All Contaminants" is a slow incantation, to purge all negative thoughts. The melodies of "Father You Have Left Me" are smudged like early Steve Reich, then burned out by snarling subs; and the magnificent "Twelve Shared Addictions" balances elliptical melodies like spinning plates, gradually unfurling into a break-neck storm of voice and hammered keys. A remarkable collaboration that hints towards new emerging futures for Shackleton, a pioneer in electronic sound and rhythm.
Clay Rendering, the tortured pop project of former Wolf Eyes member Mike Connelly and his wife Tara, pledge three diverse but unmistakably gothic sacrifices soused in the spirits of black metal, cold-wave pop and shoegaze. With Dominick Fernow as producer and effectively acting in a third band member role, they triangulate a sound that's nostalgic for the gothic undertones of '80s and '90s darkness. "We Are Aware" is hearse-cruising cold-wave pop rocket pointing towards the BM toil and shoegaze anguish in "Never Pass Away". "Towards Motionless" is an instrumental cocktail of ice cold, sounding like Badalamenti meets ambient Plastikman.
2016 repress. I Abused Animal is Heather Leigh's first solo album for Ideologic Organ, following solo albums on Kendra Steiner Editions, Golden Lab Records, Not Not Fun, Fag Tapes, Wish Image, Volcanic Tongue's label, and more. Renowned as a fearless free improviser, Leigh showcases her songwriting prowess on I Abused Animal, foregrounding her stunning voice and her innovations for the pedal steel guitar. Warmly recorded in a secret location in the English countryside, the album transports the power of her captivating live performances to a studio setting, capturing her tactile playing in full clarity while making devastating use of volume and space. Leigh explores themes of abuse, sexual instinct, vulnerability, memory, shadow, fantasy, cruelty, and projection. I Abused Animal is a personal, idiosyncratic, and deeply psychedelic work, ranging from almost Kousokuya-scale black blues through the kind of ethereal electro-ritual of Solstice-era Coil. At times the intimacy of the recordings makes you feel like she's singing directly into your ear, playing just for you. Leigh has performed and released music since the 1990s as a solo artist and with a wide range of uncompromising collaborators including Peter Brötzmann and Jandek, and has toured extensively throughout the US, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Her playing is as physical as it is phantom, combining spontaneous compositions with a feel for the full interaction of flesh with hallucinatory power sources. With a rare combination of sensitivity and strength, Leigh's steel mainlines sanctified slide guitar and deforms it using hypnotic tone-implosions while juggling walls of bleeding amp-tone with choral-vocal-constructs and wrenching single-note ascensions. She's played, performed, and released music with Ash Castles on the Ghost Coast, Charalambides, Scorces (a duo with Christina Carter), Dream/Aktion Unit (a group with Thurston Moore, Paul Flaherty, Chris Corsano, and Matt Heyner), Taurpis Tula, Jailbreak (a duo with Corsano), Termas (a duo with Lynda), Annihilating Light (a duo with Stefan Jaworzyn), Richard Youngs, Blood Stereo, MV & EE, Robbie Yeats of The Dead C, John Olson of Wolf Eyes, Smegma, Jutta Koether, Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bär, and many others. I Abused Animal was composed and performed by Heather Leigh. Recorded and engineered by Joe Gubay in Surrey, October 2014. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin, July 2015. Photographs by David Keenan. Spiritual adviser: Dean Roberts. Ideologic Organ curation and art direction by Stephen O'Malley; manufactured and distributed by Editions Mego.
EBERSON GROUP, JON: Dreams That Went Astray CD (JL 0134212CD)
2001 release. Jon Eberson Group presents Dreams That Went Astray. A bit of retro-funk blended with modern beats and soundscapes. Eberson is great, bringing back a lot of memories with his special guitar sound. Personnel: Jon Eberson - guitars; Bugge Wesseltoft - keys, synth bass; Tom Erik Antonsen - bass; Pål Thowsen - drums; Pål Strangefruit - vinyl; Beate (from Beady Belle) - vocals.
2004 repress; originally released in 2001. The Beady Belle debut, coming out of the left-of-field music underground of Norway. A major shot in the "Nu Jazz" wars. Beady Belle is one of the freshest new sounds to come out of the left-of-field music underground of Norway. A collaboration between singer Beate Lech and bassist Marius Reksjø, Beady Belle's debut album Home is a sensuous mosaic of sound that draws on the vast libraries of jazz, pop, techno and ambient to reveal the essence of Beate's stunning live performances yet to manages to combine it with the deliberate strategies of her creative musicianship.
2001 release. For many, Moving stands as the ultimate New Conception of Jazz album (JL 5372512CD) - if you don't own it, you're missing out. Moving is a perfect document of Wesseltoft Bugge's new world order of jazz, ripping up the standards, and effortlessly taking the listener on a daring musical journey where melody and groove, soundscape and soul all come together, crossing over where others have tried, but failed. Be there, one foot on the dance floor - the other in the stratosphere. Moving was performed by the band live in the studio after two years of touring across Europe. It's based on the natural empathy that has developed in the band, tapping into the intuitive and leaving the limitations of rationality far behind in an ever changing mosaic of musical colors. "All the music is of the moment," explains Wesseltoft. "Maybe that's why it has that edge, music that is developed on the spot. 'Change' and 'Yellow is the Colour' have simple melodic forms, while 'Gare du Nord', 'Lone', 'Moving' and 'Heim' are just moods we created on the spot. All of us together in the same room, playing live, gave us that communication we have on stage and so we could develop and improvise forms on the spot. Jazz music, if you ask me!" Personnel: Bugge Wesseltoft - Fender Rhodes, grand piano, programming, voice & samples; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - acoustic & electronic bass; Anders Engen - drums; Jonas Lönnå - programming & vinyl effects; Paolo Vinaccia - percussion; Marius Reksjø - acoustic bass; Håkon Kornstad - tenor sax.
2001 release. Space Available is the first album of one of Norway's most critically acclaimed jazz groups, the Kornstad Trio. Over the past few years, a new generation of musicians has entered the Norwegian jazz scene that for so many years meant Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Jon Christensen, Arild Andersen and Karin Krog, but few others to the international jazz audience. Mainly thanks to the Special Jazz Studies at the Music Conservatory in the city of Trondheim, a steady flow of well-developed new talent has enrichened the Norwegian jazz scene during the nineties, and three of its most exciting and creative players have joined forces in the Kornstad Trio, a fearlessly improvising little powerhouse with an amazing degree of interplay that is rapidly gaining international recognition. Personnel: Håkon Kornstad - saxophones; Mats Eilertsen - bass; Paal Nilssen-Love - drums.
2007 release. After ten years of strengthening technique, discovering nuances, and playfully exploring the sonic possibilities of the sax, Håkon Kornstad finally has released his own solo effort in Single Engine. "I think in the past I really wanted to try every imaginable style, every form of music," Kornstad says about the recording, "And I did. With this album, I feel for the first time that everything has come together and allowed me a greater range of expression than what I had previously, in that I'm not bound to any one style, but have gone beyond that and now am forging into another - one that's entirely my own." In the ten tracks on the album we are taken from myriad of sounds - from the sax, to the home-made flutonette, to electronics - which shows the driving force of Single Engine gaining momentum, clearly tied together with an impeccable artistry and Kornstad's willingness to explore. After a decade of collaborations and as sideman, he comes fully into his own and invites you to hear what he's discovered. With the culmination of his past, Kornstad is now firmly placed in the future, and Single Engine is certainly the driving, propelling force that will at last gain him the recognition for his own individual vision. Personnel: Håkon Kornstad - tenor and bass saxophones, flute, home-made flutonette & melodica; Bugge Wesseltoft - Hammond B3; Knut Reiersrud - acoustic guitar, lap steel; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - double bass.
TORTUSA: I Know This Place - The Eivind Aarset Collages CD (JL 3779015CD)
John Derek Bishop, aka Tortusa, creates extraordinary sound collages featuring the unique musical sonics of Eivind Aarset on I Know This Place - The Eivind Aarset Collages. Tortusa is a Norwegian-American electronic musician and composer who fuses and transforms organic sounds and rhythms with both digital and analog manipulation and sound design. He draws inspiration from classical and jazz music, as well as contemporary electronic music. Utilizing samples from Eivind Aarset´s catalog on Jazzland Recordings, Tortusa creates a new set of compositions and soundscapes, melodic, wistful, dreamlike, meditative, unsettling, evocative, stirring, contemplative and personal. For the compositional process, Bishop employed both hardware equipment and software including retro tape recorders, modular synthesizers, samplers and a diverse array of other tools. The result is a sound that can be crystalline and grainy, razor-edged and misty, endlessly fascinating and expanding. The album is inspired by the atmospheres of Norwegian nature, and the inspiration is directly incorporated - Tortusa composed the album in a cabin near Egersund and his field recordings from the surrounding forests and coastline are an integral part of the record's soundscape. Eivind Aarset has been one of Tortusa's main influences in developing a unique sound and in musical composition. For Tortusa, it is a dream come true to make this record utilizing the sounds he has been inspired by, in addition to receiving creative input on the project from Aarset. Bishop has previously created collage compositions of Bodhild Vossgård of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, indie rock artist Sebastian Waldejer, jazz trio Moskus and more. Bishop is inspired by artists such as Brian Eno, Biosphere, Oneohtrix Point Never, Aphex Twin, Flying Lotus and Jon Hopkins. Bishop's own photography is featured on the cover and the included booklet.
MOKSHA: The Beauty Of An Arbitrary Moment CD (JL 3779142CD)
Jazzland Recordings are proud to present Moksha's beautiful debut album, The Beauty Of An Arbitrary Moment which combines jazz, Nordic cool and Indian fire. This trio, featuring guitarist Oddrun Lilja Jonsdottir, percussionist and vocalist Sanskriti Shrestha, and percussionist Tore Flatjord, produces a distinctly unique blend of jazz, Indian Raga, atmospheric improvisation, complex rhythms, textured expressionism, and spacious sonic architecture. Jonsdottir's guitar, whether electric or acoustic, fluidly digs, climbs, weaves, strikes, hums, and sparkles throughout, whether dancing across jazz chordal improvisation or rapidly chasing down what can only be described as Nordic gamaka runs. The layers of percussion provided by Shrestha and Flatjord drive the music forward, upward or quietly create changing dimensions and shifting soundscapes. Shrestha's vocal contributions range from sung melody to vocal percussion, adding unexpected coloring and textural transitions to these evocative compositions. The music is meditative and contemplative, each track making a journey that is emotional, intellectual, and spiritual in equal measure. It rarely sits still, yet feels elegantly unified. There is strength, fragility, drama, tension, serenity, and even agitation to be found amid structures that move seamlessly between the gently undulating and the angular. This is a confident and inspired debut. Jonsdottir and Shrestha's credentials are exemplary, and these have recently been augmented by their inclusion in Bugge Wesseltoft's New Conception of Jazz (JL 5372512CD, 2016) Flatjord has worked on many diverse projects, including Dr Kay, Kjetil Jerve Trio and Mongrel.
2015 release. Jazzland Recordings presents, Bits & Pieces, the second album from Mopti, and this time the group are taking things to a whole new level. Bendik Baksaas, turntablist and laptop musician, demonstrated through remixes of Mopti's album Logic (2013) that a collaboration might just be a great idea. In the summer of 2014, Mopti & Bendik Baksaas became a living reality at the Molde Jazz Festival. With Baksaas fully integrated into the band, they continued to explore the limitless possibilities the new combo had to offer, gradually mapping out a whole new world of their own. Bits & Pieces is an avant-garde album where the band have begun by challenging themselves, first and foremost, in the combination of contemporary jazz and experimental hip-hop, and this challenge is passed on to the listener in equal measure, a whole world of groove, mayhem, freedom, funk, soul, jazz, blinding lights and light-swallowing shadows to explore. There are moments of fanciful whimsy here, but also moments that feel downright dangerous. It's almost an album worth putting on safety gear before listening to! Personnel: Harald Lassen - saxophone, vocals; Kristoffer Eikrem - trumpet; David Aleksander Sjølie - guitar, vocals; Christian Meaas Svendsen - bass; Andreas Wildhagen - drums; Bendik Baksaas - DJ.
LP version. 2015 release. Jazzland Recordings presents, Bits & Pieces, the second album from Mopti, and this time the group are taking things to a whole new level. Bendik Baksaas, turntablist and laptop musician, demonstrated through remixes of Mopti's album Logic (2013) that a collaboration might just be a great idea. In the summer of 2014, Mopti & Bendik Baksaas became a living reality at the Molde Jazz Festival. With Baksaas fully integrated into the band, they continued to explore the limitless possibilities the new combo had to offer, gradually mapping out a whole new world of their own. Bits & Pieces is an avant-garde album where the band have begun by challenging themselves, first and foremost, in the combination of contemporary jazz and experimental hip-hop, and this challenge is passed on to the listener in equal measure, a whole world of groove, mayhem, freedom, funk, soul, jazz, blinding lights and light-swallowing shadows to explore. There are moments of fanciful whimsy here, but also moments that feel downright dangerous. It's almost an album worth putting on safety gear before listening to! Personnel: Harald Lassen - saxophone, vocals; Kristoffer Eikrem - trumpet; David Aleksander Sjølie - guitar, vocals; Christian Meaas Svendsen - bass; Andreas Wildhagen - drums; Bendik Baksaas - DJ.
2015 release. Eivind Aarset is a musician who has succeeded in the difficult task of creating an immediately identifiable sound and marrying it to a will to investigate as many musical possibilities as he can find or imagine. I.E. is his arguably most accomplished album embodying these traits. The nine tracks that comprise the album are often diptychs or triptychs, structured with clear movements, shifting in tone, color and mood. Aarset's sound-world has always been one that could be mapped by those willing to explore it. Where Dream Logic (2012) was something of an unexpected side-step out of the kind of sound Aarset fans had grown accustomed to, this album is equally so, yet - as usual - feels organically connected to everything he has done. All the nuances, textures, gestures and signs that appeared on the aforementioned Dream Logic remain intact here, but now nestle amid beds of the "traditional" Aarset band sound. This fusion creates a completely new set of surprises, not only in terms of their juxtaposition, but also in terms of their sheer audacity. The album's recording methods and locations have been varied in numerous ways, but the majority of the album was recorded live in the studio with the basic quartet: Eivind Aarset, Audun Erlien, Wetle Holt, Erland Dahlen. The effect upon the sound is energizing, allowing a rawness to remain untouched. Of particular note are Audun Erlien's keyboard work (something for which he rarely receives enough credit, overshadowed as it is by his marvelous double-jointed grooving bass work), Wetle Holt, and Erland Dahlen's menagerie of struck instruments, particularly the dulcimers and glockenspiels that create many highlight moments here. The appearance of the full brass section, the sampling genius of Jan Bang, and the vocal stylings, hyper-elastic acrobatics and pyrotechnics of Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari, also enrich the sound deeply, creating an utterly new dimension for Aarset's sound. Aarset's guitar remains the dominant force throughout, but never overpowers the music as a whole. His endless skill in finding the right notes to play, whether in a sparse ambient environment or a chaotic crescendo of polyphonic revelry, is a marvel to behold. I.E. marks yet another move upward in Aarset's ascent towards the summit of his powers.
Double LP version. 2015 release. Eivind Aarset is a musician who has succeeded in the difficult task of creating an immediately identifiable sound and marrying it to a will to investigate as many musical possibilities as he can find or imagine. I.E. is his arguably most accomplished album embodying these traits. The nine tracks that comprise the album are often diptychs or triptychs, structured with clear movements, shifting in tone, color and mood. Aarset's sound-world has always been one that could be mapped by those willing to explore it. Where Dream Logic (2012) was something of an unexpected side-step out of the kind of sound Aarset fans had grown accustomed to, this album is equally so, yet - as usual - feels organically connected to everything he has done. All the nuances, textures, gestures and signs that appeared on the aforementioned Dream Logic remain intact here, but now nestle amid beds of the "traditional" Aarset band sound. This fusion creates a completely new set of surprises, not only in terms of their juxtaposition, but also in terms of their sheer audacity. The album's recording methods and locations have been varied in numerous ways, but the majority of the album was recorded live in the studio with the basic quartet: Eivind Aarset, Audun Erlien, Wetle Holt, Erland Dahlen. The effect upon the sound is energizing, allowing a rawness to remain untouched. Of particular note are Audun Erlien's keyboard work (something for which he rarely receives enough credit, overshadowed as it is by his marvelous double-jointed grooving bass work), Wetle Holt, and Erland Dahlen's menagerie of struck instruments, particularly the dulcimers and glockenspiels that create many highlight moments here. The appearance of the full brass section, the sampling genius of Jan Bang, and the vocal stylings, hyper-elastic acrobatics and pyrotechnics of Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari, also enrich the sound deeply, creating an utterly new dimension for Aarset's sound. Aarset's guitar remains the dominant force throughout, but never overpowers the music as a whole. His endless skill in finding the right notes to play, whether in a sparse ambient environment or a chaotic crescendo of polyphonic revelry, is a marvel to behold. I.E. marks yet another move upward in Aarset's ascent towards the summit of his powers.
2015 release. Jazzland Recordings is proud to present a perfect marriage of tradition and modernity, both eastern and western. Bansal Trio, led by Harpreet Bansal (violin) and featuring Vojtěch Procházka (piano) and Andreas Bratlie (percussion) present Chandra. Bansal herself has had an outstanding career to date, working with many outstanding performers in both eastern (Ustad Sharif Khan, Tariq Khan and Sukhvinder Singh Namdari) and western (Unni Løvlid, Poing, The Source, Per Oddvar Johansen and Nils Olav Johansen) musical traditions. Her expressive, technically elegant style joyfully traverses boundaries of genre and historical tradition with graceful ease. Vojtěch Procházka also has a fine pedigree as one of the foremost young Czech pianists, and a CV that includes Ivar Grydeland, Per Oddvar Johansen, Kari Rønnekleiv and Espen Reinertsen. Andreas Bratlie is a drummer and percussionist who has quietly forged his career, and has worked with many artists, notably Andreas Ljones, Bertine Zetlitz, Mira Craig and Noora Noor. On this recording, he also brings elements of voice alongside his superb table and percussion work. The music exposes varied moods of light and shade, serenity through to agitation, and a degree of hinted spirituality amid urban humdrum automatism. The extended piece, "Bhairavi", is a traditional piece arranged and interpreted by the group, stands as a monolithic center piece, both in scale and variation, while the rest of the album features various meditations upon traditional pieces, as well as three original compositions.
2015 release. Torg, featuring some of the finest emerging talent on the Norwegian music scene, proudly present Kost/Elak/Gnäll. The group explores an unbridled mix of micro-modular minimalism, desynchronized repetition, fractional maximalism, melodic deconstruction, variable repetition, and semi-thematic repetition and extrapolation: their findings are moody, atmospheric, unsettling, good-humored, menacing, ominous, jovial, and above all, original. Moments of pop merge with abstract jazz, classical art music structures fleet past as snatches of repetitive motifs fade and decay to be replaced by something altogether different and indefinable. The music never sits still, restlessly venturing forwards. Led by pianist Johan Lindvall, Torg consists of some of the finest emerging talent on the Norwegian music scene, with members of the original Torg (founded in 2012) alongside members from Pests, Monkey Plot, Karokh and Ich Nin N!ntendo. The album was recorded in August 2014. Produced by Bugge Wesseltoft. Mixed and mastered by Ulf Holand.
2015 release. "One of the world's finest saxophonists now reveals himself as an utterly unique and deeply personal singer. Rarely, if ever, has a performing artist managed to combine two vastly different musical expressions at such a sky-high level, and at the same time made the total output seem so clear and coherent." -- Ketil Bjørnstad. Dubbed by international jazz critics as poster boy for the new Norwegian jazz, Håkon Kornstad has been listed in the US jazz magazine Downbeat's "Critics Poll". He has been an inspiration for a generation young jazz musicians with his groups Kornstad Trio and Wibutee. He has performed live collaborations with both Pat Metheny and Joshua Redman, and was a central figure in Bugge Wesseltoft's New Conception of Jazz (JL 5372512CD). Kornstad has been nominated for the Norwegian Grammy several times, most recently for his unique solo saxophone recordings. Then, as his jazz career is skyrocketing, he decides to start singing opera. In 2009 he is in New York, and hears Cavalleria Rusticana at the Met. Six years later, he has a master's degree from the Norwegian Opera Academy. But the saxophonist is very much alive. In the '50s, the jazz saxophonists competed in playing fastest and loudest and called it a Tenor Battle. In Håkon Kornstad's new ensemble the expression takes on a rather different meaning, when he mixes his newfound tenor voice with his unique tenor saxophone playing. And the sound -- Caruso meets Coltrane? Björling meets Garbarek? On Tenor Battle, opera arias by Massenet, Gluck and Bizet, as well as classical art songs are mixed seamlessly with Scandinavian jazz. Håkon Kornstad sings in Italian, French and German, with a haunting, light Scandinavian tenor voice, bringing back memories of 78RPM era salon orchestras. And then he plays the saxophone, with his distinct warm sound. Sigbjørn Apeland's harmonium sounds like a blend between strings and wind instruments, and drummer Øyvind Skarbø plays nuanced percussion on arias that were never intended for drums. Harpsichordist Lars Henrik Johansen fits in naturally with his baroque instrument on romantic pieces, while double bassist Per Zanussi also plays the singing saw, without it ever turning circus-like. The musicians in Kornstad's ensemble have worked intensively with the freedom to improvise and arrange, be it instrumental numbers or classical arias - respectfully and playfully at the same time.
LP version. 2015 release. "One of the world's finest saxophonists now reveals himself as an utterly unique and deeply personal singer. Rarely, if ever, has a performing artist managed to combine two vastly different musical expressions at such a sky-high level, and at the same time made the total output seem so clear and coherent." -- Ketil Bjørnstad. Dubbed by international jazz critics as poster boy for the new Norwegian jazz, Håkon Kornstad has been listed in the US jazz magazine Downbeat's "Critics Poll". He has been an inspiration for a generation young jazz musicians with his groups Kornstad Trio and Wibutee. He has performed live collaborations with both Pat Metheny and Joshua Redman, and was a central figure in Bugge Wesseltoft's New Conception of Jazz (JL 5372512CD). Kornstad has been nominated for the Norwegian Grammy several times, most recently for his unique solo saxophone recordings. Then, as his jazz career is skyrocketing, he decides to start singing opera. In 2009 he is in New York, and hears Cavalleria Rusticana at the Met. Six years later, he has a master's degree from the Norwegian Opera Academy. But the saxophonist is very much alive. In the '50s, the jazz saxophonists competed in playing fastest and loudest and called it a Tenor Battle. In Håkon Kornstad's new ensemble the expression takes on a rather different meaning, when he mixes his newfound tenor voice with his unique tenor saxophone playing. And the sound -- Caruso meets Coltrane? Björling meets Garbarek? On Tenor Battle, opera arias by Massenet, Gluck and Bizet, as well as classical art songs are mixed seamlessly with Scandinavian jazz. Håkon Kornstad sings in Italian, French and German, with a haunting, light Scandinavian tenor voice, bringing back memories of 78RPM era salon orchestras. And then he plays the saxophone, with his distinct warm sound. Sigbjørn Apeland's harmonium sounds like a blend between strings and wind instruments, and drummer Øyvind Skarbø plays nuanced percussion on arias that were never intended for drums. Harpsichordist Lars Henrik Johansen fits in naturally with his baroque instrument on romantic pieces, while double bassist Per Zanussi also plays the singing saw, without it ever turning circus-like. The musicians in Kornstad's ensemble have worked intensively with the freedom to improvise and arrange, be it instrumental numbers or classical arias - respectfully and playfully at the same time.
KORNSTAD TRIO & AXEL DORNER: Live From Kongsberg 2LP (JL 9812803LP)
2003 release. Jazzland Recordings present Kornstad Trio & Axel Dörner's Live From Kongsberg. Kornstad Trio won Kongsberg Jazz Festival's prize in 2002 - and for the prize-winning concert the following year they invited German trumpeter Axel Dörner. Live recording from Smeltehytta, Kongsberg.
$18.99 UPC: 602498128039 JAZZ
A1. Fib
A2. Love Space
B1. Revolver
B2. Rubb
C1. Hedd
C2. Keep Your Heart Right
C3. Afrika!
2004 release. Film ing is a new masterpiece. Bugge Wesseltoft is back to recording after 2003's phenomenal live output, recordings and tours. Bugge is back to the roots and rudiments of his "New Conception of Jazz" project. Melancholy Nordic piano resonances, punishing synth funk, organic grooves, and guest musicianship of the highest caliber: all directed by the ever-watchful and forward-thinking Bugge.
$15.79 UPC: 602498175095 JAZZ
A1. Skog
A2. Hi Is
B1. Oh Ye
B2. Hope
C1. Piano
C2. El.
C3. Frik
D1. Film Ing
D2. Indie
MCGREGOR & THE CASTLE LAGER BIG BAND, CHRIS: Jazz/The African Sound LP (JMAN 080LP)
LP version. One of the most important African records of all time released worldwide for the first time. Chris McGregor's Jazz/The African Sound (originally released in 1963) is a lost global jazz classic, and a true holy grail for collectors of afro-jazz. A cornerstone of South Africa's illustrious jazz history, it has been out of print since before the end of apartheid. This painstakingly restored reissue is the long-delayed first chance to hear Chris McGregor's debut recording as leader. In addition to fully restored audio, the package features previously unpublished photographs by Basil Breakey and new sleeve notes by author Francis Gooding. Ten years before the Brotherhood of Breath blew the cobwebs out of British jazz, Chris McGregor had already recorded as a leader with a big band composed of South Africa's leading jazz lights. Put together in 1963, The Castle Lager Big Band was a multi-racial group, a risky endeavor in apartheid South Africa. Modernist in outlook and dedicated to showcasing South African composers, the 17-piece band featured a galaxy of South African jazz stars, including Dudu Pukwana, Mongezi Feza, and Kippie Moeketsi. Though the band lasted only a few weeks and played a just a handful of shows, they made it into the studio to record, and the result was Jazz/The African Sound, a unique masterpiece of afro-Ellingtonia that the band hoped would put South African jazz on the international map. But history intervened, and their jazz message to the world never arrived -- until now. Non-numbered repress.
Jeanne Dielman present Blue York, a collection featuring unreleased tracks from Sun Ra's Arkestra from 1963. Herman Poole Blount, better known to the world as Sun Ra, lived more musical lives in his 79 years on this planet (and others) than seems possible. In the '30s he was the most rigorous bandleader in Birmingham, heading the Sonny Blount Orchestra and filling every waking moment with music or philosophical discussions, by the '40s he had moved to Chicago and performed with luminaries such as Wynonie Harris, Fletcher Henderson and Coleman Hawkins. By the '50s he had changed his name to Sun Ra and began performing with longtime Arkestra bandmates John Gilmore and Marshall Allen. By the 1960s, Sun Ra's vision of spiritual free jazz was fully formed. This collection focuses heavily on the masterful tenor saxophone of John Gilmore.
$15.79 EAN: 8033706211359 JAZZ
A1. Blue York
A2. Meteor Shower
A3. The Myth
A4. Infinity
A5. Conversation Of The Universe
A6. The Beginning Of
B1. Endlessness
B2. Red Planet Mars
B3. Cosmic Rays / The Next Stop Mars
PORTABLE: Say It's Going To Change 12" (K7 334-1EP)
Portable is Alan Abrahams, a South African born artist and producer. Always experimenting with rhythm and imbuing his music with a wide world of influences, Say It's Going To Change proves that once more. This 12" single sees Deetron and Bodycode (featuring Ursula Rucker) deliver remixes alongside exclusive track of "Balanese Nights".
ALCAPONE, DENNIS: Yeah Yeah Yeah - Mash Up The Dance LP (KSLP 036LP)
2012 release. Kingston Sound present a compilation of Dennis Alcapone's work titled Yeah Yeah Yeah - Mash Up The Dance. Dennis Alcapone initially inspired by DJ U Roy, was soon to challenge his crown in the early part of the '70s releasing over 100 hit tunes. He could weave his vocal magic over any tune/rhythm that came his way and take it to another place. Dennis Alcapone (b. Dennis Smith, 6 August 1947, Clarendon, Jamaica) began DJing for the El Paso Hi-Fi Sound System around 1969. His first releases resulted from working with producer Keith Hudson, a succession of hits followed, "Shades Or Hudson", "Spanish Omega", "Revelation Version", "Maca Version" and "The Sky's The Limit" all hit in 1970 alone. Dennis moved camp to work with producer Duke Reid reworking some fresh ideas over classic Treasure Isle rhythms. "Number One Station," "Mosquito One," in 1971 and "Rock To The Beat", "Love Is A Gamble", "Wake Up Jamaica", "Teach The Children" and "Musical Alphabet" in 1972. Dennis moved on to work with all the top producers through this period from 1970 to 1973, producers Coxonne Dodd, Lee Perry, Sir JJ, Winston Riley, Joe Gibbs and Prince Buster all provided an outlet for his musical endeavors. Another great relationship was his work for producer Bunny Lee, again scoring some big hits including, "Guns Don't Argue" and "Ripe Cherry" the later adding a twist to Bunny's massive hit of the time "Cherry Oh Baby." Kingston Sounds look to this period in Dennis's career where there is a wealth of great music. "Go Deh" (Leroy Smart's "How Long"), "Eternal Life" (Johnny Clarke's version of Peter Tosh's "Legalise It") "Steve Austin" (The Six Million Dollar Man tale over Leroy Smart's "Pride and Ambition"), "Wise Man From The East" (Johnny Clarke's "You Have Caught Me Baby"), "It Must Come" (Delroy Wilson's "Better Must Come") "Blessed Are The Meek" (Slim Smith's "Blessed Are The Meek") to name but a few. Dennis left Jamaica in 1973 just after being awarded the Cup for "Best DJ in Jamaica" by Swing magazine. With his signature shout of "Yeah Yeah Yeah" you knew he was going to mash up the dance wherever his musical talents led him.
$9.79 EAN: 5060135761066 WORLD
A1. Go Deh
A2. Wise Man From The East
A3. It Must Come
A4. Guns Don't Argue
A5. Steve Austin
A6. No Place Like Home
A7. Blessed Are The Meek
B1. Eternal Life
B2. Gather My People
B3. If Jah Is For Us
B4. Table Gonna Turn
B5. Rock It In The Ghetto
B6. Life Is Great
B7. Togetherness
This Instrumental hip-hop 45 is an ode to the love of jazz fusion and that dusty sound with a handful of tracks recorded from 2013/2015. Both of the tracks - "Love Fusion" & "Floating" - were made over the course of three epic days locked in the studio on the MPC 2500. Cover art by J Byles / layout by Bee. Full color artwork in a sleeve with spine.
Shetahr present their second vinyl release, Hidden Dragon. Each song is a potential hit combining polished anger with naive childlike rhymes. This trio is born out of the underbelly of the Bruxhells underground scene. Through their many energetic live shows, which blasted audiences away in Europe, they evolved into a tight unit writing short no wave songs based on poppy hooks. The ghost of Arto Lindsay and DNA is woven through their sound, if he would dance with the Beat Happening. Art by Shetahr. 400 copies. Mastered and cut by Fred Alstadt. Recorded & mixed by Peter Van de Veire.
Detroit enigma Sharif Laffrey makes a return to Paramida's Berlin-based Love On The Rocks imprint with Pony EP. "Pony J.A.M." is over 9 minutes of what sounds like '90s 4/4 Indian acid-house bass music - in the best way. Surprising vocals and a healthy three minute lead in. "Pony Roger" is if the pony you were riding on the A-Side was galloping through a grassy meadow - this pony heads into a dark cave. If the A-side is The NeverEnding Story then the B-side is The Dark Crystal. But with Prince instead of Bowie.
Amsterdam based Italian Marco Antonio Spaventi is back with Isola Sommersa, a fine full length statement. Landing on M>O>S Recordings, it follows up after many great EPs from the label. Using hardware tools like a natural extension of his body, he cooks up rugged grooves, nostalgic moods and smoky atmospheres that cocoon the listener in a sound of its own. As well as releasing on other labels like Slow Motion, Secretsundaze, Pizzico Records and Cos_Mos, he is also an acclaimed production wizard and runs his own professional studio. Spaventi dips his toes into various waters with equal success. There are spaced out and invitingly warm grooves such as the rubbery "Tape Noodles", blissful ambient interludes like "Undisclosed" and serene synth passages filled with retro future beauty such as the closer "Titanic Moments". Cuts like "Simple Mind" prove Spaventi can conjure up genuine feelings of internal reflection as well as raw physical drum lines and "Best Regards" is a tantalizingly slow bit of cosmic house that erupts into a fluid acid track. Though Chicago and Detroit are obvious reference points, Spaventi always develops his own ideas with a refreshing vibe. Spaventi has a passion for old school house but always brings it up to date. Isola Sommersa is an album that is house at its heart, but also one that is ambitious, absorbing and widescreen in the way it is executed.
SOARES, ELZA: The Woman At The End Of The World (A Mulher Do Fim Do Mundo) CD (MAIS 031CD)
Pitchfork: 8.4 -- Best New Music. Septuagenarian Brazilian music icon Elza Soares teams up with the cream of São Paulo's avant-garde musicians for an album of apocalyptic, experimental samba sujo ("dirty samba") that tackles the burning issues of 21st century Brazil: racism, domestic violence, sex, drug addiction and global warming. The Woman at the end of the World is Elza's 34th studio album and her first to feature previously unrecorded material, exclusively composed for her. Voted "Best Album of 2015" by Rolling Stone Brazil after its domestic release, it will now be released worldwide by UK based label Mais Um Discos. Over a sprawl of distorted guitars, squalling horn, taught strings and electronic shards, samba is savaged by rock 'n' roll, free jazz, noise and other experimental music forms. A true legend of Brazilian music Elza has an incredible musical oeuvre that stretches back over seven decades mixing samba with jazz, soul, funk, hip hop and electronica, whilst her life story is a rags-to-riches-to-rags rollercoaster of triumphs and tragedies that has made her a voice for Brazil's repressed female, black, gay and working class populations. Her music career began in the late 1950s as she sung in clubs and hotels, sometimes being forced to perform off stage because of her skin color. The '60s was a career defining period with a run of classic albums for Odeon. After decades of hardships and artistic exploration, her latest muse is São Paulo's hyped samba sujo scene. Soares presents an album that walks a tightrope between post-rock and post-samba. "I knew this album would be a bold, modern sound" she says. "These songs are tense they do not allow you to relax". The album opens with "Coracão do Mar (Heart of the Sea)" with Elza reciting a poem from celebrated Brazilian modernist poet Oswald de Andrade. Title track "Mulher do fim do Mundo" uses carnival as a metaphor for the apocalypse and according to composer Romulo Froes "translates Elza's strength and indestructability". With The Woman at the End of the World, Elza forces the joy and sadness that personifies samba to confront the dirty truths of modern day São Paulo.
LP version. Includes CD. The self-titled debut album from Starless is the lushly orchestrated brainchild of Paul McGeechan, keyboard player of Love & Money from Glasgow. It's an epic and unique album, widescreen in scope and ambition, featuring such illustrious collaborators as Paul Buchanan (The Blue Nile), Karen Matheson (Capercaillie), Julie Fowlis and Chris Thomson (The Bathers). McGeechan, who wrote, arranged and masterminded the project, recorded the album with the stunning Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The result is an emotional soundscape with references ranging from Ennio Morricone to The Cocteau Twins and David Sylvian. "Fuadach" provides the opening titles to this very special cinematic musical journey. It is followed by the late-night beauty of title track "Starless", sung by Paul Buchanan (Buchanan's first vocal for quite some time): "In a starless sky, one shutdown moon, here in this city, we fall in love too soon". "Whispered Reason No. 2" and "Solitude", both sung by Marie Claire Lee, recall the other-worldly beauty of Liz Fraser of The Cocteau Twins. Another great collaborator on Starless is Karen Matheson. Her beautiful voice is featured on the celestial "The Surge Of The Sea" which is sung in Gaelic. Scottish folk singer Julie Fowlis provides vocals on the second Gaelic language song on the album, the ethereal "Duthaich Mhicaoidh". Chris Thomson sings the gorgeous "Misty Nights": "Sure as east meets west, she's in her summer dress, young musicians on their knees". McGeechan and Thomson were both members of legendary post-Postcard band Friends Again in the early '80s. "Within These Walls", sung by Andrew White, recalls the melancholy art-pop of early '80s Peter Gabriel. The atmospheric "Yellow Midnight" is sung by Gwen Stewart who has recorded with Sugartown. Turn the lights down low, turn up the volume and get on a trip with this very special and, yes, quite spectacular album. It's a beauty.
GANGLOFF WITH THE GREAT AMERICAN DRONE ORCHESTRA, CARA & MIKE: Knock on Life's Door 2LP (MIE 040LP)
MIE presents Knock on Life's Door from Cara & Mike Gangloff With The Great American Drone Orchestra. "There's a particular twinkle in the great expanse of American songwriting. This has seen countless nostalgic exploitations over the years - collections of popular songs strung together under the banner of the so-called 'Great American Songbook' that have reiterated the form of many of these songs without contemplating their depths. In terms of thoughtful, emotive synthesis, few have understood it in the way that Cara and Mike Gangloff understand it on this new album. They have taken older American songs, popular songs that we've come to understand as standards, and stretched them out into the rolling hills and vast expanses that gave birth to the nation's earliest music. American history is a history of tension. A group of aristocrats saw fit to bestow a limited degree of freedom upon the underclasses. They called this democracy, co-opting a concept that terrified them in the hopes that the implications of its meaning might placate the unwashed masses. Within that sliver of freedom, incredible heights were reached. Blues. Jazz. Mountain music. And on and on. The songs on this record are recognizable. They're classics. And yet here they play out in ways the songwriters could never have predicted. Cara and Mike Gangloff have married the colloquial with the eternal. With certain songs, like 'Sentimental Journey', they lift the material out of its saccharine setting and into the troubling and sublime nation from which it springs. 'All of Me' is rendered utterly psychotic, teasing apart the song's desperate, masochistic, violent implications. The songs become essays about themselves, investigations into their own histories of terror and escape. 'Mood Indigo' becomes a haunting dirge. 'Cry Me a River' is a rhythmically jarring lightning rod of unease. The inventiveness of interpretation is spirit-raising. The cultural history of the country is one of cosmic entertainment in the face of excruciating injustice. Transcendence has always been necessary. For better or worse, the United States of America is a nation defined by expanse." -- Matt Krefting, 2016. The Great American Drone Orchestra is: Sharon Stacy, Charlie Andersen, Matt Peyton, Sonya Austin, Joe Dejarnette, Sally Anne Morgan, Isak Howell, Scott Prouty, Anne Hartman, Tatsuya Nakatani, Nathan Bowles, Michelle Dove, Reilly Stacy Blackwell, Abriel Stacy Blackwell and Willa Shea-Gangloff.
PLANETARY ASSAULT SYSTEMS: Planetary Funk 22 Light Years Series (Part 2) 12" (MOTE 047EP)
Luke Slater delivers another new 12" with all of the purposeful intensity and sonic clarity to be expected from his celebrated Planetary Assault Systems alias. This EP pairs both an original mix and a spirited re-working by Josh Wink. Josh Wink's reworking of "Kat" pushes beat-driven sound to disciplined extremes, but not without clearly detectable traces of humor and playfulness. The original mix begins in a more subdued fashion, but it isn't lacking at all in concentrated energy. This mix relies on geometrical sound sequences that slowly approach from a distance before they completely overtake the listener.
Marco Ciccotti releases his debut Mistica Maxima on Multiple, including a remix by Saffronkeira (Denovali). Using rare analog gear such as the Buchla Easel, Polygamist, Moisturizer and Eurorack modular synths, Ciccotti plunges the listener into a climax of suspension, a futuristic tribal voyage leading to nowhere. Modern primitivism. 180 gram vinyl.
$15.79 UPC: 763769215022 ELECTRONIC
01. Mistica Maxima
02. Mistica Maxima (Saffronkeira Remix)
The second EP (of four) announcing the forthcoming Orlando VoornCollected double CD that will showcase the best from the Dutch producer in his early days. This EP focuses on the early '91 rave side of Orlando Voorn, gathered on one slice of wax. Features work under his aliases Frequency and The Nighttripper. Four sure-shot thrilling techno classic and moving warehouse tracks for the most hardcore DJs.
LIGETI/TRISTAN MURAIL/GEORGE BENJAMIN, GYORGY: Musica Viva 22 CD/SACD (NEOS 11422CD)
When the first concert of the series founded by the composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann slightly later designated as Musica Viva took place at Munich's Prince Regent's Theatre on October 7, 1945, it marked the birth of an important new cultural event in post-war Germany. Up to the present day, this oldest concert series for new music still brings together the world's most important artists - conductors and interpreters alike - in the field of new and the newest music, also continuing to set new standards for the interpretation of new classical music with the outstanding Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The SACD presented here is a good example of this: Ligeti's "Lontano" - a classic!; Murail's "Piano Concerto" completed in 2012 - interpreted by Pierre-Laurent; Aimard and George Benjamin's "Palimpsests" of 2002. All three works conducted by George Benjamin.
René Wohlhauser presents Kasamarówa, vocal chamber works performed by the Duo Simolka-Wohlhauser. René Wohlhauser is an internationally active and creative composer and interpreter. In 2013, the label NEOS began its CD series "Wohlhauser Edition". Wohlhauser (composition, piano, baritone, conductor) was born in 1954 and grew up in Brienz, Switzerland. Experiences as a rock and jazz musician, accompanist and improviser have accompanied and continue to accompany his principal activity as a composer of contemporary art music (including chamber, orchestral and stage works). He received his training at the Basel Academy of Music, studying with Robert Suter, Jacques Wildberger and Thomas Kessler, also attending composition courses with Kazimierz Serocki, Mauricio Kagel, Herbert Brün and Heinz Holliger. Duo Simolka-Wohlhauser, from Basel, specializes in the interpretation of contemporary vocal music and carries out annual tours of Switzerland and various major European cities (e.g. Basel, Bern, Zurich, Stuttgart, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Paris, Salzburg). Its fundamental concern is to bring current vocal works from the field of contemporary music to the stage, and thus give the genre new impulses for further development.
NEOS presents the fourth box from the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt archives, collecting key works performed through the decades by the key ensembles that have appeared at that famous institution. Pianists include: David Arden, Kristi Becker, Pierre Boulez, Niccolò Castiglioni, Pi-Hsien Chen, Massimiliano Damerini, Anna D'Errico Andor Foldes, Werner Füsser, Erika Haase, Kaya Han, Claude Helffer, Herbert Henck, Nicolas Hodges, Martine Joste Benjamin Kobler, Aloys Kontarsky, Helmut Lachenmann, Edward Lambert, Howard Lebow, Yvonne Loriod, Andor Losonczy, Cecil Lytle, Siegfried Mauser, Marek Mietelski, Yvar Mikhashoff, Davide Moskoni, Rei Nakamura, Carlos Pellegrino, Oscar Pizzo, Peter Roggenkamp, Peter Schmalfuss, Peter Stadlen, Reto Staub, Eduard Steuermann, Ortwin Stürmer, Ermis Theodorakis, David Tudor, Ellen Ugelvik, Bernhard Wambach. Composers include: Mark Andre, Georges Aperghis, Hans Erich Apostel, Vykintas Baltakas, Mark Barden, Clarence Barlow, Bela Bartók, André Boucourechliev, Pierre Boulez, Sylvano Bussotti, Niccolò Castiglioni, Aldo Clementi, Pascale Criton, Hans Ulrich Engelmann, Franco Evangelisti, Reinhard Febel, Brian Ferneyhough, Luc Ferrari, Ernst Helmuth Flammer, Volker Heyn, Mauricio Kagel, Roland Kayn, Wilhelm Killmayer, Steffen Krebber, Christina Kubisch, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, Klaus Lang, Dieter Mack, Jean-Etienne Marie, Misato Mochizuki, Enno Poppe, Olga Rayeva, Wolfgang Rihm, Daniel Rothman, James Saunders, Arnold Schönberg, Salvatore Sciarrino, Roger Sessions, Simon Steen-Andersen, Ernstalbrecht Stiebler, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Yoshifumi Tanaka, Anton Webern, Stefan Wolpe, Iannis Xenakis, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Vito Zuraj.
DVD is NTSC, region-free. A live recording of the 2004 world premiere of Daniele Lombardi's divina.com, a mixed media event in 36 parts for voice, ensemble, live electronics, and video. Daniele Lombardi is a composer, pianist and visual artist of international stature thanks to his extraordinary repertoire. For several years he has directed the festival Nuova Musica Italiana e Nuova Musica Internazionale in Rome. Daniele Lombardi has taught piano at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. Thirty-four plaques containing fragments of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy are dotted around the historical center of Florence. They were placed there at the beginning of the 1900s and were intended as a reminder of those people and places that had left their mark on the city and its history: a few lines from the boundless ocean of the poem floating adrift. Divina.com was written as a mixed media piece to be sung by David Moss and comprises ensemble, live electronics and video. It was premiered on July 5th, 2004 in front of Michelangelo's David at Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia. The current audio edition is the live recording of that event. Divina.com comprises thirty-six episodes, one for each epigraph and a further two, which refer to Michelangelo, who had written some of Dante's verses next to the sketches in two of his drawings. The various excerpts are in syntactical order linked to the unfolding of the composition. David Moss - voice; Ensemble Novecento e oltre; Antonio Ballista - conductor.
No., founded by Atom TM and Material Object in 2014, celebrate their second birthday in style with No. II. No. II is a collage, a readymade, an assemblage, a synthesis, in short: a spectrum (or "mix") of elements refracted through the prism of the label's output between May 1st, 2015 to May 1st, 2016. Over the 79 minutes, the "mix" traverses a wild landscape of material. A dose here from the lysergic adventures in the concrete jungle of No. Inc.'s G@ng5ta (NO 911CD), a stroll there over the bubbly terrain of Material Object + Ishq's Invisible Light (NO 910CD), the air punctuated by the haunted soundscapes of former member of Severed Heads, Garry Bradbury with Yakovlevian Torque (NO 305CD). Slather on top of that a caustic beat from Raw C + Pharmakustik's Anamorph Specimens (NO 304CD) and then under-grid it all with the morbidly obese frequencies of Atom TM's Texturen series and you have yourself some kind of interdimensional feast. So, welcome to our second birthday party. The cake is burnt, the balloon animals are deformed into impossible and terrifying shapes, the CIA have spiked the punch and you're the clown. Are you invited? No.
Pancho Records presents Tremblin' - Steamy & Atmospheric Female R'n'B Vocals. Sixteen never-before-reissued tracks of the sexiest and coolest atmospheric female R'n'B. Compiled and designed by Jordi Duró. Features tracks from: Byrdie Green, Yvonne Baker, Carol Hall, Barbara McNair, Lula Reed, Wini Brown, Dolores Gibson, Berna Dean, Paula Grimes, Donna Dee, Ruth Brown, Bettye Smith, Oberia Martin, Johni Naylor and Dora Hall.
After a couple of well received remixes, Rude Movements marks the first full-grown EP by Benjamin Fröhlich, who is also known for being one half of the Permanent Vacation enterprise. The range spans from synth-driven electro to hypnotic beat tools, industrial acid jams and '90s UK-influenced melodic breakbeat. These four tracks are universally applicable in the world of dance music.
VA: Ende Vom Lied - East German Underground Sound 1979 - 1990 CD (PL 067CD)
Ende Vom Lied is a genre-spanning collection of punk, post-punk and avant-garde bands from the former East Germany, chronicling the work of free spirits pitted against government restraints and implied genre limitations. The underground scene in the German Democratic Republic was a hydra, a noisy mix of musicians, poets, painters, photographers, filmmakers, punks and freaks. In the immediate aftermath of the primal scream that was punk, music often bred with poetry or painting in short-lived liaisons or enduring collaborations to produce a new generation of bastard genres. With the lines blurring between forms, a search for new shapes began. In the German Democratic Republic, this search constituted a tightrope walk, a dance for expression between subculture and a dictatorship. In German, Ende Vom Lied literally translates to "The end of the song", but is more commonly understood as a saying roughly meaning "The upshot", "The end of the story" or simply "The end". Ende Vom Lied features: Ornament & Verbrechen, Grabnoct, L'Attentat, Der Schwarze Kanal, 3tot, Der Demokratische Konsum, T42, Happy Straps, Planlos, Sendeschluß, Zwitschermaschine, Aufruhr Zur Liebe, Andreas Auslauf, Rosa Extra, AG Geige, The Local Moon, Fett, Herbst In Peking, Magdalene Keibel Combo, BAADER, Klick & Aus, Der Expander Des Fortschritts and Pffft....
Reissue of Niagara's self-titled debut, originally released in 1970. Niagara was more a project than an actual band, formed by German jazz drum legend Klaus Weiss. He formerly worked with another jazz legend from his mother country, Klaus Doldinger, and gained fame in the German jazz circuit of the '60s and '70s. His 1971 works with Niagara was the offspring of the vision to create an orchestra made entirely of drummers and percussionists. Despite the fact that there is definitely no regular melody instrument to be heard on this album, the two lengthy compositions are arranged in such an enthralling way, they still have a rather catchy and memorable feel. Among the cult drummers featured on this album are Udo Lindenberg (yes, the icon of German rock and pop started as a drummer) and session hero Keith Forsey. So what both compositions offer is an ever pulsating rhythm inferno, a maelstrom of different grooves and sounds. This album is not full of pop tunes. Niagara enchants and hypnotizes with a massive wall of percussion sounds, dragging the listener deeper and deeper into a state of trance, which is utterly addictive. Niagara goes deeper than most psychedelic rock with dreamy melodies and heavy organ work. Incomparable to anything else, this is an ultimate rhythm experience.
NICO: Nico's Last Concert - Fata Morgana LP (PMG 003LP)
Reissue of Nico's Last Concert - Fata Morgana, originally released in 1994. Christa Päffgen, aka Nico, was been a femme fatale extraordinaire, a woman always searching for and always running from something. She began her career as a model and actress, but soon got addicted to music and all kinds of unhealthy relievers for her spiritual pain, which in the end caused a bad health and helped to generate the circumstances for her untimely death at the age of 50 in 1988. A few months prior to her passing due to a bicycle accident on the Spanish Isle Ibiza, she performed her last show with mostly new and unheard tracks, plus one classic tune from her proto-gothic album The End (1974). She had one of the most captivating and outstanding voices in the whole music scene during her active years, with an utterly dark and manic expression even while performing her vocals absolutely flawless. Besides her unique voice, Nico also performed as a super model, which flattened her path to the hearts and music of several well-known artists from that time, like Andy Warhol, Brian Jones, Bob Dylan, Tim Hardin, Leonard Cohen, Jackson Browne, Jimi Hendrix, Danny Fields, Iggy Pop and Alain Delon. Andy Warhol connected Nico to Lou Reed. She joined The Velvet Undergound for the first album in 1966 as a singer on Warhol's wish. Her later backing band The Faction created a thick carpet of pulsating melodies and rhythms with a spacey feel and a morbid atmosphere. Peter Murphy of Bauhaus once called Nico's albums The Marble Index (1968) and The End to be the first ever true gothic style records. Even twenty years after her first records, Nico still had this gloomy but majestic charm and the older she got, the better and more intense her music became. All in all, Nico's Last Concert - Fata Morgana is one of those cult albums from the '80s dark psychedelic music scene, which certainly deserves to be heard by current generations for it easily stands the test of time.
$16.99 UPC: 710473190022 ROCK
A1. The Sound I (10:42)
A2. All Saint's Night (6:23)
A3. The Sound II (6:16)
A4. You Forget To Answer (3:52)
B1. Your Voice (7:17)
B2. Fata Morgana (6:49)
B3. The Hanging Gardens Of Semiramis (9:17)
B4. I Will Be Seven (6:41)
LP version. Reissue of Ahmed Fakroun's Mots D'Amour, originally released in 1983. The Arab world back in the '70s and '80s gave us quite a few very interesting rock and pop acts. Ahmed Fakroun from Libya was definitely one of them. His 1983 Mots D'Amour, means "Love Words" in English. His kind of ethno pop seems to go deeper than just to the charts, where songs like "Soleil Soleil" - a typical yet outstanding synth-pop/new-wave anthem that would have gone well with David Bowie or Duran Duran in the early '80s - would have belonged. Other tunes are more Oriental with great string arrangements and those mystical melodies that only Arab and Oriental music provides. It goes forth and back with these elements. Mots D'Amour is a rather colorful affair, when it comes to '80s pop music and within the fine arrangements, there is a lot of solid handcraft from the instrumental section. Whoever worked with Ahmed Fakroun in the studio during the album production shall be praised and blessed for his talent as well. All in all, this is one of the lost gems of '80s pop music. Compared to many European releases from 1983, Mots D'Amour can easily match up with all of them and has several outstanding evergreens on board. The sound is perfect for the time as well. Grab a copy of this reissue and make your dance party go crazy with this fascinating guy from Libya.
LP version. PMG release the first ever reissue of Zdenka Kovacicek (1978), the funky self-titled album from Zdenka Kovacicek, one of the most significant and eminent figures from the Croatian music scene. Her 60-year career started very early. At the age of 13, Zdenka was a professional singer with the duo Hani and later on she took a trip through the worldwide pop music scene, until her return to Croatia. By 1978, she was ready to release her first solo album, which is nearly impossible to find. Zdenka and her team of producers combined disco funk, haunting electronic pieces, lush soulful ballads and glam oriented power-pop with a rocking edge together with one common denominator, the utterly distinctive and charismatic voice of Mrs. Kovacicek. It is a very colorful affair. She could easily be a black disco queen in the vein of Donna Summer. The Croatian language adds a great touch of exotica to the whole album as well. The music itself is Western-oriented: funky, soulish, bluesy and glammy, with modal jazzy elements. It feels honest and from the heart, from the first to the last song. You can say that Zdenka Kovacicek plays the music that was popular at the time, when this album was recorded, with a twist of her own spirit thrown in, which in the end makes it an outstanding and colorful record. Drop the needle anywhere on this black pearl and you will always be swallowed by an irresistibly hot groove and end up in a joyful mood.
LP version. After starting his musical career back in 1968, the Nigerian artist, drummer, singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Steve Black released his fantastic and unique album Village Boogie in 1979. Village Boogie really deserves the status of a legendary rarity and holy-grail for fans of Afro-funk. The original album is incredibly rare today. On this unique album Steve Black presents a new version of the smasher, "Brand New Wayo", originally played by the band Mixed Grill, in which Steve Black was also the singer. Along with that hit, Village Boogie gives us six other groovers and movers that make your hips shake like you were hit by an earthquake, and in fact this is an earthquake of ever pulsating polyrhythmic drum and percussion patterns. A solid platform for lush horn arrangements and swinging bass lines. A little bit of guitar and other instrumentation adds color to the whole wild steaming funky sound and on top we find the utterly distinctive voice of Mr. Steve Black. Village Boogie comes as strong as the best U.S. funk releases of the '70s, but this has very special Nigerian power to make anyone move their hips, coming from the very depth of the musicians' souls. The album spreads a joyful and jolly feeling where and whenever you make it rotate on your turntable. It's a brilliant Afro-funk gem that everybody needs to hear. The concentration of real anthems moves on a highest level.
LP version. Reach Out (1979) is one of the two albums by the disco outfit The Ray Camacho Band with bandleader Ray Camacho, exploring the field of the funky club dance music happening at that time. PMG reissue Reach Out, an album which offers booty shakers in ever-pulsating grooves. The needle lowers down and hits the vinyl and a beat like flashing lights sets in. Bass guitar, drums and percussions weave a tight web of rhythm patterns that capture your body right away and set you into a state of trance. You recognize Latin influences here and there, which become obvious when the horns blow out lush harmonies and relaxed but hot-blooded melodies hit your ears. And indeed Ray Camacho actually comes from Latin music. He mixes both worlds very well on this record. Reach Out is a massive collection of sheer disco funk hits. You will dance and dance to these perfectly produced and executed songs that stick to your mind for quite a long time after the music has faded. Reach Out is an all-in-all handmade album with burning performances of all instrumentalists, with an emphasis on the extended rhythm section. If you love your funky music slick and steaming, this release is for you.
LP version. Includes download code. Reissue of Aktion's Groove The Funk, originally released in 1975. Groove The Funk is an essential and influential early Afro-funk album. The album was released in Nigeria and the whole LP is really something excitingly special, carrying a unique style of fuzz guitar and keyboard with ecstasy rhythms that can be experienced only from the heart of Africa. Nigeria had a rich musical history with a variety of bands that were playing their unique Afro-funk with incredible rhythms - In Aktion's case thanks to one of the best drummers of that time, Ben Alaka. Sadly most of the scene vanished like in Zambia and their Zam rock scene, but thanks to collectors worldwide a part of Nigerian music heritage remained with us to be enjoyed. Aktion (also known as The Action 13 or The Actions) were one of the most explosive bands. They were from Warri, which is a city in south Nigeria and their debut album was released by Clover Recording Organization from city of Aba. Clover Records founder Ben Okonkwo was a very influential man for the Nigerian music scene. His label released a lot of music including (Super)Wings, Akwassa, The Visitors, Mary Afi Usuah, Folk 77, The Doves, The Apostles, Mansion as well as some fine compilations of Clover artists. Renny Pearl Nwosa was the Aktion's leader together with Lemmy Faith Nwani, who was a well-respected drummer playing even for the best known Nigerian Funk band The Funkees. Renny and Lemmy together also formed the band The Stormmers, who recorded two incredible albums. Aktion were playing all across their part of the country. Nigeria had a very well-known club called Lido Night Club and Restaurant and Aktion were staying there for a while. They played many college campuses all around Nigeria and also many villages to entertain Eastside students. Aktion later on recorded and successfully released another album Celebration in 1977 and then some members moved on to join The Stormmers and One World. Groove The Funk is a very exciting intervention in one of the most exploding scenes coming from Africa. It's Afro-beat in its best form mixed with amazing funky-psych grooves. Lot's of fuzz guitar and bad-ass keyboard playing. Certainly a great look into Nigerian scene.
DUKE & THE LOVE FAMILY, EFFI: Mr. Love LP (PMG 011LP)
LP version. Includes download code. Reissue of Effi Duke & The Love Family's Mr. Love, originally released in 1980. Nigeria had a unique music scene which began spreading rapidly in the 1970s. The era was based on unspoiled use of fuzz pedal, keyboards and indisputable influences of the psychedelic blues bands of the West. In 1980, Effi Duke & The Love Family came out with their debut Mr. Love. It was released by Homzy Records which was a home of many Afro-funk records, going strong from mid '70s toward '80s. Mr. Love was one of the label's most energetic albums. The '80s were definitely more into a jazzy sound with disco slowly infiltrating the African music scene. What's so unique about Mr. Love is Effi Duke's love for guitar-based jazz and together with African rhythms and funky bass. His album is a funk/jazz/disco hybrid. He's an incredible guitarist and also at the time of this LP, an ex-Wings member. They were one of the most popular bands from Nigeria. Effi Duke was a key part of the scene with being member of The Wings, The Visitors, The Apostles, he played also the guitars on Mary Afi Usuah's fantastic second LP African Woman (PMG 014CD/LP, 1978) and on many other great albums including the incredible Folk 77 album, Muzik (1978).
JONES, BERKELY IKE: Nation Building LP (PMG 012LP)
LP version. Includes download code. Reissue of Berkely Ike Jones's Nation Building, originally released in 1979. Nation Building is a real forgotten gem from the late '70s and is among the very best Afro-beat disco albums ever. Berkely Ike Jones is one of the icons of the Nigerian scene being the guitarist and founder of BLO. BLO were one of the very best progressive bands from Nigeria and managed to release several albums for EMI (Nigeria) and Afrodisia Records. BLO are definitely a ground-breaking band that managed to further establish the entire Afro-funk genre. At the time Ginger Baker of Cream went to travel to Nigeria and invited Berkely Ike Jones to be part of session-band Salt. They went back to the UK and toured in Europe. Berkely Ike Jones played with many bands like with Ofege on their Try And Love album (1973) and he also appeared on many other great albums by artists like Steve Black, Lijadu Sisters, Tee Mac, Kris Okotie, Sonny Okosuns Ozziddi, "Blackman" Akeeb Kareem, Mixed Grill, Don Bruce And The Angels and Felix Lebarty. Nation Building is his solo project recorded in the late 1970s on Skylark Records. The original LP is extremely rare and very expensive, so this reissue is a chance to listen to some really great Afro-beat music.
LP version. Includes download code. Reissue of Heads Funk Band's Hard World, originally released in 1975. Hard World is the first of three albums released by Heads Funk Band and it's one of the most rare LPs coming from Nigeria. It is a pure, well-crafted Afro-funk. Heads Funk Band is related to Akwassa. Both are two exceptional bands with the same members, but co-existed simultaneously featuring Felix Odey (Feladey) on guitar and Eddie Offeyi on drums. The original forming duo of Akwassa was Felix Day (guitar, vocals) and Kevin Coburn (keyboards, synths, vocals), who collaborated with guest musicians, which later turned out to be the actual Heads Funk Band. Some rumors say all of them were in both bands and musically speaking, there are a lot of similarities. Akwassa released two incredibly rare albums, while Heads Funk Band managed to release three LPs, of which Hard World is the most hard to find.
LP version. Includes download code. Reissue of Mary Afi Usuah's African Woman, originally released in 1978. "Mary Afi Usuah trained as an a opera singer at the prestigious St Cecilia Academy in Rome and spent 13 years touring Europe with artists like Duke Ellington and Deep Purple. She matched vocal chops with Robert Plant performing with Led Zeppelin and blew away the top names on the Lagos scene when she returned to Nigeria. She also broke a few hearts with her killer smile, if some accounts are to be believed. African Woman marshals these experiences into an exceptionally powerful and diverse album. From the Tina Turner stomp of "What's A Woman To Do", to the Aretha-style musings of the title track, Mary takes everything she learned on the road to tell her story about her continent in a distinctly African manner. The boys from Akwassa were on hand to ensure that everything was kept extra tight and funky. Mary Afi Usuah only released two albums but she is undeniably one of the greatest female singers the African continent has produced. African Woman serves as her legacy, along with the remarkable number of Nigerian female singers she mentored and inspired." -- Peter Moore. "I met Mary Afi Usuah in 1979 while I was the lead singer with Tee Mac Collection. We were based at Surulere night club in Lagos, Nigeria. She came in from Calabar in the Cross river state. She was a beauty with her Afro hair and had a very strong voice and was very powerful on stage. Her performance was electrifying. She did a lot of shows with us and together we got the crowd rocking. A very dark complexioned lady, she was full of life and love. Her smiles would sweep any man off her feet instantly and I immediately recognized a talent that go all over the world. Her music is a blend of African rhythms, soul and funk with heavy bassline. I am glad to let you know that the vinyl you have in your hands now contains music that will tickle all ears for a very long time. Happy listening." -- Steve Black.
LP version. Includes download code. Reissue of Stevo's Musica Negra, originally released in 1978. Musica Negra is a missing link, a real lost gem of the Atlanta funk music scene. The album was written and produced by Calvin Arnold with Tommy Stewart, Barney Conway and Herb Lance as engineer. The original LP was pressed in a ridiculously limited edition and the album was meant to be a showcase for the Atlanta studios. The names of some young start-ups were placed on the cover and they were said to be the musicians, in fact, those youngsters had nothing to do with the origin of this amazing album. On this PMG reissue the real artists are named: Stevo Milner, Curt Mitchell, Tommy Stewart, J.D. Morris and Harry Case, plus a few guest musicians. According to Calvin Arnold, approximately just 50 copies of the original LP were distributed in 1978, selling for over 1,000 USD today. To the inner circle of the Atlanta sound music factory, Calvin Arnold is a musical legend, a pivotal mastermind and musical wizard whose contributions helped make some of Atlanta sound's most memorable and infectious grooves. His cunning sense of rhythm, extensive knowledge and experience in music production, arrangement and publishing make him a musical force to be reckoned with. Preferring the background grind to the limelight, Calvin Arnold delighted most in the molding of aspiring musicians, honing new talents, smoothing off their rough edges. His generosity and genius catapulted those who worked with him into inspirational new levels, pushing musical boundaries, daring to experiment and create refreshingly new, yet familiar sounds.
LP version. Includes download code. Reissue of Akwassa's La'ila, originally released in 1975. Akwassa were among the best Afro-beat bands coming from Nigeria. They were one of the early Nigerian Funk bands to get an album out. They were related to the Heads Funk Band and most members were part of both bands. They managed to release two albums as Akwassa. Their debut La'ila came out on a well-known Afro-beat label, Afrodisia Records. Akwassa were originally a duo made of Felix Day (guitar and vocals) and Kevin Coburn (organ, synthesizer and vocals). Felix Day is actually Feladey, the guitarist in Aktion (another top-notch Nigerian). On La'ila the band used a lot of synthesizers and the overall sound is very pleasing. Overall, the album has a raw and unpolished sound, but that's what brings that certain spark for being among the very best in the Afro-beat genre.
DANDY, TREVOR: Don't Cry Little Tree LP (PMG 017LP)
LP version. Includes download code. Reissue of Trevor Dandy's Don't Cry Little Tree, originally released in 1970. With Don't Cry Little Tree, Trevor Dandy created a gentle album full of consoling tunes that attest his trustful relationship to God. Just as you might know it from Cat Stevens's Morning Has Broken (1981), just with more soul - although this association might be caused by the insistent use of piano on this record. Once you hear these songs, it will be hard to deny Trevor's gospel roots, which surface musically steadily and are underlined by the religious lyrics. Don't Cry Little Tree was the first production of the famous Canadian producer Paul Zaza, who says this about this ultra-rare pearl of funky gospel music: "This album was done with no budget and very little equipment. Basically, Trevor Dandy was a gospel singer in a church group. He wanted to record an album to sell at various church gatherings. I was impressed with his lyrics and unique voice so I agreed to produce the record in the basement of my father's house (where I was still living).The album was put together on a 'shoe-string' budget and 1,000 copies were pressed on vinyl. Most were never sold and thrown out. I'm happy that now, almost 50 years later, there appears to be an audience for him."
LP version. Reissue of Geraldo Pino's Boogie Fever, originally released in 1978. "When Geraldo Pino rolled into town from Sierra Leone with his Heartbeats, Nigeria had never seen anything quite like them. Slick, tight and playing the latest James Brown-style funk on very expensive equipment, they soon had the country in their thrall. 'Made me fall right on my ass!' a chastened Fela Kuti remembered in 1982. Fans of Geraldo's disarmingly eloquent enunciation on early albums may be shocked by the gruff, rawer tones on Boogie Fever. The album starts with a jaunty reggae track extolling the virtues of 'Ganja' and later, 'Boogie Fever' sounds like it was recorded down in Trenchtown after Geraldo had taken a toke or two of his own advice. Even the more traditional funk tracks like 'African Hustle' have a darker, more threatening vibe. Not that that is a bad thing. Boogie Fever is the sound of consummate musician letting his hair down. Or in Geraldo's case, letting it grow into a tight Afro and not bothering to watch his 'P's and Q's' anymore." -- Peter Moore. "Geraldo Pino came to Nigeria from Freetown in Sierra Leone in 1968 with his band The Heartbeats and quickly changed the music scene completely. He was the first bandleader that brought sophistication into show business. He owned the best musical equipment, his costumes on stage were fantastic and his musicians were good looking guys with Afro hair styles. His drummer then was Francis Foster who later played percussion with Paul Simon. Pino got the title of 'The Hardest Working Man In Show Business' in Nigeria. Girls loved him. I later joined his band with new set of musicians in 1974 as a singer while he based in Kano in the north of Nigeria. To survive in Nigeria those days as a musician you have to be very good on stage and Pino was. His stagecraft was exhilarating, his costumes were dazzling, he commanded the band and his audience wherever he played with his dance steps and he became an inspiration to many musicians." -- Steve Black.
LP version. Reissue of Benis Cletin's Jungle Magic, originally released in 1979. "Considered an acid boogie classic, Jungle Magic is a cosmic transmission from the early days of Nigerian disco. The bass lines are lethal. The synths are fat and squelchy. And the groove is non-stop and primal. Channeling the jungle Gods of funk and introducing them to Donna Summers, the title track takes you to a freaky place you didn't know existed but never want to leave. 'Love Forever' brings a Calypso party vibe while 'Fireman' suggests Prince may have been listening to Benis when he wrote 'Alphabet Street'. The album was composed and produced by Benis Cletin. He also played guitar and synthesizer and sang lead vocals. George Achini from the Mighty Flames stars on bass and Mambo Sticks, Nigeria's leading disco drummer, lays down the rock solid grooves. Jungle Magic remains the album where he introduced his irresistible brand of psychedelic disco funk to world." -- Peter Moore.
LP version. Reissue of BLO's Phase IV, originally released in 1976. "Phase IV is BLO at the height of their not inconsiderable powers. Buzzing after a hugely successful tour of Denmark and Norway, the Afro-funk trio returned to London in 1975 and headed straight into the Orange Studios to get the magic down on tape. BLO had been fixtures on the Nigerian scene since they started out as Clusters International in 1970. The original 'O' in the band, bassist Mike Odumosu, had left to join Osibisa by Phase IV, (although he appears on the cover and gets a vocal credit) and was replaced by velvet-voiced keyboardist, Otu Udofa. Berkley Jones's guitar work is still immense - have a listen to 'Scandi Boogie' and 'Music Make You Happy'. And the sweet breakdowns by drummer Laolu Akins on 'Number One' made it an instant b-boy breakdance classic. Rightly regarded as the holy grail of Afro boogie, Phase IV is an extraordinary blend of highlife, rock, blues and soul that sounds just as good through headphones as it does on the dancefloor." -- Peter Moore. "These guys were known as Clusters International when I was their lead singer in Lagos in 1970. We then moved with Tee Mac and started The Afro Collection under a new management. They later changed the music scene in Nigeria when they started a very funky three piece band known as BLO. They were very tight and played Nigerian funk which is a blend of highlife, rock with a trace of blues. It wasn't a surprise when they quickly conquered Lagos and other parts of Nigeria with their unique style of music and performance and moved to London where Phase IV was recorded. Before this they had several hits in Nigeria. After a very successful tour of six cities in Denmark and four cities in Norway, they returned to London and straight into Orange Studios where Phase IV was recorded. It is the accumulation of many years of experience with their unique style of music. BLO Phase IV is sure to blow your mind." -- Steve Black.
LP version. Reissue of Aleke Kanonu's Aleke, originally released in 1980. "After spending much of the '70s humping his congos around New York as a session musician, Nigerian Aleke Kanonu pulled in some favors to record an album of his own. The result was Aleke, a criminally obscure Afrobeat/funk/jazz masterpiece featuring Buddy Williams on drums, George Davis on guitar and a cameo from Wynton Marsalis on flugelhorn. There are only four tracks on the album but they are all killers. 'N'Gwode' sounds like Fela Kuti and Manu Dibangu hanging out with Bobby Womack, probably somewhere across 110th Street. 'Keep New York Clean' struts like Shaft after a successful bust. And 'Mothers Day' keeps things sweet and soulful, before Wynton Marsalis brings back the groove with his flugelhorn on 'Home Sweet Home'. Until recently you would have had to take out a second mortgage to get hold of Akele. And sold a kidney for the Happiness/Nwanne, Nwanne, Nwanne 12" (1982) Kanonu released a year later." -- Peter Moore
LP version. Reissue of The Stormmers's Lovers Song, originally released in 1981. "The Stormmers were led by Renny Pearl, former bandleader and bass player with Aktion, an Afro funk band from Warri that burned brightly and briefly in the mid '70s. With the help of Jake Sollo, an ex-Funkee and recently reconstituted disco dandy, they created Lovers Song, an album of frantically musical bass lines, skittery hi-hats and an irresistible urge to get onto the dancefloor. 'Love Or Money' has the swagger of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. 'Super D. Jay' has the sure-footedness of a well-selected playlist. 'Sexy Woman', with its refrain of 'I need you, I want you, you turn me on, you're beautiful' is the sound of a clubber desperately trying to find someone, anyone, so they don't have to go home alone. The album was recorded in Nigeria and the UK and released in 1981, a time in Nigeria when oil prices were falling, beats-per-minute were rising and clubbers wanted to party like there was no tomorrow. The urgent, salacious sounds of The Stormmers suited the mood perfectly." -- Peter Moore.
After Star Alliance's initial release as a limited six tape-box set in late 2015, it was apparent that there was a need for a reissue. It's presented here as a remastered double LP set with a selection of the best work and a few new tracks. Over the last few years, Varg has manifested himself, not only as one of the most productive new voices in European electronic and techno music - with countless releases and projects - but also as one of the most interesting of the lot. Star Alliance has tracks of spacious acid standing next to heavy industrial rhythms, piercing abstract modular synth work, beautiful soundscapes, piano pieces and field recordings. And while the techniques, qualities and styles differ with almost every track, they stand perfectly together and shape a beautiful narrative.
$22.99 EAN: 5055869540490 ELECTRONIC
A1. Name Signs & New Hands, Old Cars
A2. Corinthia Skin Pt. 1: Artist Dinner & Sparkling Wine
A3. Red Lights / Venue, Midnight
A4. Stroboscopic Observations On Ecstasy
B1. The Eyes Of An Excellent Lover
B2. Cardinal Lipstick, Matching Toenails
B3. Under Beige Nylon
C1. White & Yellow, Powdered Drugs
C2. Silk & Steel
C3. Luxury Bubbles, Unscented Lubricant (With Vanity Productions)
C4. Corinthia Skin Pt. 2: PPV & Room-Service
D1. Lobby Leisure
D2. Turbulence / Complimentary Wi-Fi
D3. The City Where I Used To Live & Love / Stockholm
D4. The Color Of Saffon / Opium
D5. Lavender Halter / See Through Showers Of The Standard
Hannes Norrvide has had a busy year and now he is ready with the second vinyl release under his Norin guise. Reflekterar sees Norrvide further explore the textures of hazed out underwater acid. It is paired with a more aggressive DNA coding, especially the track "Nästan" with washes of static bleeding into alarm-like synth pulses and nearly broken beats. Reflekterar is made up of three new tracks from Norin - three tracks that all seem to agree on a program, a program of building things for the sole purpose of teaing them down again.
$10.39 EAN: 5055869540506 ELECTRONIC
A1. Samtal Med Mig Själv
B1. Plötsligt Och Självklart
B2. Nästan
Body Night Lies is the first full solo EP from 4004. Together with his mate Sebastien Vorhaus, he is one of Mexico's top producers and has a quality output on labels like Freerange, Faces, Vicario Music and last but not least Quintessentials. 4004 gets a lot of inspiration from living in Berlin and has started a busy musical journey in the city. Body Night Lies is another dope release for your house collection - damn deep and moody.
XENAKIS, IANNIS: GRM Works 1957-1962 LP (REGRM 007LP)
2016 repress, originally released in 2013. Recollection GRM assembles Greek experimental composer Iannis Xenakis' works for Groupe de Recherches Musicales circa 1957-1962. "Concret PH" (1958) was assembled for the Brussels World Fair. The industrialist Philips commissioned Le Corbusier's famous "Philips Pavilion": "I'll create an electronic poem for you, he said. Everything will happen inside: sound, light, color, and rhythm." Iannis Xenakis designed the architectural blueprint and composed "Concret PH" meant to psychologically prepare the public for the show created inside, accompanied by a musical piece by Edgard Varèse. The 400 speakers that lined the inner shell were meant to fill the space through the sound sparkles of "Concret PH" and achieve a joint emanation of architecture and music, conceived as a whole: the roughness of the concrete and its internal friction coefficient found an echo in the timbre of the sparkles. "Orient-Occident" (1960) was originally composed for a film by Enrico Fulchignoni for UNESCO. The film describes a visit to the museum comparing artifacts produced by various cultures and highlighting their interaction, dating back to ancient times. From an abstract point of view, the composer regards this work as a solution to the problem of finding highly diversified means of transition, meant to link a type of material to another. One indeed witnesses a varied gradation of mutations, interplays, overlaps, cross-fading, sudden shifts, and hidden junction points. "Diamorphoses" (1957-1958) portrays continuity and discontinuity within evolution. Here are two aspects of being, whether in opposition or in communion. In "Diamorphoses" this antithesis was illustrated sections of sound strongly opposed to others, and particularly in organizations of continuous variations of average or "statistical" heights. "Bohor" (1962): Bohor (referring to Bors the Younger, Lancelot's cousin), is a character from the medieval cycle of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. "Bohor" is dedicated to Pierre Schaeffer. The author deliberately abstained from giving any descriptive information on his piece, letting the listener choose an imaginary route for himself. This release presents the 1968 version, revised by Iannis Xenakis himself and as yet not made available to the public. "Even though Iannis Xenakis never made 'musique concrète' in the sense given by Pierre Schaeffer, the GRM was a locus for experimenting with his ideas about sound and sound structures. These works, composed between 1958 and 1962, show a boldness as advanced as in his orchestral approach. The relationship between Xenakis and Schaeffer was often tense. It nevertheless entailed mutual recognition and respect towards each other's musical approach. Schaeffer found the piece disproportionate in terms of intensity but was indeed pleased by the dedication. The four pieces presented here, all produced at the GRM, undoubtedly demonstrate the experimental intent and the strictly 'physical' character of Xenakis' music, in that it provides the audience with a listening experience of a rare intensity." --François Bonnet & Christian Zanési; Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, January 2013. Layout by Stephen O'Malley. Executive Production by Peter Rehberg.
Renegade Masters present the long awaited juggernaut of sound that is the Yugen by Jetsam. Jetsam is also known as Konchis, the consistent DJ and producer of quality and sheer originality with a proven track record for his skill and talent. Ten tracks ready to show sound-systems what they've been missing all these years. The journey begins at "Crystal Oblivion", a fitting intro with a gentle ambience exposing a slow but steady stream of colliding strings harmoniously weaving underwater, lo-fi sounds together with an underlying, deceptively subtle yet consciously apt beat. "Ephemeral" - gently churning out deep melodies and tugging heartstrings as it drops singular notes to create unexpected crescendos which collide with a vast array of sounds together whilst knotting beautifully into this stunning soundscape. "Cathedrals" perfects the off-beat rhythm in a dubstep movement forging its own stream of consciousness which fits the dancefloor as it pulses the body into a steady trance-like state. "Celestial Mechanics" sounds like the alien chant from a group of lost children discarded on a planet long ravaged by time. "End Of Stars" casts us deeper in an ambient, HD soundscape of pure meditation. Its rhythm, key changes and layers of subtle, indiscernible yet perfectly tuned sounds take the listener to a place they want to remain in a lot longer than the few minutes you are given. Hints of digital, off-beat subtleties and pondering piano notes reverberate in "USHDKNW". "Mermaids" gives a two-sided delivery of industrial sounds and eerie echoing coupled with a hopeful melody. "Under The Lake (Cure Me)" is a stunner carrying on from its predecessor building up a trance-like haven of echo chambers before leading this sea worthy juggernaut back to "Shore", which is a hopeful meadow of sound complete with birds chirping throwing us down into some wonky off beat claps. "Yugen" brings the album to a close in a whirlwind of snowy, oriental soundscapes and delicate percussion. Yugen is an ambient bass journey perfect for long roads and one that the listener will surely rewind.
$12.99 EAN: 5055869539838 ELECTRONIC
01. Crystal Oblivion
02. Ephemeral
03. Cathedrals
04. Celestial Mechanics
05. End Of Stars
06. USHDKNW
07. Mermaids
08. Under The Lake (Cure Me)
09. Shore
David Shea presents Piano 1. From David Shea: "The piano has been an instrument that has woven its way in and out of my life since I was a child. I grew up listening to great classical and jazz players, prepared piano and electronic experiments, extended techniques and later the incredible works of Boulez, Stockhausen, Cage, Ligeti, Ferrari, Feldman, Xenakis and Scelsi. I had written for and worked with many great pianists and created ensemble works with piano and electronics where I was given the freedom to write complex pieces for gifted musicians and technical masters. Although I would often compose on piano and use simpler piano works in my own solo concerts I had never dedicated myself to a path of the endless intense practice of a single instrument that these pianists had. I always wanted to stay on the level of composing for the whole of a work and not potentially get lost in the maze of technical issues that these musicians excelled at. And then one day Lawrence English suggested that I put out a CD of piano works. I had recorded, on many of my other CDs, extended piano pieces with good pianists so I thought 'piano solo pieces, all acoustic'. A real challenge when so much has been written for such an iconic instrument, one so loaded with historical weight. What I didn't realize at the time was that Lawrence was asking me to be the pianist. This is not only something I never considered but although I've always played and performed on keyboards in my solo and ensemble works, I never took on the huge task of being able to play the technically challenging (at least by my standards) the type of scores I had written for others. So I spent the next year unraveling my past approach to composing for piano and explored my own physical technique. No preparations, no samples, no extended electronics or reliance on my past sample acoustic techniques. The result of this year of practice, writing, listening, exploring and recording is this CD. Whether or not it is significant that a work is purely acoustic, prepared or electro-acoustically treated, fully composed or improvised, extended or played traditionally, etc., were not the central issues for me, it was this time spent with the piano, the ritual of playing and this re-working of my own physical and conscious process that forms the core of these pieces."
New Rome, the latest project from Polish composer Tomasz Bednarczyk, presents Nowhere. In the late 2000s, Bednarczyk emerged with a trilogy of electronic records that set pastoral-tonality against grainy smears of pulse and rhythm. His previous Room40 editions Summer Feelings and Painting Sky Together were lilting, melancholic affairs, littered with a deeply personal approach to music making that felt as therapeutic as it did artistic. In hindsight, they were records that stamped out a virgin territory in Poland contemporary electronica community, deservedly earning Bednarczyk a revered standing amongst the emergent generation of Polish producers. Following a period of working across various other projects, including the lauded Venter duet, Bednarczyk has returned to his roots, issuing this latest album under the New Rome moniker. Extending the palette of his earlier solo works, New Rome's pieces sprawl outward with a graceful flow. Taking on a more rounded sensibility than previous projects, Nowhere creates a richness through interlocking layers of harmony. Still guided by a strongly emotive and melancholic thematic, the album transcribes the experience of falling into and emerging from winter. It matches icy melodic passages with a warm blanket of bass. It creates a sense of being simultaneously still and fluid. Nowhere's subtlety invites the listener to become submerged within the pieces and to be lulled within the record's weightless atmosphere of sound. This is an album that is unashamedly rooted in the concept of ambient music. It is music that invites the listener in and moreover creates a holistic space in which they are comfortably drifting. Ultimately, Nowhere creates a place that is concerned with absence and presence, framed through Bednarczyk's unique compositional methodology.
"Reality is precise; memory isn't." -- Jorge Luis Borges, In Praise of Darkness. Based in Spain, composer and visualist, Pierce Warnecke has developed an elegant auditory hallucination with his debut edition Memory Fragments. Known widely for his collaborations, with Matthew Biederman, Frank Bretschneider and Ketev, this edition represents Warnecke's first solo outing. Recorded over the better part of three years, Memory Fragments ties together his interests in electro-acoustic sound, field recordings and harmonic incongruities. "A memory is a recording of senses with the mind as the medium," Warnecke explains "When a memory is recalled it is played back in the mind's eye, but the experience is never as exact as the original moment. This makes memory a volatile storage medium, subject to transience. Whereas digital audio/video recordings are theoretically immune to this decay caused by the passing of time, Memory Fragments explores recordings as memories by taking samples (sound, images, objects) of a physical space and then placing them in an imaginary process of transformation and transience that slowly erodes these digital memories until disappearance." Pierce Warnecke was in California but has lived most of his life expatriated in Europe. He studied electronic music at Berklee College of Music and computational art at Universität der Kunst in Berlin. His works are split between installations, compositions and concerts, with an equal focus on aural and visual mediums and the many types of relationships between them. He currently is a professor at Berklee College of Music's Master program in Valencia, Spain.
In the young Maesa Pullman, The Last Hurrah!! mastermind HP Gundersen has found the perfect singer for this ever-developing project so dear to his heart. After exploring the possibilities of the drone guitar on their 2011 debut, Spiritual Non-Believers (RCD 2109CD/RLP 3109LP), and the slightly more song-oriented 2013 follow-up, The Beauty of Fake (RCD 2145CD/RLP 3145LP/RLP 3145LTD-LP), The Last Hurrah!! are back with a third album that dives straight into the heart of classical song traditions and vintage production values, blending elements from country and Americana, classic British pop, psychedelia, and blues, with a pinch of soul. HP Gundersen has been a central figure in the vibrant music scene of Bergen, Norway, for decades, as producer, composer, and mentor for many of the city's artists. As a producer he discovered and nurtured the career of a very young Sondre Lerche, one of Norway's most successful international exports. In addition to Madrugada's 2005 mega-hit "Lift Me" with Ane Brun, he has produced over 50 albums -- including Tim Rose's final album American Son (2002). Gundersen names The Beatles, early Stones, Tin Pan Alley, and cosmic American country as his life-changing musical epiphanies. Maesa Pullman comes from a very musical family and was brought to the attention of HP Gundersen through mutual friends. Also a songwriter, guitarist, and pianist, she performs frequently with different musical constellations in Southern California, and is a profiled presence in the local roots community. Her cousin, Rosa Pullman, sings lead on two tracks here, "You Ain't Got Nothing" and "Those Memories." The album's musicians include some of Bergen's finest, as well as American guests such as Marty Rifkin (pedal steel), John Thomas (Hammond organ), Kiel Feher (drums), and Jason Hiller (bass).
Phaedra's 2011 debut album, The Sea (RCD 2107CD/RLP 3107LP), received fantastic international reviews in magazines as diverse as The Wire, Uncut, Shindig, and Prog, which drew lines to Vashti Bunyan, Elizabeth Fraser, and Nico. The Chicago Reader said, "this is one of the loveliest, most striking albums, unlike anything I've heard in years." Blackwinged Night is the follow-up, and the second album in a trilogy, a lyrical and musical cycle with its own mythological structure. From the ethereal folk universe of the debut, Blackwinged Night dives into a darker dream-pop underworld, where acoustic elements of woodwinds, strings, and marimba are mixed with layers of analog synths, bigger drums, and darker basslines. Vocals are as crystal-clear and haunting as ever, with lyrics circling around themes like creation and collapse, time and falling stars. Phaedra is Ingvild Langgård, singer, composer, and artist. Educated at The Academy of Fine Art in Oslo, Norway, she composes music for the stage and screen in addition to her art projects with sound, video, and installations. In cooperation with choreographer Ingri Fiksdal and scenographer Signe Becker she created the acclaimed dance performances "Orchard Ballads" and "Night Tripper." "Night Tripper" won the Oslo Award in 2012, has since toured extensively in Europe, and had its US premiere in April 2014; The Guardian called it "an extraordinary piece, simple yet powerfully affecting." Blackwinged Night is produced by Langgård herself, with contributions from Christian Engfelt, who also mixed the album. There are contributions from Ensemble neoN members Kristine Tjøgersen, on clarinet, and Yumi Murakami, on flute. Last heard on Motorpsycho's En Konsert For Folk Flest (RLP 2170LP, 2015), Kari Rønnekleiv plays violin and Ole-Henrik Moe is on viola. Last but not least, there's Langgård's regular band; Gunhild Mathea Olaussen on violin, Jørn Tore Egseth on bass and keyboards, and Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen on drums, percussion, marimba, and vibraphone. Mastered by the legendary Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound.
RATKJE, MAJA S.K.: Crepuscular Hour CD+DVD (RCD 2181CD)
Crepuscular Hour is an epic, hypnotic one-hour piece for three choirs, three pairs of noise musicians, and church organ, to be performed in a cathedral or similar location with musicians surrounding the audience. The room fills with sound in an intense, but almost meditative hour, as the voices blend with the distortion, the noise sometimes takes over, and the organ eventually takes the music to a new level. The visual design of this concert is a play on the crepuscular rays -- rays of sunlight that appear to radiate through clouds from the point in the sky where the sun is located -- with the light filtered by the obstacles and musicians in the room. All texts are from the Nag Hammadi library, a collection of Gnostic texts discovered in Upper Egypt in 1945. These texts have provided a major re-evaluation of early Christian history. This recording of a performance of the piece includes a DVD of the whole concert, beautifully directed by Kathy Hinde (DVD is PAL format, region-free, with 5.1 and stereo audio). Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje (born 1973) is quite a remarkable musician, singer, improviser, and composer. Her music has been performed worldwide by the Klangforum Wien, the Oslo Sinfonietta, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Fretwork, TM+, the Cikada String Quartet, the Mivos Quartet, the Quatuor Bozzini, the Quatuor Renoir, Crash Ensemble, The Peärls Before Swïne Experience, Torben Snekkestad, Marianne Beate Kielland, SPUNK, Frode Haltli, POING, and many more. Ratkje has been composer in residence at festivals like Other Minds in San Francisco; Trondheim Chamber Music Festival; Nordland Music Festival in Bodø, Norway; Avanti! Summer Festival in Finland; Båstad Chamber Music Festival; and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Ratkje is active as a singer/voice user and electronics performer and engineer, as a soloist and in groups such as SPUNK and BRAK RUG. Other collaborators include Jaap Blonk, Joëlle Léandre, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, Stephen O'Malley, Lasse Marhaug, POING, and many more. Ratkje has performed her own music for films, dance, theater, installations, and numerous other projects. Visual art and text are often parts of her work, in installations or staged works. She has made large gallery works with SPUNK and made music for a radio play by Elfriede Jelinek, and in 2003, she played a part in her own opera, also based on texts from the Nag Hammadi library.
Fire! Orchestra follow their acclaimed 2014 album Enter (RCD 2158CD/RLP 3158LP) with Ritual, slimming the ensemble down from 28 of northern Europe's finest jazz and improvisational musicians to a mere 21. Since the release of Enter, this energetic and dynamic mass ensemble has gone from intimate jazz settings to the main hall at the Molde International Jazz Festival and a major stage at the prestigious Roskilde Festival. As brilliant as Enter is, with Ritual they have outdone themselves and produced a beast of beauty and power, extremely well executed, beautifully recorded, and produced from only two days in the studio. Free improvisations, spontaneous horns, keyboard frenzy, abstract electronics, and guitar mayhem, not to mention those glorious twin voices from heaven and hell. It's about mysteries and rituals in music and in life. Fire! originated as the trio of Swedish improv masters Mats Gustafsson (sax), Johan Berthling (bass), and Andreas Werliin (drums). None of them are what one would call jazz purists; they all play in many different groups and contexts, including The Thing (Gustafsson), experimental folk-electronica outfit Tape (Berthling), and skewed blues-pop unit Wildbirds & Peacedrums (Werliin). Those important singers, Sofia Jernberg and Mariam Wallentin, have been on board since the beginning, and the same goes for horn players Niklas Barnö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mats Äleklint, Per Åke Holmlander, and Anna Högberg. Basically a Swedish ensemble, the orchestra also counts Norwegian, Danish, and French players among its ranks. Members of Fire! Orchestra share a wide background, combining jazz, improvised music, contemporary music, rock, garage, psych, and more. As they proclaim on their website, "please make up your own genre and mind -- listen freely -- don't buy our labeling attempts...labeling sucks."
HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO: Black Stabat Mater CD (RCD 2183CD)
Hedvig Mollestad Trio present Black Stabat Mater. With three albums under their belts in less than five years this explosive trio have gone from strength to strength gathering respect from both rock and jazz camps and receiving vivid praise from the likes of Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke and veteran writer Richard Williams, who started his report from the Berlin Jazz Festival with "a late-night gig last week persuaded me that Hedvig Mollestad Trio have found a way to make head banging feel good". Although there is enough riffing here to satisfy the head-bangers, with Black Stabat Mater the trio are venturing into more free and open landscapes, Mollestad truly comes into her own as a solo guitarist as well as a riff-meister previously compared to the likes of Tony Iommi and Jimmy Page. It´s also notable that extensive touring has given them a confidence boost, and once again the tracks have been laid down live in the studio with only minor overdubs. The last few years have seen a thrilling new progressive wave of Norwegian "avant jazz'n'rock" or free metal energy combos like label mates Elephant9, Grand General, Bushman´s Revenge and Krokofant, and not to forget the mighty Scorch Trio - led by Finnish guitarist Raoul Björkenheim - who can be said to have started it all some 15 years ago. But it could very well be Hedvig Mollestad Trio that defines it all with their ability to turn the full force of heavy rock and electric jazz to demonic purposes. Hedvig first picked up her mother´s nylon-strung acoustic guitar at ten, before discovering a whole new world through her father´s jazz and rock record collection as a teenager. She translated a biography of Jimi Hendrix for a school project and was given her first electric guitar and amplifier as a confirmation present. The members of the trio are from the districts, but Hedvig met bass player Ellen Brekken and drummer Ivar Loe Bjørnstad at the Music Academy in Oslo. Hedvig asked them to join her after she received the "Jazz Talent Of The Year" Award at Molde International Jazz Festival in 2009. They have stayed together since, and their previous three albums have all been released on Rune Grammofon, Shoot! (2011) (RCD 2115CD/RLP 3115LP), All Of Them Witches (2013) (RCD 2141CD/RLP 3141LP) and Enfant Terrible (2014) (RCD 2157CD/RLP 3157LP), all to wide international acclaim.
HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO: Evil In Oslo 2LP+CD (RLP 2184LP)
Hedvig Mollestad Trio present Evil In Oslo. If Black Stabat Mater (RCD 2183CD/RLP 3183LP, 2016) can be seen as moving into new terrains, then Evil In Oslo can serve as a summing up of the previous years, although there is also a clear link between the albums. While the nine live performances presented here all come from their first three studio albums, most are lengthy work-outs, again showing Hedvig as a very confident and accomplished solo guitarist. Recorded at Oslo clubs John Dee and Buckley´s, Evil In Oslo is simply a kick-ass live album, with a very high level of musicianship and a perfect balance between freedom and discipline. The hi-res recordings capture both the energy level and all the details in a marvelous way. Liner notes by Richard Williams.
LP version. Includes CD. In the young Maesa Pullman, The Last Hurrah!! mastermind HP Gundersen has found the perfect singer for this ever-developing project so dear to his heart. After exploring the possibilities of the drone guitar on their 2011 debut, Spiritual Non-Believers (RCD 2109CD/RLP 3109LP), and the slightly more song-oriented 2013 follow-up, The Beauty of Fake (RCD 2145CD/RLP 3145LP/RLP 3145LTD-LP), The Last Hurrah!! are back with a third album that dives straight into the heart of classical song traditions and vintage production values, blending elements from country and Americana, classic British pop, psychedelia, and blues, with a pinch of soul. HP Gundersen has been a central figure in the vibrant music scene of Bergen, Norway, for decades, as producer, composer, and mentor for many of the city's artists. As a producer he discovered and nurtured the career of a very young Sondre Lerche, one of Norway's most successful international exports. In addition to Madrugada's 2005 mega-hit "Lift Me" with Ane Brun, he has produced over 50 albums -- including Tim Rose's final album American Son (2002). Gundersen names The Beatles, early Stones, Tin Pan Alley, and cosmic American country as his life-changing musical epiphanies. Maesa Pullman comes from a very musical family and was brought to the attention of HP Gundersen through mutual friends. Also a songwriter, guitarist, and pianist, she performs frequently with different musical constellations in Southern California, and is a profiled presence in the local roots community. Her cousin, Rosa Pullman, sings lead on two tracks here, "You Ain't Got Nothing" and "Those Memories." The album's musicians include some of Bergen's finest, as well as American guests such as Marty Rifkin (pedal steel), John Thomas (Hammond organ), Kiel Feher (drums), and Jason Hiller (bass).
LP version. Includes CD. Phaedra's 2011 debut album, The Sea (RCD 2107CD/RLP 3107LP), received fantastic international reviews in magazines as diverse as The Wire, Uncut, Shindig, and Prog, which drew lines to Vashti Bunyan, Elizabeth Fraser, and Nico. The Chicago Reader said, "this is one of the loveliest, most striking albums, unlike anything I've heard in years." Blackwinged Night is the follow-up, and the second album in a trilogy, a lyrical and musical cycle with its own mythological structure. From the ethereal folk universe of the debut, Blackwinged Night dives into a darker dream-pop underworld, where acoustic elements of woodwinds, strings, and marimba are mixed with layers of analog synths, bigger drums, and darker basslines. Vocals are as crystal-clear and haunting as ever, with lyrics circling around themes like creation and collapse, time and falling stars. Phaedra is Ingvild Langgård, singer, composer, and artist. Educated at The Academy of Fine Art in Oslo, Norway, she composes music for the stage and screen in addition to her art projects with sound, video, and installations. In cooperation with choreographer Ingri Fiksdal and scenographer Signe Becker she created the acclaimed dance performances "Orchard Ballads" and "Night Tripper." "Night Tripper" won the Oslo Award in 2012, has since toured extensively in Europe, and had its US premiere in April 2014; The Guardian called it "an extraordinary piece, simple yet powerfully affecting." Blackwinged Night is produced by Langgård herself, with contributions from Christian Engfelt, who also mixed the album. There are contributions from Ensemble neoN members Kristine Tjøgersen, on clarinet, and Yumi Murakami, on flute. Last heard on Motorpsycho's En Konsert For Folk Flest (RLP 2170LP, 2015), Kari Rønnekleiv plays violin and Ole-Henrik Moe is on viola. Last but not least, there's Langgård's regular band; Gunhild Mathea Olaussen on violin, Jørn Tore Egseth on bass and keyboards, and Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen on drums, percussion, marimba, and vibraphone. Mastered by the legendary Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound.
RATKJE, MAJA S.K.: Crepuscular Hour 2LP/CD/DVD (RLP 3181LP)
Double LP version. Includes CD and DVD; DVD is PAL format, region-free, with 5.1 and stereo audio. Crepuscular Hour is an epic, hypnotic one-hour piece for three choirs, three pairs of noise musicians, and church organ, to be performed in a cathedral or similar location with musicians surrounding the audience. The room fills with sound in an intense, but almost meditative hour, as the voices blend with the distortion, the noise sometimes takes over, and the organ eventually takes the music to a new level. The visual design of this concert is a play on the crepuscular rays -- rays of sunlight that appear to radiate through clouds from the point in the sky where the sun is located -- with the light filtered by the obstacles and musicians in the room. All texts are from the Nag Hammadi library, a collection of Gnostic texts discovered in Upper Egypt in 1945. These texts have provided a major re-evaluation of early Christian history. This recording of a performance of the piece includes a DVD of the whole concert, beautifully directed by Kathy Hinde (DVD is PAL format, region-free, with 5.1 and stereo audio). Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje (born 1973) is quite a remarkable musician, singer, improviser, and composer. Her music has been performed worldwide by the Klangforum Wien, the Oslo Sinfonietta, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Fretwork, TM+, the Cikada String Quartet, the Mivos Quartet, the Quatuor Bozzini, the Quatuor Renoir, Crash Ensemble, The Peärls Before Swïne Experience, Torben Snekkestad, Marianne Beate Kielland, SPUNK, Frode Haltli, POING, and many more. Ratkje has been composer in residence at festivals like Other Minds in San Francisco; Trondheim Chamber Music Festival; Nordland Music Festival in Bodø, Norway; Avanti! Summer Festival in Finland; Båstad Chamber Music Festival; and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Ratkje is active as a singer/voice user and electronics performer and engineer, as a soloist and in groups such as SPUNK and BRAK RUG. Other collaborators include Jaap Blonk, Joëlle Léandre, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, Stephen O'Malley, Lasse Marhaug, POING, and many more. Ratkje has performed her own music for films, dance, theater, installations, and numerous other projects. Visual art and text are often parts of her work, in installations or staged works. She has made large gallery works with SPUNK and made music for a radio play by Elfriede Jelinek, and in 2003, she played a part in her own opera, also based on texts from the Nag Hammadi library.
Double LP version. Includes CD. Fire! Orchestra follow their acclaimed 2014 album Enter (RCD 2158CD/RLP 3158LP) with Ritual, slimming the ensemble down from 28 of northern Europe's finest jazz and improvisational musicians to a mere 21. Since the release of Enter, this energetic and dynamic mass ensemble has gone from intimate jazz settings to the main hall at the Molde International Jazz Festival and a major stage at the prestigious Roskilde Festival. As brilliant as Enter is, with Ritual they have outdone themselves and produced a beast of beauty and power, extremely well executed, beautifully recorded, and produced from only two days in the studio. Free improvisations, spontaneous horns, keyboard frenzy, abstract electronics, and guitar mayhem, not to mention those glorious twin voices from heaven and hell. It's about mysteries and rituals in music and in life. Fire! originated as the trio of Swedish improv masters Mats Gustafsson (sax), Johan Berthling (bass), and Andreas Werliin (drums). None of them are what one would call jazz purists; they all play in many different groups and contexts, including The Thing (Gustafsson), experimental folk-electronica outfit Tape (Berthling), and skewed blues-pop unit Wildbirds & Peacedrums (Werliin). Those important singers, Sofia Jernberg and Mariam Wallentin, have been on board since the beginning, and the same goes for horn players Niklas Barnö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mats Äleklint, Per Åke Holmlander, and Anna Högberg. Basically a Swedish ensemble, the orchestra also counts Norwegian, Danish, and French players among its ranks. Members of Fire! Orchestra share a wide background, combining jazz, improvised music, contemporary music, rock, garage, psych, and more. As they proclaim on their website, "please make up your own genre and mind -- listen freely -- don't buy our labeling attempts...labeling sucks."
HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO: Black Stabat Mater LP (RLP 3183LP)
LP version. Hedvig Mollestad Trio present Black Stabat Mater. With three albums under their belts in less than five years this explosive trio have gone from strength to strength gathering respect from both rock and jazz camps and receiving vivid praise from the likes of Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke and veteran writer Richard Williams, who started his report from the Berlin Jazz Festival with "a late-night gig last week persuaded me that Hedvig Mollestad Trio have found a way to make head banging feel good". Although there is enough riffing here to satisfy the head-bangers, with Black Stabat Mater the trio are venturing into more free and open landscapes, Mollestad truly comes into her own as a solo guitarist as well as a riff-meister previously compared to the likes of Tony Iommi and Jimmy Page. It´s also notable that extensive touring has given them a confidence boost, and once again the tracks have been laid down live in the studio with only minor overdubs. The last few years have seen a thrilling new progressive wave of Norwegian "avant jazz'n'rock" or free metal energy combos like label mates Elephant9, Grand General, Bushman´s Revenge and Krokofant, and not to forget the mighty Scorch Trio - led by Finnish guitarist Raoul Björkenheim - who can be said to have started it all some 15 years ago. But it could very well be Hedvig Mollestad Trio that defines it all with their ability to turn the full force of heavy rock and electric jazz to demonic purposes. Hedvig first picked up her mother´s nylon-strung acoustic guitar at ten, before discovering a whole new world through her father´s jazz and rock record collection as a teenager. She translated a biography of Jimi Hendrix for a school project and was given her first electric guitar and amplifier as a confirmation present. The members of the trio are from the districts, but Hedvig met bass player Ellen Brekken and drummer Ivar Loe Bjørnstad at the Music Academy in Oslo. Hedvig asked them to join her after she received the "Jazz Talent Of The Year" Award at Molde International Jazz Festival in 2009. They have stayed together since, and their previous three albums have all been released on Rune Grammofon, Shoot! (2011) (RCD 2115CD/RLP 3115LP), All Of Them Witches (2013) (RCD 2141CD/RLP 3141LP) and Enfant Terrible (2014) (RCD 2157CD/RLP 3157LP), all to wide international acclaim.
Redshape: "10 Years Redshape Live is a thank you to the labels I mainly worked with in the past ten years and also to all the people on world's dance floors. Starting on Running Back, the Best Of Live series will contain tracks which were only part of my live set. As I always record my shows, I searched for the moment, in which each of those tracks had their biggest and also earliest impact. I took that recording and rebuild them part by part to make them proper DJ versions. Named after the cities where they were performed."
Decka presents Isolated. 12" with deluxe clear PVC vinyl sleeve in neon print. Mastered by Helmut Erler at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin. Bottom heavy techno cuts from Bristol. Vinyl only.
VA: Milano New Wave: 1980-83 Redux LP (SPITTLE 021LP)
2016 repress. Originally released in 2010. Following an idea of Italian disco guru Fred Ventura to publish some recordings that have remained in the vaults for more than 25 years, and thanks to the skillful "mastering touch" of Giovanni Versari, Spittle Records present a representative and intense snapshot of the Milanese new-wave scene of the early eighties with Milano New Wave: 1980-83 Redux. Twelve tracks that recount the salient steps of the brief but intense career of four Milanese bands from the post-punk of Other Side, to the oblique funk of State Of Art, to the Kraftwerk influences of La Maison, to the electro pop-wave of Jeunesse d'Ivoire. "Boris Karloff" features Kubrix and 2+2=5 playing with La Maison, forming the group known as Entourage L'Asino. These four bands illustrate the mood of an underground scene that burned out rapidly, mostly due to the indifference of the media and recording industry during those years.
$14.39 EAN: 8033706210215 ELECTRONIC
A1. Jeunesse d'Ivoire - A Gift Of Tears
A2. Jeunesse d'Ivoire - Silent Imagery
A3. Jeunesse d'Ivoire - Praise
A4. Other Side - The Taste Of The Fables
A5. Other Side - Central
A6. Other Side - Contrition
B1. State Of Art - Downtown
B2. State Of Art - Dantzig Station
B3. State Of Art - Scoop 'N' Loop
B4. La Maison - Mercedes
B5. La Maison - Igloo
B6. La Maison + Kubrix + 2+2=5 AKA Entourage L'Asino - Boris Karloff
Stag-O-Lee present Shadrach: Blues & Rhythm, Popcorn, Exotica & Tittyshakers Volume 9, the ninth volume in their successful Exotic Blues & Rhythm series. Amazing and danceable tunes from the late '50s and early '60s - a handful of Popcorn dancefloor smashes, a few grinding tittyshakers and awesome rhythm & blues - most of them with an exotic twist. Twelve songs on a nice 10" vinyl. Features: Jay Abbott, Chance Halladay, Johnny West, The Ken Jones Orchestra, Merle Kilgore, Oberia Martinez, The Rhythm Kings, Dorsey Burnette, Billy Duke, The Cords, The Wanderers and Little Walter.
$10.39 EAN: 4030433008812 ROCK
A1. Jay Abbott - La Tanya
A2. Chance Halladay - Deep Sleep
A3. Johnny West - Tears Baby
A4. The Ken Jones Orchestra - Hum Drum Blues
A5. Merle Kilgore - Lover's Hell
A6. Oberia Martinez - Got To Think It Over
B1. The Rhythm Kings - Exotic
B2. Dorsey Burnette - Hard Working Man
B3. Billy Duke - Timbuctu
B4. The Cords - Termites
B5. The Wanderers - Shadrach Meshack And Abednego
B6. Little Walter - I Hate To See You Go
VA: Boomstix!: More Blues & Rhythm, Popcorn, Exotica & Tittyshakers Volume 10 10" (STAGO 089LP)
Stag-O-Lee present Boomstix!: More Blues & Rhythm, Popcorn, Exotica & Tittyshakers Volume 10, the tenth volume in their successful Exotic Blues & Rhythm series. Amazing and danceable tunes from the late '50s and early '60s - a handful of Popcorn dancefloor smashes, a few grinding tittyshakers and awesome rhythm & blues - most of them with an exotic twist. Twelve songs on a nice 10" vinyl. Features: David Hill, The 5 Royales, The Gay Poppers, Guy Mitchell, Louisiana Red, Nellie Rutherford, Curley & The Jades, Bobby Sharp, Ernie Washington, Ruben Fort, Danny Owens and Bach Yen.
$10.39 EAN: 4030433008911 ROCK
A1. David Hill - Wild Child
A2. The 5 Royales - Catch That Teardrop
A3. The Gay Poppers - I Want To Know
A4. Guy Mitchell - Ninety-Nine Years
A5. Louisiana Red - Seventh Son
A6. Nellie Rutherford - Laughing At Me
B1. Curley & The Jades - Boom Stix
B2. Bobby Sharp - Baby Girl Of Mine
B3. Ernie Washington - Lonesome Shack
B4. Ruben Fort - So Good
B5. Danny Owens - You're A Little Too Late
B6. Bach Yen - Johnny Hold My Hand
AUTOMATIC CITY: One Batch Of Blues 10" (STAGO 090LP)
10" version. Automatic City present One Batch Of Blues, a release of blues covers. Engines on. "Commit a Crime", percussion kicks in; pulses and beats issue from various instruments and objects of everyday life; cardboard, cans and bottles echo in the tape machine. Guitar riffs roar, moan and slide, saturating the old tweed amplifier's small speaker. Singing, always soulful, swings between highs and lows, changing moods and modes, to the backbeat of an ever pounding double bass and the raw strums of acoustic guitar. Recorded in simple live takes with a handful of microphones, Automatic City stay true to the founding fathers, to the roots of blues, the raw energy of a stripped down spontaneous sound, occasionally whisking them away on further musical explorations. An eclecticism which emerges on "God Moves On The Water" bringing in sounds of Theremin, sitar, berimbau and melodica. There once were giants, by the names of Willie Dixon, Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters and Blind Willie Johnson. They sang stories about lost and found loves, all-night balls, cunning escapes and fateful encounters, churches and boozers, humanity sailing forth on a doomed ship. "People had to run and pray" though sometimes whiskey and women wouldn't let the old boys do so, but all the folks surely want them to play. All night long! Features songs written by: Chester Burnett, McKinley Morganfield, Blind Willie Johnson, Willie Dixon, Elmore James, Fred McDowell/Gary Harding Davis.
Darren Hayman follows up his alternative hit "Someone to Care About" (The Hayman Kupa Band) with a diesel powered train themed picture disc. Put to the sword by the static brothers, The Class 108 Diesel Multiple Unit proved to be the train Darren would write a song about if Static Caravan promised a picture disc release. Of course Darren wouldn't stop here and the proposed single expanded to now include an eight track CD of Train Songs all for the price of a ticket to the Midland Railway Museum. Edition of 300.
$16.99 EAN: 5024545754575 ROCK
7" Picture Disc:
A1. Class 108 DMU
B2. We Find Treasure
CD:
01. Class 108 DMU
02. We Find Treasure
03. Ravenscar
04. Sounds of the 108 DMU
05. La Maison Du Garde
06. Buffet Car Song
07. Miniature Town
08. The Backs of Houses
KANTE, VIEUX: The Young Man's Harp CD (STCD 1127CD)
Sterns Music present Vieux Kanté's The Young Man's Harp, a treasure nearly lost forever amid the vast wealth of Malian music. The blind kamalé ngoni virtuoso Vieux Kanté had many fans in Bamako, thanks to his electrifying shows in the city, but he was practically unknown outside of Mali. He had just finished recording an album that almost certainly would have launched him and his band on a brilliant global trajectory when he died unexpectedly at age 31 in 2005. This is the first time the album has been released. Vieux Kanté was an innovator. Having mastered the kamalé ngoni ("young man's harp") while just a teenager, he grew frustrated by the instrument's limitations, and so he added two strings to the standard six, enabling himself to reach notes beyond the traditional West African pentatonic scales. Eventually he graduated to ten and finally twelve strings, and extended his range still further by bending the strings like a blues guitarist. Exemplified on this album, his signature techniques also included popping the strings to accent beats, rubbing them to produce squeaks and moans, and lightly placing his fingers at just the right points to produce bell-toned harmonics. But for all Vieux Kanté's dazzling abilities, his music is enriched by the skills and sensibilities of his bandmates, especially his djembe drummer, his funky bassist, and singer Kabadjan Diakité. The Young Man's Harp is a musical revelation. The album notes are by the author of In Griot Time, Banning Eyre, who also contributes his unpublished photos of Vieux Kanté.
Over the years, Oliver Koletzki has continuously cited Berlin as a point of reference and, more importantly, a source of inspiration. Two of his albums Großstadtmärchen (SVT 037CD, 2009) and Großstadtmärchen 2 (Part 1 - SVT 075LP, Part 2 - SVT 080LP, 2012) have been a direct ode to the capital. Friedrichshain, one of Berlin's vibrant districts, has always held a special place in Oliver's heart. This is where he started out when he first moved to the city, and this is where he lives now. Schneeweiss, one of Friedrichhains best and most loved restaurants, is just around the corner. Over the course of eight years, the stylish eatery has impressed many a Berlin foodie with its contemporary take on alpine cuisine and attention to detail. Music is part of the experience here, which is no surprise due to one of the owner's extensive background in Berlin's club scene of the early days. Pairing striking award-winning interior design with a homely laid-back atmosphere, Schneeweiss welcomes everyone with open arms: Kiez locals and celebrities, students and businessmen, hipsters and families all can be found here, Oliver Koletzki among them. Thus, after many a late-night label dinner an idea slowly formed. Why not join forces and collaborate on a compilation that represents both, Oliver Koletzkis and Schneeweiss taste? Compiled specifically with the restaurant in mind, Schneeweiss VI, is convincing as a tasty treat for the music connoisseur and a musical treat for the culinary aficionado. Bon Appétit! Features tracks from: Cubicolor, Tim Digby-Bell, Frank Wiedemann, Stimming, Julian Wassermann & Oliver Deuerling, Worst Case, Yotto, Hatzler, Victor Ruiz, Reinier Zonneveld, Koletzki & Schwind, Pete Oak, Kerrier District, KiNK and Moderat.
KOVACS, KORNEL: The Bells (Album Sampler) 12" (BARN 045X-EP)
This is a limited edition vinyl only sampler of Kornél Kovács's 2016 album The Bells (BARN 045CD/LP). Extended takes on album cuts "Gex" and "Josey's Tune" as well as a remix from the one and only Samo DJ, all exclusive to this record.
SOUND OF THE SUBURBS/SLOTH UK: I Wont Stop/Mr Eko 12" (SWAG 001EP)
Dubstep will forever be linked to Croydon. There's never a mention of tech house though, another world conquering music genre. Swag began in late 1992 and within a year it has positioned itself as the leading store to buy the stripped down and driving brand of house music being played at underground parties in London. "I Wont Stop" by Pete Hurst and Paul Stubbs under their Sound Of The Suburbs moniker sounds as fresh today as it did back in the day. The B side is "Mr Eko", an unreleased track from Pete aka Sloth UK. Selected by Liz Edwards.
Young producer from Amiens, Duns Scott started delving into the many subgenres of electronic music after coming across Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin and other Warp artists. He became a record digger of jazz, funk and disco, which all deeply affect his music writing. "Neidio" has its own idiosyncratic sound and story. "Timelanding" was drafted as if a real studio session with actual musicians was happening the jazz vocal samples try to instate the synergy of the musicians. "Neij" is the imaginary soundtrack of a dream inspired by the art cover of the EP. Mastered by Sven Weisemann.
Already doing the rounds and the damage for a while, Unleashed Tapes Vol. 1 is finally officially available. A special treat from the Tiger's lair with a different and darker twist, one that seeks out the darker and more dodgy discotheques on the side streets and in the backyards where the trough has no flush and the mirror balls have never been cleaned. Automatic rhythms and electronic dancing sound made years after the future.
Florian Kupfer's Unfinished EP finds the 28 year old Berlin resident in electric form, assembling three smoldering club tracks and one stunning beat-less piece built on the foundations of his inimitable improvised hardware jams. Ninja Tune set up Technicolour as a singles label. Their output to date includes 12"s by Hieroglyphic Being, Legowelt, Nathan Melja, NY*AK, Kutmah, BNJMN and U.
Claudio Coccoluto continues the return of his "The Dub" imprint this with THEDUB108 EP, including three original tracks from the unmistakable Italian artist. 180 gram vinyl. Edition of 200.
Ploy shows his ear for striking, off-kilter ideas, whilst staying aware of dancefloor functionality. "Iron Lungs" combines ghostly atmospherics with crashing ride cymbals and sub drops. It's as impactful as it is odd, striking a middle ground between the two. The B-side continues the motif unrelenting percussion and textures. "Number 24" bounces around a 4x4 kick and bulky congas, while "Footprints In Solid Rock" strips back the elements to reveal a broken form, combining swung percussion and eerie flutes.
2015 release. Edition of 300. Full-color cover and inner sleeve by Dorothy Iannone. Dorothy Iannone was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1933. She attended Boston University and Brandeis University where she majored in Literature. Since the beginning of her career in the 1960s, Dorothy Iannone has been making vibrant paintings, drawings, prints, films, objects and books, all with a markedly narrative and overtly autobiographical visual feel. Her oeuvre is like an exhilarating ode to an unbridled sexuality and celebration of ecstatic unity, unconditional love, and a singular attachment to Eros as a philosophical concept. "When I was living in France in 1975, I made an audio cassette singing some lines from a famous German song: 'Wenn keiner treu Dir bliebe, ich bleib Dir ewig grün, Du meine alte Liebe, Berlin bleibt doch Berlin.' (When no one stays by you, I'll remain forever true, my old love, you, Berlin will always stay Berlin.) Maybe the song was on my mind because I had just received the news that I had been awarded a DAAD artist grant for the following year. I was home alone that evening and, after painting for some hours, I decided that, since I still had a lot of energy I would make an audio cassette. I set up my simple equipment on the floor by my bedside. I didn't have any particular plan when I started to sing, but somehow, as I went along, I began caressing myself and my voice changed according to my feelings. But yet despite what I was feeling, the discipline was to keep singing those same four lines. The voice itself expressed the stages of sexual arousal. Shortly before orgasm, I was almost completely breathless and could hardly continue repeating the lines between gasps, and then suddenly, as the orgasm began, my voice became really strong and loud, soaring into the air for some moments before subsiding as I, very softly, managed to utter the concluding lines." --Dorothy Iannone
Edition of 500 copies. Fourth part in the Selten Gehörte Musik reissue series. Two CD's packaged in illustrated 12" LP gatefold-sleeve. "The next "Rarely Heard Music" production was staged once again in a private setting: at Hermann Nitsch's Villa Romenthal by Lake Ammer on 12th February 1975: the Streichquartett 558171 (Romenthalquartett) with Günter Brus, Hermann Nitsch, Dieter Roth and Gerhard Rühm, which filled all of a three album boxed set. Originally we had simply made a selection of the recorded material large enough to fill a single album, Roth was unable to part with the remaining material when it came to having the records pressed. The remorseless inclusion of even the failures, the idle moments, was so radical it almost bordered on masochism. In this particular case I felt it was an ascetic exercise in dispensing with all the correction and rectification, a ban on holding anything back. Simultaneously, Roth's often hard school of total acceptance had a stimulating and in some ways liberating effect on me, mindful as I normally am of formal rigor and economy of means" - Gerhard Rühm. Apart from the group session this edition also includes a duo piano session by Dieter Roth and Hermann Nitsch recorded in Stuttgart, November 1975.
NITSCH, HERMANN: Orgelkonzert Berlin 2016 CD (TA 143CD)
Recording of Hermann Nitsch's pipe organ concert, Berlin, January 22, 2016. "Hermann Nitsch is looked upon as the true successor the great masters of symphony: Beethoven, Bruckner and Mahler. He draws from Scriabin's, Schoenberg's and Webern's experience, however comes up with different conclusions than their (sanctioned) successors. That is to say: Nitsch disregards Webern's analysis of music. Unlike others he does not attempt to advance atonal music with methods that should be handed over to science and technical realms (e.g. Stockhausen). Nitsch ignores any attempt to investigate the core of the construction of Webern's music. He does know it well though and starts where others don't react at all; at lust, rot (disintegration) and death, poison and madness, fragrance and temperature, the fluid, the excess. To him the intricate structure of a symphony is not accidental play with traditional forms, its necessity. A symphony is s-o-u-n-d (and complete). Nitsch draws material from a number of epochs, mostly though from late romanticism and expressionism. Unlike those who don't want to let go of the past, Nitsch uses materials that pertain to today's interests rather than adhering to structures established before. Theater and music cannot be left in the hands of specialists only. A new generation has to grow. Nothing is gained by performances of some puny imbeciles. These warmed-up-versions of Dadaistic rage are no good if the goal is to leave the current stagnation in theater and music behind. The staging of a Nitsch performance require something that is completely missing in today's Karajans and Bernsteins: What is called for is rather exact knowledge of where liberation and expansion (really) take place? Few set out to work on Scriabin's fragrance and color prophecies. I see a legitimate expansion of Scriabin's mystery play in Nitsch's symphonic and theatrical work. Nitsch does not make the mistake to turn Scriabin's demands into dogma. He doesn't allow himself (run danger) to separate Scriabin from history like a fatherly patron the way it happened to Webern and his successors (epigons). Nitsch didn't run into Scriabin like a lost son but as somebody who clearly knew his own goals and was capable to integrate Scriabin's visions into his own work." -- Günter Brus, 1969 (translated from the Austrian by Hans J. Schacht) Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Full color six-panel digipak. Edition of 300.
Tochnit Aleph presents Dorothy Iannone's A Fluxus Essay. Audio CD with 20-page booklet. Edition of 270. Recorded in Berlin 1979. Dorothy Iannone tells her Fluxus story. "There, George Maciunas and I looked deeply but impassively into each other's eyes, not knowing then that we would meet again on these pages. Perhaps he was thinking, "Who is this woman?". Perhaps it might even have amused him, somewhere far back in his mind, to know that I am she who is the Fluxus woman artist who is not the Fluxus woman artist." Dorothy Iannone was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1933. She attended Boston University and Brandeis University where she majored in Literature. Since the beginning of her career in the 1960's, Dorothy Iannone has been making vibrant paintings, drawings, prints, films, objects and books, all with a markedly narrative and overtly autobiographical visual feel. Her oeuvre is like an exhilarating ode to an unbridled sexuality and celebration of ecstatic unity, unconditional love, and a singular attachment to Eros as a philosophical concept. In 1961 she successfully sued the U.S. Government on behalf of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, which until then was censured in the U.S., to allow its importation into the country. She begins painting in 1959 and travels extensively with her husband to Europe and the Far East. From 1963 until 1967, she runs a co-operative gallery on Tenth Street, New York together with her husband. In 1966 they lived for some months in the South of France where she begins a close friendship with Robert Filliou and other artists from Fluxus. She meets and falls in love with German-Swiss artist Dieter Roth during a journey to Reykjavik and will share his life in different European cities until 1974. Two years later Iannone moves to Berlin after receiving a grant from the DAAD Berlin Artists' Program. She still lives and works in Berlin, where she pursues her artistic production. Her works narrate the her life in intimate detail, transforming somewhat the feminist discourse of the 1960's, by emphasizing personal freedom and spiritual transcendence through complete devotion to, and union with, a lover.
Following contributions by DJ Deep (KERN 001CD) and DJ Hell (KERN 002CD), Tresor Records present the third installment in their Kern mix-series, this time headed by Berlin based producer Objekt, his first release since his debut album Flatland for PAN (PAN 060CD/LP, 2014). In keeping with the series mission of showcasing a more personal approach to mixing, TJ Hertz describes his process as such: "Kern Vol. 3 is made up of tracks that I know I will play and love for years to come. Some of these records have been in my bag for years; others are almost as new to me as they are to you. A handful are by lesser known artists whom I admire and who I think deserve wider recognition. Planned, recorded, embellished, reworked, tweaked and chiseled away at over a period of six months, the mix was gradually carved out in a way that makes use of new and old techniques alike, presenting itself primarily as a DJ mix but settling in a sweet spot between live recording and studio trickery. The track-list spans styles, decades and BPMs in an attempt to craft a mix that's unpredictable and compelling in equal measure - one that draws from the more adventurous corners of my club sets, but above all, one that's a pleasure to listen to." Clocking in at 75 minutes across 36 tracks, Kern Vol. 3 delivers on Objekt's promise, stitching together everything from the playful breakbeats of Beatrice Dillon's "Halfway" to Kirk DiGiorgio's classic techno "Nebula Variation" and the light-speed IDM of Aleksi Perälä and Ueno Masaaki without missing a beat. A descent through ambient bliss, thundering cello drones and vocal contortions (courtesy of Anna Caragnano, Yair Elazar Glotman and Senyawa's Rully Shabara respectively) give way to the stoned haze of Sensational vs DJ Sotofett and metalwork of Machine Woman and Skarn, rounding up a highly eclectic and adventurous mix which also includes previously unreleased tracks by Bristol's Shanti Celeste, rising Brooklyn producer Via App and accomplished electro technicians Clatterbox and Polzer. Also features: _moonraker, Seldom Seen, Final Cut, Mono Junk, nsi., Echo 106, Future/Past (Kirk DiGiorgio), The Persuader, Birdland, Pollon, Fret, Donato Dozzy, TX81Z, Thomas Heckmann, Sole Tech, Dave Smolen, Nick Forte, Bee Mask, Marcus Schmickler, Julian Rohrhuber, Ondo Fudd, ACI_EDITS, Dresvn, Anokie, Ruff Cherry and Space Brothers.
22 year old Glaswegian, Lanark Artefax, presents a debut on UIQ. A willingness to bend perceptions is key to the title track and the lush, polymetric gyroscopics of "All That Is Solid Melts Into Air" or with the prism-pushing aspects of cone-buckling subs and interlaced choral frameworks in "Remainder I". "Glasz" is a curdled take on trap, oozing queasy stripes of melody and rave stabs on a brittle rimshot/snare, before "Phasze (s_h_i_f_t)" diffuses grime in an aether fantasy of sci-fi romantic pads and elastic drums, and "Virtual Bodies" glitches a sort of shatterproof hyper chamber music.
LP version. Money Chicha is an Austin, Texas-based group featuring members of the Grammy-award winning Latin orchestra Grupo Fantasma and its offshoot funk outfit Brownout. They perform a fuzzed-out, reverb-drenched and percussion-heavy style of music inspired by the sounds of Peru and Colombia in the '60s and '70s. This style of music, sometimes called "chicha" music, is known for its infectious Latin beat, its psychedelic, surf guitar pyrotechnics, and its melodies influenced by the indigenous culture of the Andes mountains. The group's sound is derived from the exhilarating syncopations of congas, cowbell and timbales, the gritty tones of combo organs and vintage synthesizers, effects-laden guitar melodies, insistent basslines and a healthy dose of trippy effects. Money Chicha is a modern translation of this South American musical style interpreted by highly skilled veterans of America's most vibrant music town. In their capable hands, the "chicha" genre takes on a new and unique character, guaranteed to move one to both dance and listen, entranced by the undeniable rhythms and virtuosic displays of musicality.
ALL THE MADMEN: Early Tape Recordings LP (VOD 145ATM-LP)
Limited edition of 444. Includes hand-numbered certificate. All The Madmen were Neale James Potts, Michael William Richardson, Christopher Paul Bailey and Richard Roger Weston-Smith from Stoke-on-Trent, UK. They called themselves minimal synthesizer-punks. All The Madmen started in 1980 as an anti-rock group, believing that the way that music was played and produced should change forever. One track called "Superior Life" made it onto the LP Cry Havoc, compiled in 1981.
$14.99 UPC: 769791963474 ELECTRONIC
A1. Living Is A Nightmare (Edit) (3:51)
A2. Superior Life (3:09)
A3. Long Life All The Madmen (1:43)
A4. My Head Is In A Different Place (2:55)
A5. Repetition (4:10)
A6. Shapes (2:55)
A7. Time Machine (3:43)
A8. Tomorrows Things (2:37)
B1. Repetition (3:03)
B2. My Head Is In A Different Place (2:36)
B3. Livings A Nightmare (6:31)
B4. Superior Life (4:05)
B5. Schools Out (3:15)
B6. Antisong 3 (5:04)
VA: British Cassette Culture: Recordings 1975-1984 8LP BOX/2x7" (VOD 145B1-LP)
Limited edition of 333. Includes hand-numbered certificate. British Cassette Culture: Recordings 1975-1984 is an 8 LP with 2x7" box set that gives a glance to some of the protagonists of the early to mid '80s tape culture in Britain with synth but also guitar-based electronic and wave artists. Records contained are: Those Little Aliens & This Little Alien (Ian Dobson and Gordon Hope) Recordings 1980-81 from Image 341, Flowmotion and Un-Ltd Abilities Label (VOD 145TLA-LP), Ron BerryWhere Dark Forces Meet (1982) (VOD 145RB-LP), The Legendary Pink DotsPremonition (1982) (VOD 145LPD-LP), Stephen CadmanBig Smith Stays In Bed (1981) (VOD 145SC-LP), All The MadmenEarly Tape Recordings (VOD 145ATM-LP), Carl MatthewsMirage-Tape-Years (VOD 145CM-LP), Kevin HarrisonTape Recordings 1975-1985 (VOD 145KH-LP) and Ron CrowcroftMundane Recordings 1980-1985 (VOD 145RC-LP).
$117.20 UPC: 769791963443 ELECTRONIC
LP 1: Those Little Aliens & This Little Alien - Recordings 1980-81:
A1. Ismalia (3:06)
A2. Low Point X (2:49)
A3. Sentimental (1:58)
A4. Voortrecker (2:06)
A5. Incident In Moderan 2:26
A6. 4 To 4 Rumbling (4:50)
A7. Momente Über Statik (2:26)
A8. Aarg, Stop It (8:50)
B1. Metal Time Control (3:32)
B2. Out Of Sequence (2:48)
B3. Chattering Aliens (2:24)
B4. Stepping Backwards (5:33)
B5. Prairie Drifter (2:13)
B6. Your World (5:11)
B7. Dilemma (2:36)
B8. Debth Of Space (1:55)
B9. Debth Of Space (Remix) (1:52)
7":
A1. No Noise (4:57)
LP 2: Ron Berry - Where Dark Forces Meet (1982):
A1. Sea Of Tranquility (7:52)
A2. Sea Of Clouds (8:31)
A3. Zanti Misfits (7:57)
B1. Where Dark Forces Meet (10:16)
B2. Concrete Pete (2:43)
B3. Mathew Street (7:54)
B4. View From A Bedsit Window (3:45)
LP 3: The Legendary Pink Dots - Premonition (1982):
A1. As If... (2:00)
A2. Splash (3:00)
A3. Submerged (1:25)
A4. Amphitheatre (3:35)
A5. Amphitheatre Shuffle (1:20)
A6. Before The End (3:00)
A7. Odd (5:39)
A8. Premonition 1 (7:00)
B1. Digital/Dying For The Emperor (Fragment) (5:18)
B2. Oceans Of Emotion (9:20)
B3. (Untitled) (10:41)
B4. Brighter Now (12:45)
B5. Anthem (13:23)
B6. Intruder (15:40)
B7. Premonition 2 (23:19)
B8. Hanging Gardens (Version) (4:39)
Included 7 Inch:
A1. I Dream of Jeannie or Traumstadt 1 (3:21)
A2. Shakesperian (3:48)
B1. Love Puppets (4:49)
LP 4: Stephen Cadman - Big Smith Stays In Bed (1981):
A1. But You Said I Could (3:43)
A2. Dance Of The Hedgehog (3:07)
A3. We Have Lift Off (5:31)
A4. Sorry (Edit) (8:10)
A5. I Change Your Mind (6:35)
A6. Roots (2:45)
B1. Big Smith Stays In Bed (12:38)
B2. Today (5:13)
B3. Urraahas (4:49)
B4. Conversation (1:15)
B5. Sequencer Bites Back (Edit) (6:03)
LP 5: All The Madmen - Early Tape Recordings:
A1. Living Is A Nightmare (Edit) (3:51)
A2. Superior Life (3:09)
A3. Long Life All The Madmen (1:43)
A4. My Head Is In A Different Place (2:55)
A5. Repetition (4:10)
A6. Shapes (2:55)
A7. Time Machine (3:43)
A8. Tomorrows Things (2:37)
B1. Repetition (3:03)
B2. My Head Is In A Different Place (2:36)
B3. Livings A Nightmare (6:31)
B4. Superior Life (4:05)
B5. Schools Out (3:15)
B6. Antisong 3 (5:04)
LP 7: Kevin Harrison - Tape Recordings 1975-1985:
A1. I Need Help (4:19) (1981)
A2. Live at Bali-Hai (3:18) (1979)
A3. Sister Crazy Maisie (2:20) (1977)
A4. New Gamelan (2:08) (1985)
A5. Aguamar (4:16) (1984)
A6. Camel's Mouth (4:34) (1979)
A7. Orange Egg (3:20) (1982)
A8. Blue Guitars (1:52) (1976)
B1. Transmitten Rozo (7:08) (1985)
B2. Little Lazy Daisy (2:10) (1977)
B3. Live at Coventry Climax (6:22) (1980)
B4. Mevlevi (3:26) (1975)
B5. Prototype Manta Ray (1:55) (1975)
B6. Vapour Trails (2:14) (1980)
B7. Velvet Dreams Being (3:14) (1982)
LP 8: Ron Crowcroft - Mundane Recordings 1980-1985:
A1. Gogo Dancer
A2. Remember, Remember
A3. Carried Forward
A4. Lock / Unlock
A5. The Final Frontier
A6. What Do You See
A7. Too Much Talk
A8. Fade Away
B1. Dance The Night Away
B2. I Am Normal
B3. Talk Of The Devil
B4. Don't Shut The Door From
B5. Zero Four
B6. With Jeweled Darkness
B7. We Are Human
B8. The Ice Room
B9. Man Made Machine
VA: The Lung Function Years: Solo & Side-Projects To Click Click 5LP BOX (VOD 145B2-LP)
Limited edition of 333. Includes hand-numbered certificate. The Lung Function Years gives an insight into Adrian and Derek Smith's musical legacy from 1982 to 1986 focusing on their Lung Function label, solo work and side projects Half Nervous/Those Nervous Surgeons, EFF (Eject Or Fast Forward) and Click Click. In 1976, Adrian got a decent tape machine and recorded everything he ever created. From 1977 to 1980, and before starting the Lung Function Label, Adrian and Derek had the post-punk project Those Nervous Surgeons (Adrian Smith - guitar/synth/vocals; Tim Wilson - bass; Derek Smith - drums; Mark Turney - guitar) and Half Nervous (Adrian Smith - synth/vocals; Derek Smith - drums/designs/direction). In 1980, Adrian took possession of Tim Wilson's Wasp synth and Akai reel-to-reel. He worked alone and eventually asked others to help expand on the music. From 1980 to 1981, the brothers were very productive, creating the skeletons of songs which would be shaped into the music of Click Click. But before this, Adrian started to release music on cassette under the names Another View and later on as EFF. In 1981, changing their name to Click Click, they added funky experimental guitarist Rick Camp to the band and recorded "Silver Single". Their sound mutated into post punk/jagged rock. But after much turmoil in the band, they break up and the guitars and the name changed back to Half Nervous. In 1982, Adrian and Derek begin to gig as an electronic duo, their friends donated equipment and Derek acquires a set of electronic drums. Over two weeks they developed and recorded Behind Dark Glasses. It is a brash, Residents influenced collection of dark industrial electronics. At same time, Adrian Smith releases If Look Could Kill and in 1983 Another Bag Of Legs For Ya is recorded onto a borrowed Portastudio but is never officially released. Half Nervous (Jenny Prestana on viola at this time) change their name back to Click Click and record a version of "The Sack" and revisit more of Adrian's solo work as well as versions of "Natural Actions" and "The Last Chance" from Behind Dark Glasses. From 1984 to 1986, Click Click (with Jon Morris replacing Jenny's viola with another Wasp synth) are back in full flow, Adrian's solo material continues to materialize especially under the moniker EFF. Since 1986, an ever increasing collection of cassettes and hours of recorded music sit unheard in the vaults of Lung Function.
$79.20 UPC: 769791963450 ELECTRONIC
LP 1: Those Nervous Surgeons/Half Nervous - Behind Dark Glasses (1982):
A1. Half Nervous - Cuhuh (6:11)
A2. Half Nervous - A Civilian in Need (2:40)
A3. Half Nervous - Natural Actions (2:02)
A4. Half Nervous - The Vacuum Shop (4:58)
A5. Half Nervous - Behind Dark Glasses (4:03)
A6. Half Nervous - Portable Entertainment (3:45)
A7. Half Nervous - The Last Chance (2:00)
A8. Half Nervous - Watching Every Night (4:05
B1 Half Nervous - What's My Name (4:28)
B2. Half Nervous - Black Curtains (4:32)
B3. Half Nervous - Unnatural Actions (3:10)
B4. Half Nervous - Damp Ashtrays (5:41)
B5. Half Nervous - Why Is It So Cold (4:21)
B6. Those Nervous Surgeons - Running (from Reanimator Tape) (5:53)
LP 2: Adrian Smith - If Looks Could Kill (1982) / Abolfly (1983):
C1. Robot With Speakers (3:16)
C2. The Sack (2:07)
C3. Two Visits A Day (4:45)
C4. Abolfly (6:45)
C5. Long Chimneys (2:53)
C6. Nobody Gets Hurt (4:11)
C7. No Bags I Said (3:58)
D1. Montane (4:13)
D2. Pedors Boogie (2:56)
D3. Come On Baby (2:39)
D4. My Affliciton (4:36)
D5. Rear Window (5:26)
D6. Look Pt 3 (7:53)
LP 3: EFF - I Believe This Film (1984) / Reunion-Structuralism/Migs (1986) / Sa Kotse (1986) / Sudden (1986):
E1. Slowtime (5:00)
E2. Theme (2:40)
E3. Again The Park (3:11)
E4. Sound 2-1 (6:10)
E5. Stop Light (6:20)
E6. I Rage I Melt (5:54)
F1. Closed (3:54)
F2. Running (3:54)
F3. Keep Out Of Sight (6:24)
F4. Women In Lingerie Skripglow (6:08)
F5. Sudden (5:33)
F6. Theme From Bellouard (2:03)
LP 4: EFF - Iguana (1986) / Loud As Madness (1986) / Merci (1986):
G1.Espresso Iguana (8:25)
G2.Another Backroom (4:59)
G3. Rewound (3:38)
G4. Amazed (5:40)
G5. Man Of A Suit (4:58)
H1. Kassim For Nikki (4:29)
H2. Mercy (6:23)
H3. Dog Calendar (5:47)
H4. Chrome Handles (4:08)
H5. Curse And Swear (6:32)
LP 5: EFF - Elevation (1986) / EFF Maze (1986) / Passenger (1987) / Joe Goes To New York (1987):
I1. The Voice Of Agression (4:37)
I2. On Cophead (5:08)
I3. Communists Dont Want War (5:24)
I4. Coming Home If You Can (3:59)
I5. Close (5:34)
I6. Counteractive (5:09)
J1. What Are You Chewing (6:35)
J2. Elevation (6:32)
J3. Rotorbabe (3:45)
J4. Happy (5:44)
J5. Joe Goes To New York (7:17)
BAND OF HOLY JOY: (More) Favourite Fairytales For Juvenile Delinquents 3LP BOX/7" (VOD 145B3-LP)
Limited edition of 333. Includes hand-numbered certificate. A box-release covering the Band Of Holy Joy's cassette released artistic output from 1983 to 1986, split on 3 records. Band Of Holy Joy were formed in the summer of 1983 when Johny and Max found a synthesizer in the cellar of the squatted New Cross Gate house they were living in. They started messing about on this synth and started writing songs on it. The songs however were very messy and the discovery of an old plastic harmonium in a local junk shop only added to the chaos. They brought in Brett Turnbull to bring a sense of order to the noise they were creating. Brett brought along Martine Thoquenne with him and the noise in the cellar started becoming very interesting indeed. A person who is much forgotten but quite instrumental in what went on was George Lovell. John Jenkins, a photographer who was around the house, was persuaded to trade his camera for a mouth organ, tambourine and various other instruments. The Band Of Holy Joy, a completed entity, started to create strange sounds and songs began to emerge. Cultural interests at this time were 8 and 35mm film, Bertol Brecht stage play and the electronic disco sounds that could be heard and bought uptown. Subjects that fired their imaginations were media scare stories, prescription medications, institutional living, big cities, bad glamor and self-preservation in vulnerable situations. There was an affinity and shared living space with the constructivist outfit Test Dept who took Band Of Holy Joy out on tour with them resulting in very early performances in Manchester, Sheffield and Retford. When they returned to London they entered the studio and began to record and assemble tracks to go alongside the porta studio recordings, cut ups, and collages they were creating at home. They also played with Einsturzende Neubauten around this time. The band was interested in the emerging cassette culture of the day. The first cassette was Favourite Fairytales For Juvenile Delinquents which was released in 1983 More Favourite Fairytales was recorded on a four track portastudio which was released in 1984. The band would often make and play their own instruments as well as make their own films. A special post-punk pre-acid house, a creatively perfect time to be young and full of noise, word and image in London.
$52.60 UPC: 769791963467 ELECTRONIC
LP 1 & 2: City Of Tales
A1. Vanish Everyone And Leave The Child Alone (3:56)
A2. I'll Catch You After Dark (4:45)
A3. A Glorious Morning On Orton Street (5:32)
A4. Ill Gotten Gain (3:24)
A5. And Things That Speak In Tongues (1:46)
A6. Rosemary Smith (2:47)
A7. Nylon Rose (2:28)
A8. Watching The Night Porter Again (3:02)
B1. City Of Tales (5:10)
B2. Fishwives (5:26)
B3. Shabby Affair (3:05)
B4. And I've Drunk From Some Dirty Glasses In My Time (0:51)
B5. The Great Binge (3:40)
B6. Confessions (2:30)
B7. Franks Place... Scruts Theme (Medley) (7:30)
C1. The Dogs (3:37)
C2. Disgust (5:09)
C3. Drug Virgin (4:22)
C4. What I Wouldn't Do For A Drink Like That Now (0:58)
C5. Helen (4:47)
C6. The Tide Of Life (5:47)
C7. Children Gather Round (2:36)
D1. The Only Thing That's Working In This Town (4:30)
D2. The Boy Sailor (4:11)
D3. The Ghost Road (Live - MM Crypt) (3:24)
D4. The Mountain Cracked On Matty's Back (Demo) (2:01)
D5. The Great Binge (Demo - Mix 1) (3:33)
D6. Rosemary Smith (Demo) (2:25)
D7. Drug Virgin (Demo - Mix 1) (7:17)
LP 3: (More) Favorite Fairytales - Tracks (Extended):
E1. First Hour Of The Day (3:19)
E2. Today Smashes Down (4:00)
E3. The Only Thing That's Working In This Town (4:34)
E4. Liquid Lunch (4:22)
E5. I'd Dream If I Could Sleep (2:41)
E6. Peter's Playground (4:14)
E7. Drug Virgin (4:09)
F1. A Great Binge (Early Demo, Bonus) (4:15)
F2. Consumption (Early Version) (3:07)
F3. Bedtime Again (0:53)
F4. Drug Virgin (Early Version) (3:25)
F5. Snow White (Early Version) (2:40)
F6. Mental (1:22)
F7. Violence, Adolescence, Nightmare (Early Version) (2:36)
F8. Living Legends (Bonus) (2:42)
F9. The Only Thing That Is Working... (4:34)
Limited edition of 444. Includes hand-numbered certificate. Mirage-Tape-Years features music from Carl Matthews's early cassette releases. Music has always been important to Carl Matthews. Especially the German music he got into right from the start, buying albums from Virgin Records in London of bands like Cosmic Couriers, Klaus Schulze, Guru Guru and Amon Duul II. Given that his friends found his music taste a bit disturbing, Carl decided to do his own stuff to give him the freedom to do music he really loved i.e., electronic music. He bought a reel-to-reel, a Korg Polyphonic Ensemble, a Korg MS20 synthesizer and a Korg SQ10 Sequencer. All very limited compared to today's technology but good and interesting sounds could still be produced. Carl produced his first tapes and they found release on labels and distribution outlets. Some of the tracks on this album are from the very first releases Intervention 87 (1981) and Freewheel To Freedom (1981), which were more experimental and minimal incorporating guitar sounds. Other tracks off the albums Aksu (1980), East/West (1981) and Iridescence (1983).
Limited edition of 444. Includes hand-numbered certificate. Tape Recordings 1975-1985 features work from Kevin Harrison. Kevin Harrison's music is guitar orientated. But treated and mutated. Harrison is no ordinary guitar hero: his playing shimmers like light reflected on water. His work is reminiscent of a cross between Brian Eno, Michael Rother and Eric Random. While in the ambient field, it balances a lot more in the direction of contemporary electronics and a heavier sound. Nevertheless, his influences are very clear. A minimal psychedelicist at heart, Harrison's is the music of the hypnotic state, of dream and trance. Its core is an obvious affection for the work of Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Kraftwerk and The Normal tempered with an awareness of oriental rhythms and harmonies which give the elemental electronics a warmer, human touch. With Harrison's deft handling his squeaks and buzzes, his synthesized loop tables and his drum machines "Inscrutably Obvious" seems like it will prove horribly inaccessible. But once properly investigated it offers a sparklingly seductive selection of tracks wholeheartedly recommended to anybody looking for entertainment from the avant-garde. Chas de Whalley on Harrison: "No guitar heroes next 'cause it's Kevin Harrison. I could listen to his excellent stuff all night. What he does is guitar improvisations with the guitar put through lots of reel-to-reel echo units and other such things. This means he only has to fall over his guitar and it sounds good good good good. The result is similar to Fripp/Eno collaborations with layers of rejected guitar sounds. It sounds much better than I can be bothered to write it, if you're curious go and see him do his act."
$14.99 UPC: 769791963498 ELECTRONIC
A1. I Need Help (4:19) (1981)
A2. Live at Bali-Hai (3:18) (1979)
A3. Sister Crazy Maisie (2:20) (1977)
A4. New Gamelan (2:08) (1985)
A5. Aguamar (4:16) (1984)
A6. Camel's Mouth (4:34) (1979)
A7. Orange Egg (3:20) (1982)
A8. Blue Guitars (1:52) (1976)
B1. Transmitten Rozo (7:08) (1985)
B2. Little Lazy Daisy (2:10) (1977)
B3. Live at Coventry Climax (6:22) (1980)
B4. Mevlevi (3:26) (1975)
B5. Prototype Manta Ray (1:55) (1975)
B6. Vapour Trails (2:14) (1980)
B7. Velvet Dreams Being (3:14) (1982)
Limited edition of 444. Includes hand-numbered certificate. A vinyl reissue of The Legendary Pink Dots's Premonition, originally released on cassette in 1982. In the early '80s the whole concept of committing music to vinyl seemed like a noble but improbable dream. It was expensive and unless a label was offering, it was consigned to the experimental band's "bucket list". Cassette albums were another matter however. The Dots had chaotically joined the tape revolution with a couple of releases on their own Mirrordot label and after accidentally wiping one of the masters, decided it was something better left to "real" labels. Hence the band was delighted when Ian Dobson from Flowmotion approached them. Consequently Premonition was assembled; a combination of older and newer songs were placed in an extremely psychedelic collage with a rack of effects tuned and abused with the help of Pat Bermingham, who owned the In Phaze label and a small studio which used to belong to Pink Floyd's Nick Mason. Sadly, Flowmotion ran into trouble after the release and it took a few years before the Dots actually saw a copy the original album.
$20.39 UPC: 769791963504 ELECTRONIC
A1. As If... (2:00)
A2. Splash (3:00)
A3. Submerged (1:25)
A4. Amphitheatre (3:35)
A5. Amphitheatre Shuffle (1:20)
A6. Before The End (3:00)
A7. Odd (5:39)
A8. Premonition 1 (7:00)
B1. Digital/Dying For The Emperor (Fragment) (5:18)
B2. Oceans Of Emotion (9:20)
B3. (Untitled) (10:41)
B4. Brighter Now (12:45)
B5. Anthem (13:23)
B6. Intruder (15:40)
B7. Premonition 2 (23:19)
B8. Hanging Gardens (Version) (4:39)
Included 7 Inch:
A1. I Dream of Jeannie or Traumstadt 1 (3:21)
A2. Shakesperian (3:48)
B1. Love Puppets (4:49)
BERRY, RON: Where Dark Forces Meet LP (VOD 145RB-LP)
Limited edition of 444. Includes hand-numbered certificate. A vinyl reissue of Ron Berry's Where Dark Forces Meet, originally released on cassette in 1982. Ron became interested in electronics as a child in the mid-fifties, making radios and other electronic projects. He built my first synthesizer from a magazine article, but the performance wasn't that great so he started to modify it. Before too long he'd built a modular system of his own design. Microprocessor boards became affordable at the end of the seventies. The outcome of the experiments was a fully programmable sequencer and an electronic percussion unit. A friend of Ron's, Phil Clogg, became interested in it. The result of this was to form an electronic duo called Out of Control around 1979. It was based around two modular synthesizers, guitar, vocals and a further synthesizer and electronic percussion controlled by my unique microprocessor based sequencer. The microprocessor generated all the basic rhythmic backing control patterns for the synthesizers and electronic percussion during the whole of the gig. Phil played guitar, sang vocals plus playing a pedal board for some extra bass depth. They were one of the first bands in the UK to employ a computer for live music creation and generation. For them this was so much better than using a fixed backing on a tape recorder as some were doing. The duo was a huge turning point for Ron. After Out of Control, Ron produced his first electronic music album Where Dark Forces Meet, released on cassette on the independent Flowmotion. The album is basically a 4 track multi-track recording, with extra atmospheres and effects flown in using a couple of additional two track tape recorders. The mixing desk at the time was six channels, plus the mixers on Ron's synthesizers. From the success of this, he really wanted to develop his own solo electronic rock ambient music live, so he concentrated on expanding the sequencer to produce polyphonic control patterns and added a Godwin string synth. To date, Ron has produced fourteen albums of solo electronic music, ranging from rock to more ambient experimental styles. Ron has continued to experiment and build stuff when he could. Since then analog has largely given way to digital. He has embraced and exploited much of this technology along the way but in some respects he remained "old school" as a lot of today's highly compressed digital earplug music is not exactly to his taste.
$14.99 UPC: 769791963511 ELECTRONIC
A1. Sea Of Tranquility (7:52)
A2. Sea Of Clouds (8:31)
A3. Zanti Misfits (7:57)
B1. Where Dark Forces Meet (10:16)
B2. Concrete Pete (2:43)
B3. Mathew Street (7:54)
B4. View From A Bedsit Window (3:45)
Limited edition of 444. Includes hand-numbered certificate. Mundane Recordings 1980-1985 comprises a selection of music pieces created by Ron Crowcroft. Punk had opened possibilities for artists to explore sound structures as another means of creating, showing that original work could be produced using rudimentary technical equipment and expertise. Ron began experimenting with sound in 1979 and contributed several of these tracks to various Mail Art projects, including sending many pieces to Rod Summers of VEC Audio Editions, who released them on compilation tapes and a solo tape. Ron also contributed to galleries and alternative spaces that were open to new kinds of music. In late 1979, Ron co-founded New 7th Music, an experimental electronic and acoustic improvisation group, which met every two weeks for recording sessions at The Arun Leisure Centre in Bognor Regis, Sussex, England. New 7th Music began releasing cassettes as the national interest in home recording was gaining momentum, which received regular articles and reviews in the national music press. New 7th Music played some live shows, including a performance at The London Musicians Collective. Many musicians and friends joined the group over the years on various recording sessions and in live shows. Ron also collaborated with Andrew Blackwell, as the duo, The Modern Farmers, releasing an anonymous cassette in 1981, which combined experimental sound pieces and humorous tracks. A magazine was included with the cassette. A subsequent collaboration saw Ron sending basic vocal tracks to Robert Gillham, who then added music tracks to complete each piece, which were released as the duo, Random Valency. At the same time, Ron continued recording and releasing his own music on his Mundane Tapes label, first with Skullduggery in 1980, and his second release, I Am Normal (1981), entered the Sounds music paper "Obscurist Chart". He then released Greatest Hiss, a series of four compilation tapes comprised of various music tracks from his solo and collaborative work. Ron is a multi-media artist, who continues to create and release music. His other creative output includes drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, video, performance art, conceptual art, poetry and humor.
$14.99 UPC: 769791963528 ELECTRONIC
A1. Gogo Dancer
A2. Remember, Remember
A3. Carried Forward
A4. Lock / Unlock
A5. The Final Frontier
A6. What Do You See
A7. Too Much Talk
A8. Fade Away
B1. Dance The Night Away
B2. I Am Normal
B3. Talk Of The Devil
B4. Don't Shut The Door From
B5. Zero Four
B6. With Jeweled Darkness
B7. We Are Human
B8. The Ice Room
B9. Man Made Machine
CADMAN, STEPHEN: Big Smith Stays In Bed LP (VOD 145SC-LP)
Limited edition of 444. Includes hand-numbered certificate. A vinyl reissue of Stephen Cadman's Big Smith Stays In Bed, originally released on cassette in 1981. Stephen Cadman is a synthesizer player from Leeds. In late 1980, he produced and released a C60-Tape on his own Big Smith's Nose Tapes-Label. His synth music and style were in the vein of Tangerine Dream and other German electronic bands of the '70s. Ian Dobson found interest and distributed and also re-released Big Smith Stays In Bed shortly after on the Flowmotion label.
$14.99 UPC: 769791963535 ELECTRONIC
A1. But You Said I Could (3:43)
A2. Dance Of The Hedgehog (3:07)
A3. We Have Lift Off (5:31)
A4. Sorry (Edit) (8:10)
A5. I Change Your Mind (6:35)
A6. Roots (2:45)
B1. Big Smith Stays In Bed (12:38)
B2. Today (5:13)
B3. Urraahas (4:49)
B4. Conversation (1:15)
B5. Sequencer Bites Back (Edit) (6:03)
THOSE LITTLE ALIENS & THIS LITTLE ALIEN: Recordings 1980-1981 LP + 7" (VOD 145TLA-LP)
Limited edition of 444. Includes hand-numbered certificate. Recordings 1980-1981 is a compilation featuring Those Little Aliens & This Little Alien. There are several components that would contribute to what would become Those Little Aliens & This Little Aliens and the zine/labels Flowmotion, Image 341 and Un-Ltd Abilities, all run by British DIY protagonists Ian Dobson and Gordon Hope. The first of these came with the advent of punk and especially the "Anarchy Tour" which made its much-delayed debut in their home town of Leeds in December 1976 and introduced Ian Dobson to a scene that threw him into wholeheartedly as a seventeen year old looking for something different. With the "anybody can do it" ethos in mind, he invested in a cheap electric guitar and a drum kit. As the 1-2-3 of punk became either increasingly repetitive or commercialized, the drum kit was sold and the guitar was left to gather dust until early 1978, when an unlikely meeting in a record store with an intriguing sounding album in an almost plain white sleeve would turn Dobson's preconceptions of what music should be on its head. That album, Throbbing Gristle's The Second Annual Report (IRL 001CD/LP, 1977), seemed to dispense with the ethos of "This is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a band" altogether and suggested that those strange noises from a guitar were worth exploring. The advent of affordable monophonic/duophonic synths that didn't take up an entire room was also important. The recordings collected here using the Korg MS20, the Octave Cat, the legendary, but somewhat troublesome Wasp as well as the Korg SQ10 sequencer and the Boss Dr. Rhythm DR55. Recording was via a Tandberg 10x10 stereo recorder, Teac A108 Sync cassette deck through a Tensai 2030 amp, apart from the three compilation tracks which were recorded at the wonderful Colin Potter's, a 4-track studio near York. All of this would have travelled no further than a bedroom in Harehills, Leeds without the humble compact audio cassette which, via a process known as "Magnitizdat", popularized by non-government approved bands in Soviet Russia, enabled the recopying and distribution of music for a minimal outlay, usually just a blank cassette, and stamps for the return postage. This release features the aforementioned compilation tracks along with tracks from the cassette releases Incident in Moderan (1980), Variable (1980) and Synthesizer Specialist (1980).
$20.39 UPC: 769791963542 ELECTRONIC
A1. Ismalia (3:06)
A2. Low Point X (2:49)
A3. Sentimental (1:58)
A4. Voortrecker (2:06)
A5. Incident In Moderan 2:26
A6. 4 To 4 Rumbling (4:50)
A7. Momente Über Statik (2:26)
A8. Aarg, Stop It (8:50)
B1. Metal Time Control (3:32)
B2. Out Of Sequence (2:48)
B3. Chattering Aliens (2:24)
B4. Stepping Backwards (5:33)
B5. Prairie Drifter (2:13)
B6. Your World (5:11)
B7. Dilemma (2:36)
B8. Debth Of Space (1:55)
B9. Debth Of Space (Remix) (1:52)
7":
A1. No Noise (4:57)
"1979 Roots Reggae album reissued on CD for the first time. Produced by Linval Thompson, this long out of print album features nine tracks of hard hitting roots music. A hidden classic that deserves to be heard!"
"1979 Roots Reggae album reissued on 180 gram vinyl. Produced by Linval Thompson, this long out of print album features nine tracks of hard hitting roots music. A hidden classic that deserves to be heard!"
"1978 Roots Reggae album reissued on CD for the first time. Lonely Man showcases vocalist Pat Kelly and an all star band featuring Robbie Shakespeare, Earl 'Chinna' Smith, Ansel Collins and more."
"1978 Roots Reggae album reissued on 180 gram vinyl. Lonely Man showcases vocalist Pat Kelly and an all star band featuring Robbie Shakespeare, Earl 'Chinna' Smith, Ansel Collins and more."
2016 repress. "By the time Mobb Deep hit with their third album -- Hell On Earth -- they were solidified street legends. Coming off the critically acclaimed The Infamous, Havoc and Prodigy hit the lab and came back with a soundtrack that is fitting to its title. Havoc's production is atmospheric; laced with his trademark drums loops and sharp pianos stabs. Add Prodigy's trademark flow and it's evident that the pairing is such an amazing match. While Hell On Earth is essentially a continuation of The Infamous you can still hear the growth in both performers and Hell On Earth stands as some of their best work. The album features guest appearances by Nas, Raekwon, Method Man, and frequent collaborator Big Noyd."
2016 black vinyl repress. "According to legend, when the Wu-Tang Clan formed like Voltron on their debut album in 1993, GZA happened to be the head--an appropriate place for a man also called 'The Genius.' Yet at the time few could have predicted that his 1995 masterpiece Liquid Swords would be considered 'one of the most substantial lyrical journeys in hip-hop history' (Chicago Tribune). At the peak of his powers as a producer, Wu-Tang mastermind RZA crafted the album's distinctive soundtrack at his basement studio in Staten Island; a haunting landscape of dusty samples, sharp snares and menacing urban gloom, with frequent interludes of dialogue from the classic Samurai flick Shogun Assassin. Cerebral, strategic and precise with his words, GZA crystallizes a range of influences--from chess to kung-fu films to mob flicks and Eastern philosophy--into sharply delivered rhymes. The album features appearances by the entire Wu-Tang Clan, and includes the auspicious debut of Killah Priest on 'B.I.B.L.E.' Acknowledged as one of the '100 Best Rap Albums' (The Source) and 'Top 100 Records of the 1990s' (Pitchfork.com), Get On Down is proud to present Liquid Swords as it was intended to be experienced, on double vinyl with audio remastered from the original source tapes and the original iconic cover artwork from DC Comics artist Denys Cowan." Includes poster insert.
BROWN REVUE, THE JAMES: Live At The Apollo 1972 2LP (GET 54082LP)
2016 repress, originally an RSD 2016 release. "For the ten years leading up to 1972, the James Brown Revue was an outright superfunk freight train, speeding around the world and crushing all competition. This dominance stretched beyond the charts, too -- the group was even more dynamic and exciting on stage, a fact that kept them sleepless and on the move, as audiences demanded more. From 1963 to 1971, James Brown had released not one but three albums recorded live at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater. The first volume of the series is still rightfully revered today as one of the greatest live albums of all time. But Volumes II (1968) and III (1971 -- aka Revolution Of The Mind) were no slackers either, showing James and his incredible band (with talent including 'Pee Wee' Ellis, Fred Wesley, John 'Jabo' Starks, Clyde Stubblefield, Maceo Parker, Lyn Collins, Bobby Byrd and many more) at the peak of their respective powers each time, playing a litany of JB hits. Because of this, it will always be a mystery as to why Volume IV, which was recorded at the Apollo on September 14, 1972, was shelved. This is in no small part because the performers and songs heard here are some of the Godfather of Soul's (and the JBs') strongest. But shelved it was, full of fire but languishing for decades in the Polydor vaults. Thankfully we can now put that all behind us, with the first-time-ever-on-vinyl release of this incredible concert, from more than four decades ago. One look at the tracklist will make you salivate: from instrumental JBs classics like 'Pass the Peas,' 'Gimme Some More' and 'Hot Pants Road' to James' own 1972 smash vocal 'There It Is,' the assembled group of musical geniuses -- including trombonist and bandleader Fred Wesley; saxophonist St. Clair Pinckney; guitarists Hearlon 'Cheese' Martin and Jimmy 'Chank' Nolan; bassist Fred Thomas; and Brown himself on organ -- smash through James' New New Super Heavy Funk with ridiculous power, control and panache. Included here, beyond the music, are in-between song introductions and banter, which bring you right into the front row. This live album stands apart because it was conceptualized to showcase James Brown's favorite players -- The JBs -- and vocalists, Bobby Byrd and Lyn Collins, who had their own R & B smashes on the People label. And these supreme talents get plenty of space to shine here: Collins' 'Do Your Thing' and 'Think (About It)' and Byrd's 'Keep On Doin' (What You're Doin'),' alongside 'I Know You Got Soul' simply levitate the bandstand. This future classic is a clear reminder that James Brown was as much of a talent scout as he was a more-than-legendary performer. And while other Live At The Apollo releases focused on his own incredible music, here he gives the stage to the musicians that brought his work to life and kept his legend going for decades. Future generations won't have to wonder why this music was held back for so long, because they will always have this album -- and once you hear the first notes, you won't worry any more either. You will sit back, let some of the greatest musicians of all time blow your mind, and smile for several days straight. So put the needle on the record and let it begin."
"Every time I close my eyes I fear this is just a sick dream, that there could really be such an incredible mid 70s power pop masterpiece like the Prix Historix album, and that it's really found it's home on HoZac Archival, but yes it's really happening. What very well might be the most overlooked and unusually obscure offshoot of the Big Star family tree, Prix started off after Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven had done time in the last version of Big Star, with Hoehn contributing to the final Sister Lovers/3rd LP, and Tiven filling out the last live version of the band on their 1974 tour. The pair found themselves in 1975 looking for a new project as Tommy had sent in demos to Tiven, as well as having been called up to perform backup work on Tiven's production with Chilton's 1975 Bach's Bottom LP. Hoehn would sing backup on the Chilton songs on the Chilton recordings and vice-versa on the Prix recordings as they cross-pollenated a batch of songs that are best represented here on Historix than anywhere else. Chris Bell was roped in for production as well as guitar & backup vocals and with Rick Clark added in on bass, they headed into the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis to cut the recordings contained on this LP. Soon enough, this studio group made up an incredible collection of songs that would fluidly fade across projects, from all parties involved, very quickly in this especially creative mid 70s period, resulting in some of the most powerful rock'n roll of the 1970s, and that's really saying something. 'Sadly, Prix suffered the same bad luck as Big Star a few years prior, and only mustered two 7 inches releases in 1977 (ORK Records) and 1978 (Miracle Records) before wit's end was reached, and the rest of the truly jaw-dropping cuts on this album were hidden away on a CD-Only Japanese release in 2002 that didn't get much exposure outside of the Far East, until now. Thanks to the ORK Records Boxed set released by Numero Group last month, the world has been a bit more exposed to the previously released Prix songs, and if you like what you've heard so far, the other 3/4ths of the material contained here is going to really clean your clock. Included as well are three alternate version bonus tracks not included on the original CD release, and most of these tracks making their first appearance on vinyl here makes this LP a mandatory brick in your Memphis pop collection, and another essential piece in the Big Star family tree that's been unavailable for far too long.' -- VictimofTime.com"
LP version. "Every time I close my eyes I fear this is just a sick dream, that there could really be such an incredible mid 70s power pop masterpiece like the Prix Historix album, and that it's really found it's home on HoZac Archival, but yes it's really happening. What very well might be the most overlooked and unusually obscure offshoot of the Big Star family tree, Prix started off after Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven had done time in the last version of Big Star, with Hoehn contributing to the final Sister Lovers/3rd LP, and Tiven filling out the last live version of the band on their 1974 tour. The pair found themselves in 1975 looking for a new project as Tommy had sent in demos to Tiven, as well as having been called up to perform backup work on Tiven's production with Chilton's 1975 Bach's Bottom LP. Hoehn would sing backup on the Chilton songs on the Chilton recordings and vice-versa on the Prix recordings as they cross-pollenated a batch of songs that are best represented here on Historix than anywhere else. Chris Bell was roped in for production as well as guitar & backup vocals and with Rick Clark added in on bass, they headed into the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis to cut the recordings contained on this LP. Soon enough, this studio group made up an incredible collection of songs that would fluidly fade across projects, from all parties involved, very quickly in this especially creative mid 70s period, resulting in some of the most powerful rock'n roll of the 1970s, and that's really saying something. 'Sadly, Prix suffered the same bad luck as Big Star a few years prior, and only mustered two 7 inches releases in 1977 (ORK Records) and 1978 (Miracle Records) before wit's end was reached, and the rest of the truly jaw-dropping cuts on this album were hidden away on a CD-Only Japanese release in 2002 that didn't get much exposure outside of the Far East, until now. Thanks to the ORK Records Boxed set released by Numero Group last month, the world has been a bit more exposed to the previously released Prix songs, and if you like what you've heard so far, the other 3/4ths of the material contained here is going to really clean your clock. Included as well are three alternate version bonus tracks not included on the original CD release, and most of these tracks making their first appearance on vinyl here makes this LP a mandatory brick in your Memphis pop collection, and another essential piece in the Big Star family tree that's been unavailable for far too long.' -- VictimofTime.com"
"By now you probably know that we're pretty big B-movie fans here at HoZac, and any time there's ever a band performing in one of these films, it never fails to send those jolts of curiosity, as was pretty much the case with the classic 1980 horror film, New Year's Evil. After we got the Archival leg of our operation underway, it was prime time to dig in and try and see if these near-mythical bands had any unreleased material, and sure enough, Made In Japan bit on the line and after a few email exchanges, we had a grip of unreleased 1979 material from one of Los Angeles' unsigned bands of the first wave of punk on our hands. The Made in Japan story starts a little earlier than their appearance in the film though, as original bassist Bobby Asea was in Cyclops, the band that opened for The Damned on their first US tour in LA in 1977, Dave Codling (aka Maha Dev) was originally from the early 70s UK psych rock band Quintessence, and Barry Paul from Savoy Brown, as well as Heavy Metal Kids, so they truly had quite the offbeat pedigree. In late 70s LA, punk and new wave were inescapable so the melting pot runneth over with all types of rock'n roll remnants scattering about to form bands, and Made In Japan fit the mold quite well, despite sadly never acquiring a record deal at the time. 'Taking cues from UK power pop band such as Buzzcocks & Nick Lowe, as well as LA locals Paul Collins Beat & the Plimsouls, Made in Japan carved out a little spot of their own, despite fleeting stardom, and luckily managed to record an armload of original songs before disbanding, to which we've got two immediate classics for you on this archival 7 inch, so dig in and even if you 'don't want no sensitive shit' you need these 'Instant Hits' right between your ears, never before released in any form, first time on vinyl, where they belong.' - VictimofTime.com"
"Another lost classic and missing link between the glam rock and punk era, Killer Kane Band formed its embryonic state during the New York Dolls ill-fated 1975 tour in Florida when Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan split and headed back to NYC, leaving the band in a desperate grasp for fill-in members, resulting in bass played Arthur Kane's call up to his old friend Blackie Goozeman, from his days growing up in the Bronx, to fill Thunders' spot on the remaining dates. The two decided to head to Los Angeles after the tour, as the Dolls days were numbered at that point, so they enlisted guitarist Andy Jay from the Motor City Bad Boys and drummer Jimi Image, and set out to conquer the LA club scene with their gritty Alice Cooper-styled proto-punk sound. Rubbing elbows with such netherworld luminaries as the Berlin Brats, Hollywood Stars and Ron Asheton's New Order, Killer Kane Band didn't last long, but made a lasting impact, launching the career of future W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless (Goozeman) in the process, as well as laying down a scorching three-track EP recorded in 1976 which we lay before you here."
REP & THE QUOTAS, MIKE: Hellbender 1975-78 LP (HZR 182LP)
"Central Ohio is far more of a schizophrenic hotbed of rock than the Library of Alexandria would lead you to believe. If you squint your eyes past the big city lights & skyscrapers (Rep likes to call them 'DIEscrapers'), you can see the outlines of the fertile Ohio Valley Crescent from which much Midwest D.I.Y. Punk emerged in the aftermath of a late-60's/early-70's gestation period. When digging into the Columbus strata of petrified 70's fossil-rock pure Columbus area underground entities bubble up from the deep: Jim Shepard, Ron House, Tommy Jay, Nudge Squidfish, The Quotas, Screaming Urge... many more. It seems that in some way or another Mike Rep has been intertwined with, 'Lovingly Fucking With', melding with, accompanying and/or leading the charge with many comrades in arms into the hipster Ohio Hell unknown for 40+ freaking years. Describing the allure of the mid-70s Ohio sound to the uninitiated isn't too difficult. Take the freaked-out post-13th Floor Elevators to Velvet Underground to Stooges to RFTT/Pere Ubu barbed wire bop and compound those influences with the dawn of home recording equipment access, a D.I.Y scene began to evolve. Just the right mixture of humidity, THC & malt liquor-fueled a primal pool ripe for spontaneous generation producing much fruit from apparent sterile soil as viewed from the overlook of big city coastal-dominated Hipsterism. Rep's homemade debut single 'Rocket To Nowhere' was recorded in 1975/'released' in 1978 and nobody noticed for the next ten years. Add to that the incredible Grim-O-Comix Sequence LP packed with angst ridden 1974 basement recordings (you need to drop everything and track it down if you haven't heard this unblinkingly look into the maw of the 70's loser teen maelstrom). HERE & NOW, on Hellbender you get a full primal serving of mostly previously unheard chaos, recorded between '75 and '78, that will no doubt cause future generations to marvel at just how one could be so brutally honest, raw, and wasted yet, live to chronicle it all. Hozac Archival is bringing these sounds to you now. Why? Because it IS the kind of mind-numbing, eyeball-popping guttural pure D.I.Y. rock & roll that saved so many miserable souls from succumbing to the 'American Dream' sham, and continue to inspire the D.I.Y. spirit in all who care to dare. Mike Rep & The Quotas / Hellbender- Very rare, mostly previously unheard recordings from 1975-78, very recently gleaned straight from the long thought lost original reel-to-reel master tapes."
"UK punk in the late 1970s was a vast and impossibly diverse sea of groper, mopers and dopers, all desperate to clamp down on the raw nerves of a new generation full of anger and distrust, and when you look deep into the well, there's so many incredible overlooked gems, most of which don't quite fit the mold of what was to be soon homogenized for the public. Apart from the higher end of the UK punk food chain, there were countless imitators instantly, all unanimously clamouring for the attention of the new wave, and one little self-released 7 inch EP from a group hell-bent on shaking up the emerging genre confines known as Charlie 'Ungry, was among that vast output. Band founders Jeff Gibbs and Tony Sando had done time previously in Yellow Bird, a glam rock band that released one sole single in 1974 and then fragmented upon its immediate dismissal by the rock press, but they had more ideas to flesh out and by the time 1976 rolled around they had assembled the new group with Andy Demetriou and Steve Protheroe, named after a fictitious scapegoat Jeff's father always blamed any misdoings on, and this Charlie 'Ungry was born. Leveling off their enthusiasm for a wider variety of sounds than most of their contemporaries, the band grasped a serious metallic sound right out of the gate, as their signature song 'Who Is My Killer?' rips through the speakers in a NWOBHM style that's undeniable. However, their glammy Slade-like rhythms and break-neck speed signaled a very punkish angle, reflecting the energy and nihilism of the exploding punk phenomenon, and their unique interplay between song styles, even mid-song as in 'Who Is My Killer?' had an incredible effect, yet it was sadly underexposed. In retrospect, most truly innovative bands trying something new have had a cold response in general, par for the course in the case of Charlie 'Ungry as well, with their incredible fusion of British metal guitar, pulse-pounding glam vocals, and white-knuckle punk rock delivery. Most simpletons just couldn't get their heads wrapped around it."
"We are proud to present yet another incredible pop band that seems to have eluded the masses but is a strong contender for the crown of that genre without even being challenged. The Jeanies are a NYC anomaly, yet even with such good company such as Games and 1-800 Band they are still very much under the radar for most pop fans, so it's with great pleasure to welcome this bunch of young upstarts into the fold, as once their sound soaks in, you won't be pulling yourself out of its clenches any time soon. As a band that could easily confuse you upon first listen as to its year of origin, The Jeanies burst out last year with a self-titled LP & tape release that took most folks by surprise, an unrestrained, powerful and familiar tone stretched perfectly across a collection of songs that were instantly addictive, incredibly intricate, and possessed devastatingly perfect details, linking these songs to the echoes of the past they encapsulate so well. As a band with little connection to the veteran cognoscenti of the underground pop consortium, The Jeanies are a refreshing blast of pop purity, combining the greatest nuances of the old wave into a rock-solid foundation of what's next."
SOFT CANDY: Bixarre Luv Pyramids/Song For Ellie Mae 7" (HZR 185EP)
"A truly sophisticated pop band that knows its way around the Byrds/Beatles/Zombies/Love territory quite well, Soft Candy recently came out of dormancy after being out of commission for a couple years when one of the original band members left town. The band reconfigured and bounced back and just in time for a debut single rich with flourishes that eerily echo those riveting Fading Yellow vibes and hazy UK dream pop that always delivered on such labels at Parlophone, Hansa, Deram, and Harvest, of course. Their command of their instruments is impeccable, their bizarre stage presence always provocative, and this double A-side of impenetrable songs are just too torturous for you to pass up. Angelic baroque pop entranced with hypnotic rhythms, delivered with genuine style, there really just isn't much on this level."
"Leather Towel came together in 2011 at Wooly Bully, the best record/comix store in Melbourne at the time. It was where Johnny Fitness (guitar, sandwiches) employed The Wuss (bass, barista), Per Person (drums) would take his family on weekends and The Lover (vocals, guitar), would crash on visits up from Geelong. The members of Leather Towel variously played and still play in Nun, Ooga Boogas, Ausmuteants, Exhaustion, Woollen Kits, Knife Fight and Hierophants. A veritable cavalcade of Weird Punk talent who got together to play hardcore but ended up as a clanging mess of a band travelling six ways at once, stumbling headlong in perfect cohesion at 200kmh. IV is their debut album, twelve songs of white-hot punk scorch that plays out in eighteen minutes. Songs about the cinema, love, fast food and Yoko's righteous takedown. The most outrageously (fake) punk band any of these jokers have played in and the most bonkers record you will hear all year."
2016 repress. "The bleak, hard-driven third LP by the Wipers (originally released in 1983) offers Greg Sage at his most chased and breathless, lashing out with sharp staccato notes as if melody were his only defense. While their debut LP provided the blueprint for grunge, and their second album recast the band as one of America's premier postpunk bands, it's Over The Edge that best exemplifies the Wipers' sound. The jagged, effortless guitar lines, the paranoid lyrics and raw-throated vocals and the taut, unified rhythms that define their sound bleed together most clearly on this LP, and it stands as both the best entry point for new fans and the most prevalent favorite of diehards. Since Jackpot Records began our Wipers vinyl reissues in 2006, we've been inundated with requests for a reissue of Over The Edge. After two years of labor, including an immaculate remaster from the original tapes by Greg Sage, we are proud to present Over The Edge, pressed on audiophile grade vinyl and packaged in a deluxe, tip-on sleeve."
FRIERSON, JOHNNIE: Have You Been Good To Yourself CD (LITA 127CD)
"Followers of our output might have a pang of recognition on reading the name Frierson. That was the surname of Wendy Rene, whose work was collected into the 2012 LITA anthology After Laughter Comes Tears, and indeed, Johnnie Frierson is Wendy's brother - a fellow member of her mid-'60s Stax four-piece The Drapels. But Have You Been Good To Yourself will come as a surprise to anyone expecting more of the beat-driven R&B Johnnie and his sibling produced - including that compilation's much-sampled title track. A mix of spoken word and gospel songs laid down direct to cassette, these ultra-rare home recordings draw from Johnnie's religious upbringing and his history in the music business, which was interrupted in 1970 when he was sent to fight in Vietnam. Crate digger Jameson Sweiger found Have You Been Good To Yourself and a companion album, Real Education, released under the name Khafele Ojore Ajanaku in a Memphis thrift store, but it was noticeably Frierson's work. They hadn't made it far - they would originally have been sold at corner stores and music festivals in the Memphis area, where Frierson continued to perform and host a gospel radio show, all the while working as a mechanic, laborer and teacher. The seven songs on Have You Been Good To Yourself are overtly religious; some, such as 'Out Here On Your Word,' are strident and faithful; others, like the self-questioning 'Have You Been Good To Yourself,' are more meditative. They reflect the difficult situation that Frierson was in when recording, shell-shocked from his time in the military and grieving the untimely death of his son. 'He was really trying to find his way,' remembers Frierson's daughter in Andrea Lisle's liner notes. 'And writing and making music were a way out for him.' Remastered and released professionally for the first time, the message spread by Frierson - who passed away in 2010 - remains undimmed."
FRIERSON, JOHNNIE: Have You Been Good To Yourself LP (LITA 127LP)
LP version. "Followers of our output might have a pang of recognition on reading the name Frierson. That was the surname of Wendy Rene, whose work was collected into the 2012 LITA anthology After Laughter Comes Tears, and indeed, Johnnie Frierson is Wendy's brother - a fellow member of her mid-'60s Stax four-piece The Drapels. But Have You Been Good To Yourself will come as a surprise to anyone expecting more of the beat-driven R&B Johnnie and his sibling produced - including that compilation's much-sampled title track. A mix of spoken word and gospel songs laid down direct to cassette, these ultra-rare home recordings draw from Johnnie's religious upbringing and his history in the music business, which was interrupted in 1970 when he was sent to fight in Vietnam. Crate digger Jameson Sweiger found Have You Been Good To Yourself and a companion album, Real Education, released under the name Khafele Ojore Ajanaku in a Memphis thrift store, but it was noticeably Frierson's work. They hadn't made it far - they would originally have been sold at corner stores and music festivals in the Memphis area, where Frierson continued to perform and host a gospel radio show, all the while working as a mechanic, laborer and teacher. The seven songs on Have You Been Good To Yourself are overtly religious; some, such as 'Out Here On Your Word,' are strident and faithful; others, like the self-questioning 'Have You Been Good To Yourself,' are more meditative. They reflect the difficult situation that Frierson was in when recording, shell-shocked from his time in the military and grieving the untimely death of his son. 'He was really trying to find his way,' remembers Frierson's daughter in Andrea Lisle's liner notes. 'And writing and making music were a way out for him.' Remastered and released professionally for the first time, the message spread by Frierson - who passed away in 2010 - remains undimmed."
Repressed. "Signed to Atlantic Records in the hubbub after Nirvana's Nevermind (1991) exploded, the Melvins' fifth album Houdini was a conscious attempt by the band to make a record that wouldn't alienate their fans but that the band members themselves would also enjoy. Their best-selling release by a country-mile, this album crested at number 29 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Houdini would be most folks introduction to the band and songs like 'Honeybucket' received MTV airplay. First time on vinyl since 1993. Mastered directly from original analog tapes. Six tracks produced by Kurt Cobain. Cover art by legendary artist Frank Kozik. Includes the vinyl-only bonus track ''Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)'' originally by the MC5. Gatefold sleeve. 180-gram BLACK VINYL."
HOUND DOG TAYLOR'S HAND: Hound Dog Taylor's Hand LP (ABDT 057LP)
Abduction Records present the first vinyl LP release of Hound Dog Taylor's Hand. The trio consists of Jeffery Taylor (Climax Golden Twins/AFCGT/Spider Trio) on electric guitar, Mark Ostrowski (Monktail/Wally Shoup Quartet) on drums and John Seman (Monktail/Ask The Ages) on contrabass. The music is a heavy dose of jazz, blues, and improvisation. Sharp and destructive yet cerebral and clever, these tracks finally expose one of Seattle's best-kept secret treasures to the world as the only way you could have heard them, before would have been at one of their extremely rare live shows in the Puget Sound area or from their locally produced cassette from a few years back. The second track on side one titled "Beatrice", features Climax Golden Twins and Beatrice Harrison. Edition of 500. "Hound Dog Taylor's Hand bring a highbrow brutalism and cranky chaos to jazz rock. [They] sound like Hound Dog Taylor's actual hand looks: scary and slightly off - Fans of Sonny Sharrock and Billy Cobham's Spectrum, take note." -- Dave Segal, The Stranger. "A new trio from Seattle, led by the guitar work of Jeffery Taylor of Climax Golden Twins. The material is blues based instrumental improvisation over a jazzoid rhythm section. Something like a cross between Taste and Rangda, I guess. With all traces of Sri Chinmoy wiped clean." -- Byron Coley, Wire Magazine.
$13.79 UPC: 769791963641 ROCK
A1. Fake Accent
A2. Beatrice
A3. Sun Rock
A4. Relax, It's Okay
B1. Dog Bite Lady
B2. Freeway Park Waltz
B3. The Right Way
B4. Duwamish Song
MISS NELSON & BRUCE HAACK: Dance Sing And Listen CD (AR 3001CD)
Aurora Rising present a reissue of Miss Nelson & Bruce Haack's Dance Sing And Listen, originally released in 1963. This album is somewhat of a curiosity for it was actually conceived as an educational, open-minded children's music. The sound is a mash up of story-telling for kids and simple, happy sing-along music mixed with loads of electronic effects making it an utterly spacey affair. This reissue makes sure this cult album can be enjoyed by people crazy for early '60s electronic music. Let go of all spiritual chains and float away with the tape looped rhythms and all the hissing and buzzing and chirping upon which Esther Nelson, actually a children's dance teacher, and Bruce Haack, a composer and pioneer of electronic music, recite poems, give dance instructions or play melodies on primitive synthesizers. Dance Sing And Listen is meant to fire the imagination of children and due to its musical quality and weird mood, it may do the same with adults. From this pioneering piece came the sound bands like Kraftwerk and Neu! would head for about ten years later. Enjoyable children's music that's far out enough to make souls travel.
$10.39 EAN: 3891121305313 ELECTRONIC
01. Introduction (0:27)
02. Clap Your Hands (3:15)
03. Sunflowers (4:44)
04. Skating Party (1:33)
05. Medieval Dances (1:34)
06. My Bones (3:43)
07. A Little Discussion And Eine Kleine Gebouncemusik (1:47)
08. Coco The Coconut (8:29)
09. Sailing (2:10)
10. A Stuffy Story (2:53)
11. Pussycats (5:34)
12. Trains (1:22)
HENRY, MICHEL VITOLD & SILVIA MONFORT, PIERRE: L'Occident Est Bleu/L'An Cinquante-Six LP (AR 3002LP)
Aurora Rising present the first vinyl reissue of L'Occident Est Bleu/L'An Cinquante-Six, originally released in 1958. Pierre Henry is most popular among rock fans for his collaboration with the English band Spooky Tooth in 1969 but he already had a great reputation as a composer and performer in the field of modern classics, musique concrète and pioneering electronic avant-garde. So it is obvious that there have been quite a few albums by him and in cooperation with other artists not necessarily from the field of music. L'Occident Est Bleu/L'An Cinquante-Six features sound contributions by Pierre Henry, and spoken word performances by popular French actors Michel Vitold and Silvia Montfort based on two texts by fellow actor and singer Claude Pascal. It can be seen as an audio book rather than a regular music record backed with sounds. All the texts are performed in French and they focus on dark themes. The musical part of this album is also quite intense with a haunting atmosphere, droning and disturbing at times. The drone and musique concrète aspects show the roots of what should become cosmic music in the late '60s and early '70s performed mostly by artists such as Tangerine Dream. And indeed there are a few moments here that remind me of the classic Zeit (1972) by Edgar Froese and his mates. A sound experiment, a twisted and creepy manifestation of weird thoughts in something that is loosely connected to music. A challenge for sure, but if you love the obscure and have a heart for avant garde music you are welcome to this first ever reissue of a long time vanished record. Includes two bonus tracks.
$16.99 EAN: 3891121305931 ELECTRONIC
Α1. L'Occident Est Bleu (16:48)
A2. Vocalises (2:41)
Β1. L'An Cinquante-Six (18:49)
B2. Diffus (5:36)
LUENING/USSACHEVSKY/BERGSMA: A Poem In Cycles And Bells & Other Music For Tape Recorder LP (AR 3003LP)
Aurora Rising present a reissue of A Poem In Cycles And Bells & Other Music For Tape Recorder, originally released in 1957. This record is a relic of electronic music that happened before anybody even spoke about rock music. In 1957, this compilation of electronic and orchestral compositions by the three masterminds Otto Luening, Vladimir Ussachevsky and William Bergsma saw the light of the stars for the first time and has become a cult piece among lovers of electronic space music since then, despite the fact that only the first side features the so called tape compositions of Luening and Ussachevsky from the '50s while Bergsma's lengthy piece from the B side gets performed by a regular orchestra consisting of living beings. Lay back and drift away upon this stream of sound, a very human effort all-in-all. All instruments are real and even though this piece of music moves within the narrow borderlines of classic orchestral music patterns, there is a warm and gentle flow of energy pouring out of it and reaching out. Luening and Ussachevsky, on the other hand, work with sounds of undefined origin recorded on tape reels which are their main instruments, creating something new out of everything. The result is dark and gloomy. It pulls the listener away from an earthly existence and drags them out into space, to the furthest corners of the cosmos. This is the right music for all lovers of spaced out sounds from the days before the synthesizer. For lovers of all the late '60s and '70s stuff like early Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Organisation and Cluster. These compositions, are on par with all the newer and now legendary cosmic music acts but created ten to twenty years prior. This long out of print gem is one of the important steps towards every kind of electronic music that was successful ever since.
$16.99 EAN: 3891121305962 ELECTRONIC
A1. Otto Luening & Vladimir Ussachevsky - A Poem In Cycles And Bells For Tape Recorder And Orchestra
A2. Vladimir Ussachevsky - Piece For Tape Recorder
A3. Otto Luening & Vladimir Ussachevsky - Suite From King Lear For Tape Recorder
B1. William Bergsma - The Fortunate Islands For String Orchestra
Captain High Records present Martin Denny's Exotica, originally released in 1957. This album, at hand by prolific legend Martin Denny, is the one which gave a name to an entire genre of exotica. The songs on Exotica are all outstanding. Based on jazz and folk this is an early example of mind-altering music, because the album sets a dreamy state with haunting melodies and sound effects that are reminiscent of wild animals in the jungle. The rhythmical base is rooted in Latin music, from mambo via samba to bossa nova, all the Latin American forms of dance music are combined with bebop elements. Asian percussion instruments and harmonies also find their way onto this album. There are colorful tunes that recall Japanese folk but with a closer listen, the melodies would fit well with US western movie soundtracks. The easy listening sound of the '50s comes as the last ingredient and the icing on the cake. Also, the "space age" movement was happening with an equally dreamy style but more science fiction oriented direction. A few of these pulsating electronic influences did pass by composer and conductor Martin Denny while creating this masterpiece, so the listener might feel like flying away from time to time, but the journey always ends on a beautiful island in the South Pacific ocean where pretty girls and boys dance to hot blooded savage rhythms. This savage soul burns deep within the music on Exotica. This is the ticket to a destination beneath the palm trees.
$16.99 EAN: 3891121305719 ROCK
A1. Quiet Village (3:38)
A2. Return To Paradise (2:19)
A3. Hong Kong Blues (2:14)
A4. Busy Port (2:51)
A5. Lotus Land (2:23)
A6. Similau (1:57)
B1. Stone God (3:05)
B2. Jungle Flower (1:47)
B3. China Nights (Shina No Yoru) (2:02)
B4. Ah Me Furi (2:07)
B5. Waipio (3:14)
B6. Love Dance (2:38)
VA: Katanga! Ahbe Casabe: Exotic Blues & Rhythm Vol. 1 & 2 CD (CH 4808CD)
Katanga! Ahbe Casabe: Exotic Blues & Rhythm Vol. 1 & 2 combines the first two volumes from the Exotic Blues & Rhythm compilation series named Katanga! (2013) and Ahbe Casabe! (2013) with two additional bonus tracks (CD only). This album is a colorful garden of delights consisting of R'n'B and rock'n'roll based songs from the 1940s to the early 1960s that all have this slightly exotic, dark and mystical feeling from the melody structures and instrumentation. Eddie Cole & Three Peppers with their hypnotizing groover "Police" for example present a Caribbean mento with a mambo and rhythm'n'blues feel. This piece finds its roots in the late 1940s and demonstrates how far even the predecessors of rock music already got in their development. It is only one out of 26 rare gems. The collection starts with the recognizable, gloomy bluesy tune named "Green Onions" played the Claus Ogermann Orchestra. The Ahbe Casabe portion is where the strange and quirky charm of exotica music captures souls even more. The title track for example is a song from the late '50s written by proto hippie Ehden Ahbez and combines a Latin groove with a vocal melody speaking of dark backstreets in oriental cities. The backing vocal effects here are more than strange somewhere between a deep gnarling and chipmunk-style squeaking while the lead vocals on the other hand are soulful and striking as expected. Kip Tyler's "Shadow Street" leaves the listener somewhere in between the jungle and a haunted oriental café in a town near the desert plains of Egypt. Next to master Ike Turner & His Kings Of Rhythm with his exotic surf instrumental "Katanga" from the first part, good old rock'n'roll pioneer Bill Haley And His Comets should be the most famous contributor to this musical treasure chest. A nice little oddity bonus track is "The Riddle Of The Papawhos" by Danny Staton, based on old spirituals and gospels with a 1950s pop music base. The other bonus track by Elena Madera named "Pu-Chun-Ga", is another outstanding mad Latin tune with wild female vocals. Also features: Artie Barsamin & Orchestra, Prince Conley, Joe Valino, Chance Halladay, The Chiefs, Jimmy Rushing, Sonny Til And The Orioles, Emmet Davis, Classie Ballou, Jack La Forge, Marti Barris, Steve Arlen, Bruce Cloud, Dickie Thompson, Rene Hall And His Band, Machito And His Orchestra, Mamie Perry, Lord Kitchener and Jamie Coe.
$10.39 EAN: 3891121305771 ROCK
01. Claus Ogerman Orchestra - Green Onions
02. Artie Barsamin & Orchestra - Nene Aman
03. Prince Conley - I'm Going Home
04. Joe Valino - Everything I Touch Turns To Gold
05. Chance Halladay - Lucky Me
06. The Chiefs - Apache
07. Ike Turner & His Kings Of Rhythm - Katanga
08. Jimmy Rushing - Where Were You?
09. Eddie Cole & The Three Peppers - Police
10. Sonny Til And The Orioles - Hey! Little Woman
11. Emmet Davis - Woke Up This Morning
12. Classie Ballou - Classie's Whip
13. Jack La Forge - Cleopatra Kick
14. Marti Barris - Ahbe Casabe
15. Steve Arlen - They Took John Away
16. Bruce Cloud - Lucky Is My Name
17. Dickie Thompson - Thirteen Women And One Man
18. Rene Hall And His Band - Cleo
19. Machito And His Orchestra - Asia Minor
20. Mamie Perry - Lament
21. Bill Haley And His Comets - Chick Safari
22. Lord Kitchener - Big Bamboo
23. Jamie Coe - Cleopatra
24. Kip Tyler - Shadow Street
25. Danny Staton - The Riddle Of The Papawhos*
26. Elena Madera - Pu-Chun-Ga*
CANNANES, THE: A Love Affair With Nature PIC. DISC (CH 127LP)
Chapter Music present a reissue of A Love Affair With Nature, the 1989 second album by Australian DIY icons, The Cannanes. This reissue comes as a picture disc with new liner notes, an extensive PDF booklet and a full 13 digital bonus tracks from early singles and unreleased sessions. First formed in Sydney in the mid '80s, The Cannanes are one of the most celebrated underground bands of the Antipodes, with a book, a documentary and even a pair of limited edition Converse sneakers devoted to them. Over their 30 year career they have amassed 11 albums and innumerable singles on labels all around the world. They have toured the US, UK, Mexico, Japan and Europe repeatedly. A Love Affair With Nature holds a special place in The Cannanes's canon. After a series of early lineup shuffles, the band condensed into their classic core trio - drummer David Nichols, guitarist Stephen O'Neil and heartbreaking vocalist Fran Gibson. Each contributes songs that veer between insightful and absurd, conveying a 20-something inner-city existence that feels simultaneously fleeting and universal. Initially self-released on colored vinyl by the band, Love Affair was subsequently licensed by Chicago label Feel Good All Over, with a CD version a few years later on another classic Chicago imprint, Ajax Records. The Cannanes began touring the US and UK regularly, becoming one of Kurt Cobain's favorite bands (as mentioned in his diaries) and had further releases on quintessentially '90s labels such as K Records, Harriet and Little Teddy. Chapter released a split single in 1996 and their album Living The Dream in 2000, before signing back on for 2013's Howling At All Hours (CH 103CD/LP), their first album in more than a decade. Out of print and unavailable since the mid '90s, A Love Affair With Nature is the idiosyncratic Australian classic you always knew you would love, but had never been able to track down.
$11.99 UPC: 934334403803 ROCK
01. I Woke Up
02. Take Me To The Hotel Johanna
03. Sound Of The City
04. Nuisance
05. Seatbelt
06. Move Some Things Around
07. Paper Bag
08. 52 Linthorpe Street
09. Blue Skies Over The Ocean
10. Vivienne
BALL & JON SAVAGE, DAVE: Photosynthesis CD (CSR 217CD)
Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid) and Jon Savage present Photosynthesis. They explain how Photosynthesis developed: "We started composing some quasi pop/classical pieces that gradually morphed and evolved into one, hour-long piece. Via digital recording and processing of vintage analog sound sources (i.e. mini Moog, Sequential Circuits, Prophet 5 synthesizers etc.) the piece gradually took shape. The title Photosynthesis was re-appropriated from the botanical process. Sitting in the garden surrounded by trees and plants on a sunny day, the idea of organisms using sunlight to synthesize nutrients from carbon dioxide and water became an inspiration to us. This idea, juxtaposed with mankind's destruction of the planet through pollution and war gave us the inspiration to compose this soundscape." Comes in a beautiful six-panel digipak, cloaked in exquisite flora art.
$11.79 UPC: 641871744763 ELECTRONIC
01. One Night In Helmand Province (16:28)
02. ATM#1 (4:15)
03. ATM#2 (4:16)
04. Hypodermic (7:20)
05. Liquid Skyliner - Zeitgeist (9:38)
06. Passing Cloud Factory (6:03)
07. The Process (3:37)
08. Dead Neon (4:25)
Ströme present Nr. 1.Two musicians from the brass techno band LaBrassBanda have successfully joined forces to create a mix of driving beats, analog synth melodies and live trumpet. Clear, unpolished sounds and dynamic drums are made completely live by modular synthesizers and by hand. That makes Ströme a unique live act. Such a modular live act with the highest rave appeal never existed, but now there is Ströme.
Nils Penner delivers a lovely soulful in The One EP with the mesmerizing voice of Emilie Nana. The title track "The One" features a sublime vocal performance by Emilie Nana. A smoothly waving groover suits perfectly late-back beach sessions and pool parties. "Mercury" is a proper deep house jam with an Afro twist. Tricky percussion works and a playful bass line meet sophisticated orchestral vibes. With "Blue", Nils shows his true talent as an ingenious arranger. The result is a wonderful instrumental journey, some of the finest ear milk.
TERRANOVA/STEREO MC'S: Connected In Dub 12" (CONNECTED 004EP)
Terranova and Stereo MC's present Connected In Dub. With "004remedy", Terranova return with an uncompromising groove punctuated by Stereo MC's vocal chant. Dennis Bovell, legendary producer, remixes Stereo MC's "Turnaround", a mix of modern electronics and old school live dub mixing - layers of drum repeats and Hammond organ reverberations. The "004remedy" remix by Aaaron, that glides down a psychedelic Apocalypse Now river of synthetic structures with a stealthy groove and tense percussion. "Turnaround" Brixton Dub is a return to old school looping and chopping to create a more hypnotic version.
ORTOLANI, RIZ: Nella Stretta Morsa Del Ragno LP (RED 231LP)
Dagored present first time Riz Ortolani's complete score for Nella Stretta Morsa Del Ragno (1971) on vinyl. A dark and heavy sound for this incredible instrumental soundtrack composed by the great Riz Ortolani for the cult movie Nella Stretta Morsa Del Ragno, directed by Antonio Margheriti and starring Klaus Kinski and Anthony Franciosa. Heavy guitars, piano suites, harpsicord passages, deep bass all over in a fantastic mix very similar to Ennio Morricone's horror soundtracks of the period. Comes in a deluxe embossed cover. Edition of 500 on bloody red vinyl.
$20.39 EAN: 8013252732317 SOUNDTRACK
A1. Nella Stretta Morsa Del Ragno
A2. Tema D'Amore
A3. Ballo Al Castello
A4. Suspence N.5
A5. Allucinazioni
A6. Ballo Al Castello
A7. Dolcissimo Sogno
B1. Nelle Tenebre
B2. Ossessione
B3. Incubi
B4. Allucinazioni
B5. Nelle Tenebre
B6. Ballo Al Castello
B7. Ossessione
B8. Incubi
B9. Nella Stretta Morsa Del Ragno
MICHELINI, LUCIANO: Anna, Quel Particolare Piacere LP (RED 232LP)
Dagored present an expanded reissue of Luciano Michelini's soundtrack for Anna Quel Particolare Piacere, originally released in 1974. A really interesting soundtrack, composed by the cult author Luciano Michelini for the 1973 erotic thriller Anna Quel Particolare Piacere, directed by Giuliano Carnimeo. Alternates romantic moments with the voice of the great Edda Dell'Orso and easy listening - funky tunes. This limited vinyl edition with comes with extra tracks. Edition of 500 in double colored vinyl.
$20.39 EAN: 8013252732324 SOUNDTRACK
A1. Il Mestiere Di Uccidere
A2. Anna, Quel Particolare Piacere
A3. Occhi Di Bimbo
A4. Quell'Amaro Tormento
A5. Anna, Quel Particolare Piacere (# 2 - Bossa)
A6. La Giostra Dei Pensieri
A7. Ritratto Di Un Boss
A8. E Poi Fuggire...
A9. Due Gocce Di Felicita'
A10. Tema Anna
A11. Operazione Droga
B1. Il Mestiere Di Uccidere (# 2)
B2. E Poi Fuggire... (# 2)
B3. La Cruda Realta' 4. E Poi Fuggire... (# 3)
B5. Il Mestiere Di Uccidere (# 3)
B6. Anna, Quel Particolare
B7. Piacere (# 3 - Bossa)
B8. E Poi Fuggire... (# 4)
B9. Un Passo Dal Buio
B10. Finche' Trema Il Cuore
B11. Due Gocce Di Felicita' (# 2)
B12. Il Mestiere Di Uccidere (# 4)
B13. Una Voce, Una Speranza
Dagored present the first ever reissue of Amedeo Tommasi's Zodiac, originally released in 1970. A stunning collection of psychedelic-funky-bossa tunes with lounge vibes from Amedeo Tommasi. One of the rarest library music albums from the legendary Octopus label. Edition of 500 in orange vinyl.
The Danish label Echocord Records was formed in 2002 by Kenneth Christiansen. Echocord are proud that they can still continue releasing quality electronic music. To celebrate their vitality, they present 15 Years With Echocord, a compilation containing ten tracks from ten different artists that all have released on Echocord and Echocord Colour. Featuring veterans like Mikkel Metal, Deadbeat, and Fluxion to a newer artist such as Arovane, 15 Years With Echocord is composed of all new and unreleased tracks that cover the typical Echocord sound - from ambient/chillout by STL, stoned dub by Beat Pharmacy, to typical dub-techno and house from Fluxion, Resoe and XDB, to the more dancefloor peak tracks by Mike Dehnert and Deadbeat. Also features Luke Hess.
Echospace present the secondary edition of Variant's Sequential Sleep, a beautiful complement to the original, but at the same time, entirely unique. Taking the foundation and elements of [Volume One] (SEQ 001CD, 2016) and stripping it back into the ether; dubbed out and treated from reel-to-reel tape creating an almost vaporous atmosphere all of its own - deep, organic and mystical. Utilizing a combination of purely analog mixing, a variety of field recording methods and dubbing it in real time - hands on the controls, no edits, no computer, just the ghostly harmonics and shivery bi-products you would come to expect of obsolete vintage electronics. The analog warmth has never sounded so sweet, mixed at antique modulation in Ann Arbor. Double CD housed in a beautiful retro matte finished eco wallet with UV coat.
With Love is the debut album from Trio Mandili, a trio of young ladies from Georgia in the Caucasus area. Being into singing, folk songs, and filming, one day the three girls made a recording of the love song "Apareka" and the video gained them three million views on Youtube. This is pure folk, three ladies singing to the sound of classic Eurasian stringed instruments, such as the panduri and tschonguri, long necked lutes. The all acoustic instrumentation can be considered the soil from which the voices of the three lead singers rise, the instrumental lines going deeper than that of course. It might sound like a miracle that this music gained so much attention in a time of flat-ass, streamline plastic pop, but if you take a closer listen to With Love, it's not hard to realize that it does justice to its title. The melodies sung by the girls grab the heart immediately and then the soul. This is a passionate brand of eastern, Caucasian folk and has an enchanting approach within the melodies. The girls sing with a very determined expression in their performance. Trio Mandili seems to be much more than just a group of young ladies playing music. There is a kind of mystical atmosphere rising from this compilation of simple love songs coming straight from the heart. The spiritual vibe should not be underestimated. The compositions themselves may be rather simple, as it is the fact with most classic folk tunes from any region or century are, but the emotional depth is amazing and the performance is utterly tight. The vocal performances are uniquely impressive.
$10.39 UPC: 701197130111 WORLD
01. Apareka (2:37)
02. Qrizantembi (2:55)
03. Dililme (2:45)
04. Qalo (The Woman) (2:37)
05. Chito - Gvrito (2:31)
06. Tsangala Da Gogona (1:30)
07. Marto Shemovrchi (The Waiting) (2:59)
08. Mokhwel Mshvidobit! (You Are Welcome) (2:14)
09. Chechnuri Poppuri (3:12)
10. Rachuli (3:39)
"First vinyl reissue of the second LP released by Alavaro Pena originally released in 1979 following the runaway success of his debut album, Drinkin My Own Sperm (FTR 174LP, 1977). Although recorded in Germany, Alvaro again employed his regular drummer, Antonio Narvaez, with a few assists on the second side from Hilde Schneider, Alvaro's then-wife. The first side was recorded by a German engineer, Olaf Dung, who carried his rig around with him in his briefcase. How this exactly worked is unclear, but the music is great and includes some of Alvaro's most classically catchy tunes. Lili Dwight is a long-time fan of 'Honey,' which she often sings aloud at apiary gatherings. Ted Lee does the same when crashing La Leche League outings to the strains of 'Mums Milk Not Powder.' And so on. Alvaro's second album is just the sort of thing you'll be happy to use for a personal soundtrack, regardless of your politics or trajectory. Apparently, however, Alvaro and Mr. Dung had a falling out before the album's second side was completed, which meant there are some ad hoc compositions added to finish out the record. Primary among these are 'Brown Loaf,' something of a baking tutorial conducted whilst Drinkin My Own Sperm plays on a nearby radio, and 'Washindishes,' which is one of the few tracks to ever document extended nose flute improvisations." -- Byron Coley, 2016. "Alvaro rides again." -- Sounds, London, 1980. "A fabulous collection of musicals and unmusicals, includes a recipe." -- Time Out, London, 1980. Another classic piece of the mysterious puzzle that is Alvaro. Miss it at your own extreme personal peril. Edition of 400.
$13.79 UPC: 019962209222 ROCK
Heads:
A1. Choose Your Cheese
A2. Mums Milk Not Powder
A3. Marzipan Elefant
A4. Honey
Len Leise's Ing is the first release for General Purpose (GP), a record label created by Leise and longtime DJ partner and collaborator, Salvador. Leise and Salvador neither plan to release exclusively on GP, nor promise regular releases. It's a label for when they can find the time, energy, money and most importantly, the sound they believe in. Ing is about embracing change, experimentation and progression. Terrified to follow a format, Leise looks to other genres for inspiration. He turned to his love for dub, Afro, post punk and experimental music to find guidance. Artists like Scientist, Jah Shaka, Savant, Adrian Sherwood and Andromeda all in their own way influence Ing. Ing is not what fans might expect from Leise. Ing is a dub record, a post punk record, an experimental record, a balearic record, an homage record, a record with a purpose. Leise has previous releases on International Feel and Aficionado Recordings.
Written in a stone in Weimar resides an ancient word that now spreads some songs of mystery and joy, "Glyk". A ray of light in the midst of a foggy night. Yes Set present Wolfgang. Features a remix by DJ Balduin.
WATSON, JOHNNY: The Blues Soul Of Johnny (Guitar) Watson LP (GB 001LP)
Go! Bop! present a reissue of the second album by Johnny Watson, The Blues Soul Of Johnny (Guitar) Watson, originally released on Chess in 1963. Johnny was already a well-praised musician in the field of jazz, rhythm & blues and a popular sidekick for early rock'n'roll heroes such as Little Richard when he recorded this beautiful album. Despite the title of the album, it mostly contains a swinging and accessible vocal jazz with an irresistible groove and instrumental passages. Johnny Watson does not even play guitar on this record but gets ballistic on the piano and lays down some striking vocals with his distinctive voice. The overall pace is relaxed and the music has a bit of a retro feeling steadily rooted in the '40s and '50s swing and vocal jazz, but Watson with his mates on drums and bass really pull it off with a fresh and exciting edge. A steaming song like "I'll Remember April" might be an exception - an instrumental with furious piano lines and a nearly Latin beat that recalls a bossa nova dance tune just played in a more hot-blooded style. Even a creamy ballad like "Polka Dots And Moonbeams" has its relevance in the entire musical picture. These two songs show the edges of his style and they present an inspired bandleader and musician anyway. No wonder he reinvented his own style a decade later when funk and soul started to dominate the black music scene. Still the music sounds and feels like the cover of the album shows - a very well dressed and styled young man playing chess alone in front of the fireplace. The album really turns this picture into music - well executed, well produced, perfectly styled but still spirited and passionate. Mr. Watson managed to live in both parallel worlds. The mansions and the backstreets echo his melodies. He was a visionary at each stage of his career. For fans of outstanding 1950s and 1960s vocal jazz.
$16.99 EAN: 3891121305986 ROCK
A1. Witchcraft (3:10)
A2. I Cried For You (3:03)
A3. I'll Remember April (4:41)
A4. Polka Dots And Moonbeams (6:04)
B1. Exactly Like You (2:16)
B2. When Did You Leave Heaven (6:13)
B3. Reconsider Baby (4:39)
B4. Misty (5:40)
2015 release. Black vinyl version. The Strawberry Jam is a rather fresh UK band and Jam is their debut from 2007, originally released on CD. The first three songs have a quite earthy feel and go from utterly cool country garage rock hybrids to proto-punkish eruptions, all within the first ten minutes of the record. Initially it's tempting to file this band under garage rock music due to its lovely late '60s feeling. There is a savage lead guitar on the first few songs, making them a great joy to listen to. However, there is much more to discover. "Alice D.", "I Like You The Most" and "Alice D. Reprise" take the turn from the down-to-earth, fuzzed-out US garage rock to a rather British psychedelic pop with a slightly giddy expression. This is the kind of stuff on some early records from the London underground and Canterbury scene. The more laid back and folkish psychedelic sound and the weird humorous pieces stay with the listener for a while until The Strawberry Jam find themselves slipping through a time hole which leads from early 1967 to the summer of 1969. "I Don't Want To Make You Mine" is a straight blues rock stomper with a typical British blues approach similar to bands such as Savoy Brown or Ten Years After. Some more beautiful hippie folk follows in its veins and an epic psychedelic pop tune ends a very colorful and captivating album. It's noticeably a modern day effort since this bandwidth of styles and sounds would have been a bit too far out for an original sixties audience. The closing track "Dragon Seed" is a laid-back epic with ever drifting rhythmic pulsations and a wicked swirl of sounds. A few moments of free-form experiments close this retrospective but joyful album. From The Seeds to MC5 to The Beatles to Tomorrow and Twink, this is a great soundtrack for a summer trip.
$16.99 UPC: 710473604147 ROCK
A1. Rock 'N' Roll Music
A2. Strawberry Jam
A3. She's A Fairy
A4. Alice D.
A5. I Like You The Most
A6. Alice D. Reprise
B1. Hide Your Stash
B2. A Girl Like Donovan
B3. We're The Same
B4. Alice, I Wonder
B5. Don't Want To Make You Mine
B6. Look At All The Happy People
B7. Dragon Seed
Hot Casa present a reissue of Talkin' Bass Experience an ultra-rare Afro-funk album by Keni Okulolo, originally released in 1977. This was the first album from the famous bass player and band leader of the Nigerian band, Monomono. Keni Okulolo is one of a few living Nigerian musicians with roots in both traditional village music and funky West-African popular genres and he was voted five times as Nigeria's best bassist by the Nigerian Association of Music journalists. This reissue features three amazing tracks recorded in 1974 at EMI studio, taken from his ultra-rare and so hard to find Talkin' Bass Experience album and includes the song "Funky People". "Funky People" was produced during the famous "Mixed Grill" sessions in Lagos. This release is fully licensed with Keni Okulolo. Talkin' Bass Experience is very hard to find, so don't hesitate to listen to this remastered Afro-soul gem.
Second Storey returns to Houndstooth with Bismuth. "Bismuth" takes inspiration from a documentary on the visually impressive metal. Affected by its angular, complex 3D elements and fluid like structures the music deploys the intricate precision of IDM creates its own multiplex of textures. Melodic polyrhythms and chord structures define "Vapor Valve", working neatly with Storey's trademark tight percussion. "Grand Rapid" lives up to its title - urgent in nature, it is propelled by its ever-present bassline groove and percussive elements. "Helicat" is built around the interplay between the main riff and synth percussion elements.
SPIRIT IN THE DARK: Now Is The Time LP (JL 3779122LP)
Is now the time? Spirit In The Dark has the answer. Take three of the hottest players on the scene, let them spin like a Leslie speaker, then chill or groove or get your gospel glad-rags on, because Now Is The Time is the answer. Featuring the combined talents of keyboardist David Wallumrød (Torun Eriksen, Beady Belle, Serena Maneesh, Jan Eggum, Jarle Bernhoft), bassist Audun Erlien (Knut Reiersrud, Nils Petter Molvær, Eivind Aarset, Bendik Hofseth) and drummer Anders Engen (Bugge Wesseltoft, Morten Harket, Eivind Aarset, Laurent Garnier), this is an all-killer-no-filler improvisational, musical conversational, and utterly sensational excursion through pure joy, whether on original compositions or carefully chosen classics. As regular participants in Cosmopolite Scene's Organ Club, the group has evolved, with a stylistically diverse but utterly consistent repertoire and spirit. Their sound is led by Wallumrød's keyboards, particularly the Hammond organ, but this doesn't mean that Erlien and Engen have their stars obscured - quite the contrary in fact: there are those locked-in grooves of drum'n'bass splendor underpinning some of the groovier tracks on the album, and there are enough improvisational flourishes and solo passages to keep even the hungriest fan of the rhythm section satisfied. Whether on an up-tempo groove, rocking out, shuffling, swinging, or floating through soulful atmospherics, the group remain on-point, neither missing nor wasting the opportunities presented by their jams. If there is any irony here, it's the fact that a group named Spirit In The Dark can make music that is so luminescent. So, to go back to that question: Is now the time? Absolutely! Personnel: David Wallumrød - Hammond organ, Clavinet, Minimoog, Prophet 5, piano, hand claps; Audun Erlien - bass, hand claps; Anders Engen - drums, percussion, hand claps.
$15.79 UPC: 687437791222 JAZZ
A1. The Strut (7:18)
A2. Now Is The Time (6:46)
A3. Begin (3:43)
A4. He Shall Feed His Flock (4:51)
B1. Su Blu (5:09)
B2. With My Whole Heart (4:56)
B3. Switch (7:12)
B4. I Don't Know What I Would Do Without The Lord (5:21)
Beady Belle presents On My Own on Jazzland Recordings. Recorded in New York City, the songs features a strong - but not overpowering - undercurrent of '70s soul and vocal jazz, mixtures of intimacy and exuberance, and pulsations both urban and urbane. The musicians include Bugge Wesseltoft (who is also the producer) on keys, Gregory Hutchinson on drums, Reuben Rogers on bass. On My Own also features Joshua Redman on sax, Mathias Eick on trumpet and Fran Cathcart on guitar. Beady's compositional and lyrical skills are also showcased here as never before, weaving new tapestries through which her voice is the golden thread. Melodically gripping, harmonically intricate, lyrically intelligent (without pretentiousness) and underpinned by solid grooves. With each release, Beady Belle's voice has become richer, more capable, and laced with nuance and subtle expressiveness. Simply put, there is no one else like her.
ERIKSEN, TORUN: Grand White Silk CD (JL 3779175CD)
Torun Eriksen presents Grand White Silk. Few songwriters can perform their material with such unobtrusive self-awareness as Torun Eriksen: she possesses many strengths as a lyricist, as a composer, as a singer. On Grand White Silk, she has pulled off the rare feat of playing to all of these enviable strengths with equal vitality and conviction. When you have set standards as high as Torun already has, all that remains to be done is aim higher: her aim has proven true, with a set of songs and performances that crown her work to date. Lyrically, the album draws on the place of the everyday amid the universal - those "little things we begin not to notice, that are important to us, yet we are blind to them through familiarity." Love; shame; self-acceptance; connections physical, emotional and electronic; contradictory feelings common to the modern world; the ability to simply breathe and accept a passing moment for what it is without question; the brief and frail existence of any individual within a universe without a visible, tangible beginning or end; all of this informs Grand White Silk, and it is delivered with images rich, poignant, sometimes seeming quotidian, at other times fragile and ethereal. Whether amid a lush arrangement with vast dynamic sweep, or against a sparse solo piano accompaniment, or against a juggernaut beat that seems close to unstoppable, Torun's sensitivity to her lyrical content is revealed time and time again by measured performances that are emotionally charged without melodrama, philosophical without cold intellectualism, meditative without haziness. Her distinctive tone, perfect phrasing and sensual delivery has few peers. Grand White Silk sets a new high-water mark for an already impressive career. Features: David Wallumrød on keys, André Berg on guitar, Kjetil Dalland on bass and Andreas Bye on drums.
The seminal 1994 double album Execution Ground, by the original Painkiller with the line-up of Bill Laswell, John Zorn and Mick Harris on vinyl for the first time. When Painkiller started in 1991, their first two albums Guts Of A Virgin (1991) and Buried Secrets (1992) (both released on extreme metal label Earache) were heavy attacks blending grindcore and free jazz that brought together the musical backgrounds of the three protagonists: drummer Mick Harris had just left grindcore legend Napalm Death, John Zorn explored new extremities with his Naked City project while Bill Laswell had as a member of roaring free jazz quartet Last Exit (with Peter Brötzmann, Sonny Sharrock, Ronald Shannon Jackson) proven that he was not only a visionary producer but also an accomplished bassist. But it is their 1994 double album Execution Ground remains the opus magnum of the brilliant trio: Zorn's unmistakable shrieking saxophone, Harris's pounding drums and Laswell's growling sub-bass lines were given heavy mixing desk treatment, resulting in extended tracks that are no less intense than their early works but display the full range of the musicians's skills. Avant-jazz, grindcore, dub and ambient melt into eerie tracks of haunting atmospheres - even more so in the "ambient" versions of the second disc. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M Berlin. Available here as a double 180 gram vinyl. Includes a download code and insert. Edition of 500.
Split Secs are a Los Angeles based duo, Travis Kirschbaum and Alexandre Mouracade (aka Sonns). "Corduroy City" frolics like a drunken sailor who's lost at sea and finds himself cast ashore on a Balearic beach that just so happens to be raging full of sunshine dancers. "Tele Tone" is one of those lost on the dancefloor moments, grabbing the nearest form of security and holding it tight for the duration. The Mole owns Maybe Tomorrow so he decided to step in for remix duties on the title track - his classy sway is only a tear away from your heart.
2015 release. Swamp Ritual is a beautiful split album by two Canadian based acts, Uubbuurruu and El Napoleon, that have a close connection and a common love for psychedelic sounds and space rock, despite their different turns on the same thing. It is no miracle that Uubbuurruu front man Joey Napoleon is in both acts. While Uubbuurruu have chosen a rather laid-back and melodic pop psych route, just with slightly more edgy guitars, Joey kicks off into a fuzzed-out acid-punk inferno with El Napoleon. Dark and gloomy garage beat with dirty riffs and even dirtier and simmering hot melodies is the lowest common dominator. This will certainly appeal to all those who still live in the yester-year, some 46 years ago, when beat became rock and songs became twisted, uncontrollable freak-outs due to hordes of proto-punks going nuts on topics like the ongoing Vietnam War or sexual liberation. Although Uubbuurruu may have the more freaked-out name, their music consists of straight compositions with very striking melodies that drag the listener onto a colorful trip. El Napoleon on the other hand work with the same kind of firing harmonies and vocal lines but give them an extra buzz with their guitar eruptions that go further than your average '60s garage rock and reaches spheres of rage only MC5 or The Stooges would have dared to touch. Eastern flavored guitar leads enhance the psychedelic mood to its maximum. All this is certainly very well played but it might not appeal to fans of clean digital sounds as the earthy and often dirty production is the icing on the cake. Fans of Baby Woodrose, Spids Nögenhat, early Monster Magnet and oldies like The Seeds, The Third Bardo and tons of English pop psych acts like Tomorrow or Apple will enjoy this split album.
$16.99 UPC: 710473604208 ROCK
A1. Uubbuurruu - Cosmic Cannibalism
A2. Uubbuurruu - Laying In An Angel's Corpse
A3. Uubbuurruu - Dear God
A4. Uubbuurruu - I Don't Mind
A5. Uubbuurruu - Radio Waves
B1. El Napoleon - Acid Lizard
B2. El Napoleon - Blue Sun
B3. El Napoleon - Bury My Axe
B4. El Napoleon - My Hands
B5. El Napoleon - Today
B6. El Napoleon - Wild Birds
B7. El Napoleon - All The Things
Merlins Nose Records present a reissue of I Fenomeni's Un Vuoto Appeso, originally released in 2013. I Fenomeni formed in 2010 in Italy with the intention to create the dirtiest and most fuzzed-out garage beat ever. Dirty guitar sounds and cheesy Farfisa organ lines on a solid and straightly pushing rhythmical subtraction with some melodic vocals sung in Italian are the ingredients of a joyous and colorful record that feels like a lost gem from the mid 60's. Sound, interplay, melodies and spirit speak of smoky clubs with swirls of colors ornamenting the walls and acid drenched drinks being served by topless waitresses in short skirts. Starting with the early Byrds, moving along to the US underground heroes such as The Seeds, The Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Third Bardo or the later Animals and psyched-out Jefferson Airplane stuff. Despite the rather short length of these acid garage beat tunes, the listener will leave reality for a while. Everything here just grabs the soul and melts it away - memorable melodies, moody riffs and those simmering fuzzed-out lead guitars. This is definitely addictive stuff. Fans of current acid rock like Baby Woodrose will not only dig I Fenomeni, but definitely worship them as well. The language is rather not important in this context as the voice alone is commanding and the message is understood without the language. Beautiful and haunting, a must have for all psyche and garage freaks.
$16.99 UPC: 710473604253 ROCK
A1. Intro: Come Questa Pietra (1:14)
A2. Un Vuoto Appeso (2:53)
A3. Qualcuno (3:08)
A4. Un Forte Bisogno (3:33)
A5. Credi In Te (2:36)
A6. Senza Dubbi Nel Cuore (3:28)
A7. Passerà (Vivere) (3:18)
B1. Gexa De San Giulian (0:12)
B2. Ho Iniziato Volentieri (2:37)
B3. Buio Mondo Nero E Giallo (3:24)
B4. Vai Via Da Qui (2:17)
B5. Ti Aspetto Ancora (2:51)
B6. Ricordo La Vita Di G.L (5:13)
B7. Più In Alto Dei Cieli (2:10)
Eliwagar is a pagan folk band formed in France in 2006, relocated to Norway after a couple of albums and with a fair amount of releases ever since. I Vølven's Vev is their eleventh full length effort. Expect matured songwriting culminating in anthems of extra-mundane beauty. The main focus lies on haunting yet memorable vocal melodies with an utterly peaceful and joyful atmosphere. Around the mystical atmosphere, Eliwagar weaves a subtle harmony network with a steady hypnotizing drive. Most of the tracks feature bewitched percussion, acoustic guitar, flute and natural sounds like the whispering wind or the waves rolling on the rough Nordic shore. These are backed by the enchanting voice of Brenda Runahild, the front woman behind Eliwagar. The songs drag you into a dreamy state and make you think of druids and heathen ceremonies. This is by far one of the most outstanding gems in the pagan folk genre and on par with great acts such as fellow Norwegians Wardruna (despite Eliwagar being more melodic and dreamy), In Gowan Ring (just with an emphasis on Norwegian folk) or Faun. Eliwagar knows how to create a whole world of mystical sounds that unfold in front the listener's inner eyes and ears. The sound and performance are as brilliant as the compositions themselves. A giant masterpiece of current pagan folk music.
$16.99 UPC: 710473604192 ROCK
A1. Urdarbrunnr (2:31)
A2. I Vølven's Vev (4:17)
A3. Lys i Skyggen (4:00)
A4. Hjertet av Livstreet (2:50)
A5. Nordstjernen (5:26)
A6. Solhjul Bortenfor Nordavind (2:34)
B1. Vi Høster som Vi Sår (3:14)
B2. Vølven's Gravhaug (3:51)
B3. Sol og Måne (3:23)
B4. Almødre Vølur (3:54)
B5. Njardar's Vogn (4:26)
B6. I Njardar's Favn (3:27)
What first strikes the eye of the Cosmic Temple releases are the covers, with fluorescent colors, which form a patchwork created by Aldo Drudi (the designer of Valentino Rossi). But immediately after, the music takes the stage. Chapter 1 takes the listener to lands of wonders with numbers like "Thyratron", with Ricky Burattini on piano, playing a utopian fusion as if Peter Daou was weaned at Cosmic in Lazise, Italy instead of the Paradise Garage in New York, or "Inner Light", Francesca Amati with the voice, which is pure 2015 electro-pop, and the rhythmic bass on "Diffrazione".
What first strikes the eye of the Cosmic Temple releases are the covers, with fluorescent colors, which form a patchwork created by Aldo Drudi (the designer of Valentino Rossi). But immediately after, the music takes the stage. Chapter 2 takes the listener to lands of wonders with the phrasing of "Zircaloy", and still that yin and yang that composed "Krebs Cycle", with Burattini on synth, a race horse deep disco at 120 bpm that goes into stratospheres, and "Afelio", a lethargic space ballet at 90 bpm.
After recording the album Micro-Miniature Love at Dove Studios in the fall of 1967, Michael Yonkers retreated to his tiny basement studio. Utilizing only a couple of tube-type reel-to-reel recorders, Yonkers used methods he describes as primitive forms of "sound on sound" or "sound with sound" to get multi-channel effects. In 1974, after taking out a loan and having his basement tapes mastered at Sound 80 in Minneapolis, Yonkers made the bold move of simultaneously releasing four separate LPs of music from four previous years of recording: Grimwood, Michael Lee Yonkers, Goodby Sunball and Borders Of My Mind (with Jim Woehrle). These records are now legendary. Reissues have appeared on Sub Pop, Drag City, Nero's Neptune, and S-S Records. The very first batch of these four LPs came back from the manufacturer with covers that had paste-on slicks which were cut in a slightly uneven fashion. Almost all of the shrink was ripped from the jackets. This provided enough irritation to cause Michael to demand the pressing plant re-do them all. He had a second pressing done, with shrink-wrapped new jackets containing new records. These records are long gone. But here's where it gets interesting. Michael kept around 100 or so of the least-off center jackets (with records, sans torn shrink) of all four titles and placed one of each in manilla envelopes. The intention was that they be sold as a set, sent out as promotional packages or simply given to friends. Michael even created a special paper bookmark (each individually initialed by hand and decorated with five Xeroxed photos of Michael) plus a separate 7" x 4" blowup insert of the Michael Yonkers logo to go with the sets. But with an additional 2000 new LP's to sell - and no distribution - a little less than half of these "fun packs" were dispensed with. The majority of these original sets ended up forgotten in Michael's various storage spaces for over 40 years. They were recently found... and here they are. In essence, these are the true original pressings. When they're gone, they're gone. (Note: many of the original manilla envelopes are a little ragged from being shuffled around over the many years, but the original contents and extras are as new.)
$107.40 UPC: N/A ROCK
Grimwood:
A1. Damsel Fair And Your Angel
A2. Grimwood
A3. Sandcastle
A4. Lonely Fog
A5. The Day Is Through
B1. 162
B2. And Give It To You
B3. Tripping Through The Rose Gardens
B4. The Answer
B5. Sunflower
B6. The Big Parade
B7. The Thing Called Love
Michael Lee Yonkers:
A1. An Easy Goin Country Guy
A2. My Sally
A3. Black Birds In The Sky
A4. The Nice Boy
A5. Funboots
A6. Furnace Springs
A7. Pigeon Falls
B1. Mrs. Jennings Fruit Fly Farm
B2. Donald Wheeler
B3. She Can Cry Her Tears Alone
B4. Im So Glad You Came
B4. One Room And A Brass Bed
B6. Come A Long
Goodby Sunball:
A1. Goodby Sunball
A2. Tell Me Of Love
A3. The Day Of Jubilee
A4. Angel Of The Snow
A5. The Swamp Of Love
A6. Anne Is Me Lassie
A7. Another Day
A8. Morning Of Love
A9. Someone Like You
B1. Early Wakin Mornin
B2. Strange And Lonely Land
B3. Oh Can You Tell Me
B4. Time Honored Love
B5. Goodby Sunball
Borders Of My Mind (with Jim Woehrle):
A1. Borders Of My Mind
A2. Story Book Kind Of Madness
A3. Elaine
A4. Wagner
A5. Emily
A6. Place Called Home
A7. Standing In The Doorway
A8. Goin' Home
B1. Lovely Lady Companion
B2. Lonely Children
B3. Monkey's Tail
B4. Smile Awhile For Me
B5. Happy Ending Woman
SCHACHTNER, JOHANNES X.: Works For Ensemble CD (NEOS 11602CD)
Works For Ensemble features works composed by Johannes X. Schachtner. Johannes X. Schachtner lives in Munich as a freelance conductor and composer. After completing studies in composition and orchestral conducting, he was awarded residences as a scholarship holder in Bamberg and Paris. His works are performed by such internationally renowned soloists as Julia Fischer, Julius Berger, Adrien Boisseau and Maximilian Hornung and by the conductor Ulf Schirmer. Author Norbert Niemann on Schachtner: " When we first met in 2009, the then 24-year-old impressed me with his stupendous knowledge and extraordinary level of reflection. The son of a musical family going back several generations, the young conductor and composer had internalized music history to such an extent that each conversation with him contributed to an expansion of my musical horizon. At that time I heard pieces by Schachtner for the first time, including an early version of his Chamber Symphony, presented here in a condensed form as Symphonic Essay. It was not difficult to recognize the work's relationship to Beethoven, based on two bars shortly before the end of the Eighth Symphony. This is because his art of composition is created out of a thorough questioning of musical tradition." Performed by Ensemble Zeitsprung featuring: Markus Elsner - conductor; Thérèse Wincent - soprano; Peter Schöne - baritone.
$10.99 EAN: 4260063116025 CLASSICAL
01. Symphonischer Essay (13:39) (2008/2010/2016)
for chamber ensemble
02. Air - an Samuels Aerophon (8:34) (2013)
for large wind ensemble
Quatre tombeaux de vent to poems by Frédéric Wandelère (*1949) (12:51) (2013)
for soprano and chamber ensemble
03. I Cinq heures, chemin Éduard-Tavan (4:31)
04. II Madame jardinière (4:07)
05. III "Avant de me coucher" (2:48)
06. IV Partie avec le vent (1:14)
07. Invention III: Hopscotch (5:21) (2013)
for percussion solo
08. Invention IV: Canon - tribute to Johanna M. Beyer (7:18) (2016)
for percussion and piano quintet
09. Invention V: Battery (6:21) (2016)
for percussion and four wind players
Aufstieg - Ballad to texts by Johanna Schwedes (*1979) (16:17) (2010)
for baritone and chamber ensemble
10. Prolog (4:34)
11. Serenade (3:32)
12. "Besuch" - Intermezzo (1:54)
13. Epilog (6:02)
WESSELMANN, MARCUS ANTONIUS: Ensemble Works II CD (NEOS 11609CD)
Neos present their third release featuring Marcus Antonius Wesselmann with Ensemble Works II. Internationally well-known Ensemble Modern perform the works, featuring conductor, Franck Ollu.
LACHENMANN, HELMUT: String Quartets DVD (NEOS 51001DVD)
DVD is NTSC, region free. Helmut Lachenmann presents a DVD release titled String Quartets. Helmut Lachenmann on the wonderful performers of the piece, Stadler Quartett: "Meeting and working with the musicians of the Stadler Quartett: one of my most precious memories and experiences - accuracy and euphony, even and especially in the 'extraterritorial' realm of noise and reverberations, and finally, along with their willingness to probe new performance techniques: inspired music-making and exquisite artistry. In short, everything needed to make an audience alert and attentive - and a composer happy. One cannot express gratitude, words are bound to fail." Sound format: PCM 2.0 Stereo. Picture format: 16:9. Total playing time: 76 minutes.
$20.99 EAN: 4260063510014 CLASSICAL
01. Gran Torso
02. Reigen seliger Geister
03. Grido
Ohrwaschl Records present a reissue of Paternoster's self-titled album, originally released in 1972. Not every kraut album comes from a German band. Brainticket were in fact Swiss with a Belgian mastermind, for example. Paternoster on the other hand, who play an organ-driven solemn progressive rock with a heavy edge, come from Austria and really enlighten the heart of all fans of dark and often morbid rock music. It might be a good idea to overhear the pronunciation and the whole lyrics and take the vocals as another instrument, adding some color to the whole picture. The voices are indeed quite charismatic and memorable as are the compositions. The late 1960s psychedelic scene has surely made an impact on this band, considering the fuzzy lead guitar, creeping rhythms and wicked keyboards often creating a climate of sheer dementia with the mournful voice of the singer on top. The record sounds as if the band was jamming in a giant church hall and therefore has a really gloomy mood. There are quite a few freak-outs to be experienced along the way and in most cases they turn into some epic space trips that recall the greatest early Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd processions just with a funeral atmosphere. This is a mournful album that sounds tragic before even considering the lyrics center on the average working day of an average man. Could progressive rock get more demented than Van Der Graaf Generator? This is vivid proof. Made by freaks, for freaks.
$16.99 UPC: N/A ROCK
A1. Paternoster (3:57)
A2. Realization (3:31)
A3. Stop These Lines (6:56)
A4. Blind Children (6:14)
B1. Old Danube (4:13)
B2. The Pope Is Wrong (6:00)
B3. Mammoth Opus O (8:55)
Ohrwaschl Records present a reissue of Spot's self-titled album, originally released in 1971. Spot were an early seventies Swiss band that showcased heavy blues-rock in fusion with the psychedelic influences of other Swiss bands like Krokodil or Country Lane. The Spot LP is one of the rarest from the European underground scene for sure; it's highly unlikely that it ever made it past an initial order of a few hundred copies for their local fan base. Spot is heavy rock with searing distorted wah-wah guitar and excellent guitar playing. Includes two bonus tracks.
$16.99 UPC: N/A ROCK
A1. I Am One
A2. By The Way
A3. Portobello
A4. In My Dreams
A5. Free
A6. Who Are You (Bonus Track)
B1. Travelling Man
B2. Jersey Thursday
B3. I Know
B4. Oh What A Day
B5. Sabre Dance (Bonus Track)
Ohrwaschl Records present a reissue of McChurch Soundroom's Delusion, originally released in 1971. The cover promises sheer darkness and madness - A skull in a bird's nest on the back and a skull covered with candle wax on the front. The rather pastoral folky beginning seems to prove these ominous expectations wrong but the heavy progressive organ driven rock of this German outfit comes close to what the artwork suggests. "Delusion" contains twisted passages with an atmosphere of sheer insanity and heavy rocking outbursts of the classic kind that shakes souls and drags them into a different world. Some classic blues rock parts get thrown in for good measure but the focus on progressive and heavy aspects. "Dream Of A Drummer" proves that the bassist a real maniac as he really smokes it in some of the more loose sections when he and the drummer create flashing rhythms upon which the lead guitarist takes off into other spheres. Being crazy must be of importance here but McChurch Soundroom are sensitive to dynamic as well, keeping the listeners attention when it comes to lengthy instrumental jam parts with duels and dialogues. All-in-all, this is definitely a prototypical '70s heavy progressive outfit and it has the spirit of most UK bands from 1969 to 1971, including vocals with a flawless English pronunciation. Listening beyond the melodies, there are some weird rhythm patterns. Solemn organ parts lead the listener to the darkest and dirtiest backstreet pub before getting struck by powerfully rocking jazz passages. McChurch Soundroom's Delusion takes a trip into the remote areas of urban life, all of it in a quite heavy fashion. For fans of Gravy Train or early Jethro Tull.
$16.99 UPC: N/A ROCK
A1. Delusion (5:47)
A2. Dream Of A Drummer (9:24)
A3. Time Is Flying (6:17)
B1. What Are You Doin' (8:31)
B2. Trouble Part 1 (4:29)
B3. Trouble Part 2 (5:40)
Ohrwaschl Records present a reissue of Analogy's The Suite. German progressive rock band Analogy released its sole classic, Analogy (1972), and even scored a deal for Italy but soon seemed to have faded into obscurity. Nobody really was aware of a recording named The Suite that happened around 1980. It presented the folky side of Analogy, who seemed at least quite creative for a time when electronic pop took over the whole music scene. Analogy went into the opposite direction and reached out for musical realms that have been visited by legendary English acts like Trees, Fairport Convention or Steeleye Span. Dramatic and powerful rock with a progressive edge meets mystical and magical British folk in a way that is reminiscent of an English or Irish band from 1972 rather than a bunch of Germans about to cross the threshold to the '80s. This is handmade and the musicians play with a simmering passion. Two epic compositions were originally part of The Suite but for this reissue, a bonus track has been unearthed from the vaults to add even more value to this gem. Several passages have a theatrical approach and feel like music from a stage play and movie like The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) or records Meat Loaf recorded in the late '70s, but those aspects are only tinges of color in an overwhelming sound picture drawn by this truly progressive band. For everybody who loves the heavier Horslips and epic stuff like Omega, this album develops, passage to passage, and makes this journey into your dreams a worthwhile trip.
$16.99 UPC: 710473604291 ROCK
A1. The Suite A
a. Sink Or Swim
b. The Mirror
c. The Treatment
d. Merseburg Charm
e. Spirit Dance
B1. The Suite B
a. Ventadorn
b. Intermission
c. 1000 Deaths
d. Is There A Chance
B2. Il Viaggio Dei Grandi Spiriti (Bonus Track)
2015 release. Ohrwaschl Records present a reissue of Dies Irae's First, originally released in 1971. German proto heavy metal and proto doom metal has always been more of an underground genre due to the fact that most bands only reached a regional level in every aspect. Dies Irae are certainly something of an exception to the rule when it comes to the quality. First is heavy and dark with open song structures that leave much room for experimentation. Despite the fact that the simmering fuzz guitar cuts through like a chainsaw, there are still many parts in each song showcasing a fondness for playful jazz-inspired passages where all musicians prove their skills and conjures a gloomy atmosphere. The musicians have a light-footed swing but in other cases, Dies Irae go utterly crazy in a psychedelic freak-out fashion. Trippy moments are abundant on First and come in between the hard-hitting, heavily-grinding doom outbursts. Nobody was even eager to call it doom yet but all the ingredients were there - Think of a jam session with Black Sabbath and Amon Düül II. This album is highly original and deserving of a place among the greatest krautrock albums of all times. The acid is audible and doing its work in a very skillful way. For fans of proto metal from the early '70s, who dig music with a progressive edge and have a fondness for trippy psychedelic rock.
$16.99 UPC: N/A ROCK
A1. Lucifer (4:42)
A2. Salve Oimel (0:34)
A3. Another Room (4:06)
A4. Trip (7:56)
A5. Harmagedon Dragonlove (5:07)
B1. Tired (4:59)
B2. Witches' Meeting (9:17)
B3. Red Lebanese (5:12)
B4. Run Off (0:33)
Oom Dooby Dochas present a reissue of Daniel Grau's Disco Fantasy, originally released in 1979. This 1979 release was the fourth solo effort of Venezuelan composer and musician Daniel Grau. Disco-funk with a Latin melody and rhythm approach surely was the hottest thing among the dancing folks back in the day and the rather futuristic synthesizer arrangements turn these memorable tunes into a spacey and spicy affair. The sound is perfect and the performance equals its package. The compositions are quite long all-in-all, giving it a hypnotic effect on the listener and dancer. The continuing, pulsating groove comes in a repetitive manner creating a floating atmosphere. Disco Fantasy is surely a product of its era and made for disco lovers to dance on through the simmering nights, but unlike most mainstream disco albums this record opens the gate to another dimension touching the senses of everybody in reach when it gets played on the turntable. Next to the similar massive Donna Summer works like "I Feel Love", this is the true essence of disco music - entirely instrumental with an emphasis on synthesizer melodies instead of vocals. Drift away into your disco fantasy.
$10.39 UPC: 710473604307 ELECTRONIC
01. Disco Fantasy
02. Sonido Magico
03. Atlantis
04. Doopey
05. Dulce Armonia
06. Swing Rock
07. Guitarra Y Amor
08. Tus Besos Junto Al Mar
Oom Dooby Dochas present a reissue of Daniel Grau's El Leon Bailarin, originally released in 1980. El Leon Bailarin shows the typical trademarks of its Venezuelan creator Daniel Grau. Spaced-out disco grooves with some nifty female vocals aspirated gently upon the light-footed waves of synthesizer melodies and pulsating rhythms. An exception is the second track "Con En Cielo En Tus Ojos" which is a lush and utterly relaxed floating Latin pop number with a repetitive vocal line breathing an atmosphere of peace. There is definitely more color on this album than expected from listening to the Disco Fantasy (DOO 16001CD/LP, 1979) record which in fact was a strong piece already. Fans of Donna Summer during the late '70s will love the silky, yet vivid feel of the steady pulse the rhythms offer on El Leon Bailarin. This is one of those albums that should have been legendary among the dancing public when it was released - peppered with memorable tunes that work well even decades after its release. Looking beyond the surface, dig this is a real jewel of its genre.
$10.39 UPC: 710473604321 ELECTRONIC
01. El León Bailarín
02. Con El Cielo En Tus Ojos
03. Apartate
04. Correcaminos (Roadrunner)
05. Sentimiento De Amor
06. El Fenix
07. Mi Canción Especial (My Special Song)
08. Nostalgia
Pussy Mothers is the behavior of a cross-continental two piece from Scotland and Down Under: formed by waving, not drowning. Chasing percussions, vocal athletics and hand claps concocted into a platter of disco-junk-funk and early hip hop rhythms, The Number 1 EP took shape in Glasgow's tenement flats and came to life through a spaced-out echo party held at Green Door Studios.
ZUMMO, PETER: Dress Code (Don't Look At My Car) LP (OMZUMMO 002LP)
Peter Zummo presents Dress Code (Don't Look At My Car) on Optimo Music. Peter Zummo (born 1948) is an American composer and musician. He plays the trombone, valve trombone, euphonium, synthesizer, other electronic instruments, and also sings. He is associated with the post-minimalist and Downtown aesthetics, and he describes his music as "minimalism plus a whole lot more." He's well-known for his work with Arthur Russell. "In this project for Optimo, the listener can hear that my musical food pyramid has musicians at top, or maybe they are at the bottom. In any case, they are important. That is why, from track to track, I selected segments in which one player or another is featured in the take. Some may think that we musicians do multiple takes to get the perfect performance, but I like to find the special interactions lurking in each excursion. Different players came forward in each of the takes, which were recorded in the studios Seaside Lounge and Headroom, in Brooklyn, and live in performances at Cube Cinema, in Bristol, UK, as well as in Long Island City and on Staten Island, New York. In order to escape the tyranny of the lyric, I am exploring in this release the possibilities of nonsensical and non-emotional lyrics. These kinds of lyrics bring the singing voices into the mix without an overweening message. The tracks include open-form compositions in which the duration was not specified." -- Peter Zummo, June 2016.
$12.39 UPC: 880319783715 ELECTRONIC
01. The Tape Is Chill
02. How Does It Feel?
03. Well Let Me Say Something
04. Do You Know What To Wear Do You Know?
06. What Do You Want To Do?
07. Life Is Real
08. Break Up The Pill
09. Well Let Me Tell You Something
Luke Slater returns to Ostgut Ton with a Planetary Assault Systems album titled Arc Angel. Staying true to the project's initial mission statement, Slater comments on the new yet familiar musical direction: "For me, music has to go forward. I'd feel I was cheating by sticking to tried-and-tested formulas." With Arc Angel, Planetary Assault Systems departs to new musical frontiers by focusing on melody, but staying rooted in the purist values of techno. While the album title may sound like a reference to spiritual matters, it hints to rather secular affairs. Arc Angel is a postmodernist, non-comfortist techno album first and foremost. In the tradition of Slater's previous albums with Ostgut Ton - The Messenger (OSTGUT 010LP/020CD, 2011) and Temporary Suspension (OSTGUT 004LP/009CD, 2009) - its musical motifs radiate around polymorphic and extraterrestrial sounds, using contemporary instrumental language, but with an emphasis on compatible musical phrases. "With this album it was very much a case of limitation and focus around the idea of alternative melody," Slater says, "I love music that takes you somewhere new. All music for this album had to pass that test. At the same time I wanted to re-root the foundations of what I see as techno into that and focus on melody, rather than a track just being a beat." While there are nods to the past, Arc Angel aims for the future. There's shimmering sounds reminiscent of light beams being fired ("Tri Fn Trp"), pulsing signals in deep space ("Angel Of The East", "Sonar Falls", "Groucho") and rather harsh aesthetics ("The Last Scene"). Its melodic range includes hypnotic arrangements ("Merry Go Round", "Blue Monk"), distorted bells ("Revolution One"), rainbow noise and spatial effects - for the most part meshing with heavy kick drums ("Message From The Drone Sector", "The Rider"), sometimes using reduced beat patterns ("Max"), at times turning to repetitious loops, analog synth pads and alienated vocal bits ("Interlude 1 to 6"). Despite its musical richness, all gear had to fit onto a small table. "I love software, hardware, technology; but because we have almost endless choice of sound creating devices, it drove me to using very limited and focused equipment. Actually taking influences from the way an original blues guy... He has the guitar, the box and voice - I have the 909 and 808." Includes digital download of the single tracks and the continuous album mix.
$13.79 UPC: 880319780523 ELECTRONIC
CD:
1.01. Cassette
1.02. Angel Of The East
1.03. Tri Fn Trp
1.04. Sonar Falls
1.05. Interlude 1
1.06. Message From The Drone Sector
1.07. Merry Go Round
1.08. Interlude 2
1.09. Behind The Eyes
2.01. Bawoo Bawoo
2.02. Interlude 3
2.03. Revolution One
2.04. Interlude 4
2.05. Blue Monk
2.06. Groucho
2.07. Interlude 5
2.08. The Rider
2.09. Max
2.10. Interlude 6
2.11. The Last Scene
3x12":
A1. Angel Of The East
A2. Tri Fn Trp
A3. Sonar Falls
B1. Interlude 1
B2. Message From The Drone Sector
B3. Merry Go Round
C1. Interlude 2
C2. Behind The Eyes
C3. Bawoo Bawoo
D1. Interlude 3
D2. Revolution One
D3. Interlude 4
D4. Blue Monk
E1. Groucho
E2. Interlude 5
E3. The Rider
F1. Max
F2. Interlude 6
F3. The Last Scene
FIXMER, TERENCE: Beneath The Skin EP 12" (OSTGUT 097EP)
Terence Fixmer presents four new tracks on the Beneath The Skin EP, following up on 2015's Aktion Mekanik Theme Versions (OSTGUT 088EP). Beneath The Skin comprises the various musical facets of a Klubnacht: dark, pounding slaps and discomforting yet soaring synths ("Beneath The Skin"), acid techno modulations and lone voices in the dark ("Trace To Nowhere"), hypnotic synth progressions and ambient textures ("Devil May Care") and finally some rest and soothing ("Immersion").
PMG present a reissue of The Funkees's Now I'm A Man, originally released in 1976. Has there ever been a band as aptly named as The Funkees? Formed after the Biafran War to raise spirits in the east, they quickly conquered the dance floors of Lagos and in 1973 headed to London, playing at Ronnie Scott's and tearing up the local scene. Now I'm A Man captures the band at the height of their London-era pomp. Africans were making soca, West Indians were playing Afro-funk and discolypso blasted from boom-boxes across West London. The Funkees soaked it all up and delivered it back - funkier, tighter and louder. Bookended by two Santana-esque jams, "I'm A Man" and "303", The Funkees second album delivers slow burning Afro-beat ("Mimbo"), urgent jungle bongo chants ("Salam") and straight-ahead floor-fillers ("Dance With Me"). Little wonder that legendary BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, recorded two sessions with them. The Funkees soon disbanded after this album; Jake Sollo joined Osibisa, Sonny Akpabio and Harry Mosco pursued successful solo careers. Now I'm A Man shows The Funkees as they burned brightly as Nigeria's most talented, inventive and funky band.
$10.39 UPC: 710473190435 ROCK
01. Now I'm A Man
02. Korfisa
03. Dance With Me
04. Mimbo
05. Patience
06. Salam
07. Time
08. 303
PMG present an anthology of Ahmed Fakroun's work. "Insanely popular across the Maghreb, name-checked in international spy novels and beloved of music adventurers like David Byrne, Libyan superstar Ahmed Fakroun is the most astounding raï-disco-electronica pioneer ever to be heard. His 1983 album, Mots D'Amour (PMG 005CD/LP, 1983) is regarded as a global fusion classic. This self-titled anthology of songs from the late '70s is an altogether mellower affair. The grooves are slower and sweeter and Fakroun's multi-instrumentalist chops on the saz, mandol and darbouka drum really come to the fore. The album includes tracks from two of Ahmed's rarest and most sought-after 7 inches. 'Nysan' has an almost west coast vibe: think Ned Doheny via Benghazi. Balearic-minded collectors will love the haunting flute runs in 'Awedny', produced by Tommy Vance, and 'Njoom Al Leyel'. There's even a touch of lilting reggae on 'Falah' and 'Yu Hussad.' Ahmend Fakroun is the perfect late night, come-down album, especially after a hot and sweaty evening in a raï club, somewhere in North Africa." -- Peter Moore.
$10.39 UPC: 710473190572 ROCK
01. Awedny
02. Njoom Al Leyel
03. Nisyan
04. La Ya-Hob
05. Yumma
06. Shams
07. Ya Blady
08. Sinini
09. Summar Al Layali
10. Falah
11. Al Hob
12. Ya Hussad
Poom present their debut album, 2016. Poom differ from the French song scenery with their electronic sounds inherited from the French touch, their love for funk and disco and a hint of symphonic orchestra. The influences of French artists such as Michel Legrand, Daft Punk, Gainsbourg or Air are apparent on 2016. The texts are intimate and their performance swings between elation and melancholy which contrasts with their energetic arrangements. Taking advantage of their art studies, Poom created the whole visual universe of the project. Their debut album gathers ten tracks written since the start of the project, with two modern covers of French writer and artist Boris Vian and French singer Georges Brassens. Their first two singles "Les Voiles" and "De la Vitesse à l'vresse" were released in 2014 and 2015 on Partyfine and got great press in France. It also received surprising international recognition, Pharrell playlisted "Les Voiles" on his Beats1 show for example.
Psychedelic Sounds International present a reissue of Osamu Kitajima's Benzaiten, originally released in 1976. Benzaiten is world music and ethno sounds with an obvious Japanese origin, meeting progressive rock and psych rock. The result is a captivating piece of melodic and deeply atmospheric music that paints pictures of life in ancient Japan. If Pink Floyd were Japanese, their music might have sounded like this album. The frequency of the arrangements on Benzaiten is reminiscent of what English prog bands created in the early to mid '70s, just with a different ethnical approach. Benzaiten is even a more progressive effort than anything most British bands have ever managed to fabricate and is still utterly natural and vivid concerning the flow of the music. All participating musicians here are professionals and their performances are tight and still passionate. The sound is warm and vivid and the song structures are wide open and welcoming. Electronic elements in the percussion section add some oddity to the whole musical picture. The cool aspect of Benzaiten is the rocking guitar which keeps the whole album together. Must be the Japanese equivalent to German acts like Amon Düül II, Embryo and Guru Guru.
$10.39 UPC: 710473608183 ROCK
01. Benzaiten (God Of Music And Water) (3:36)
02. Taiyo (The Sun) (7:49)
03. Tengu (A Long-Nosed Goblin) (5:35)
04. Benzaiten (Repris) (11:24)
05. Whoma (Immortality) (10:34)
Originally released in 2011. Staying true to its decade strong objective of documenting next generation, cutting edge sound system music from the City of Bristol, Punch Drunk is proud to introduce Zhou (aka Ishan Sound & Amos Childs from Jabu). As part of the Young Echo collective, alongside peers such as, they have forged a unique identity within the city limits as producers, collaborators and live performers. Defining their sonic vision of submerged aesthetics and low end pressure, tracks "I Remain" and "Noboru" comprise the duo's debut 12", delivering a tense and intoxicating odyssey into their chamber of dub.
Originally released in 2013. Staying true to its decade strong objective of documenting next generation, cutting edge sound system music from the City of Bristol, Punch Drunk is proud to introduce Zhou (aka Ishan Sound & Amos Childs from Jabu). As part of the Young Echo collective, alongside peers such as, they have forged a unique identity within the city limits as producers, collaborators and live performers. Defining their sonic vision of submerged aesthetics and low end pressure, tracks "Locust Tree" and "Locust Dub" deliver a tense and intoxicating odyssey into their chamber of dub.
HACKMAN & PEVEN EVERETT: Love Delicious 12" (RAMP 068EP)
Hackman's Love Delicious sees the producer's long awaited return to Ramp. After scouting for vocalists for the project, the label heard rumors that the legendary Peven Everett, best known for the UK garage classic "Gabriel", was keen to work with the young producer, so studio time were organized, and "Love Delicious" is the fruit of those sessions. Remixes come from Sully, who drops a dubby, retro UK garage version, and Saine, who returns the favor to Hackman, who previously sampled his "Forgotten Notes".
$8.99 UPC: 666017306063 ELECTRONIC
A1. Love Delicious
B1. Love Delicious (Sully Remix)
B2. Love Delicious (Saine Remix)
Roman Lindau takes the listener on a ride through a multitude of sounds and emotions with Strange Brew. "With My Hands" opens things up with grinding percussion and a massive call-and-response of warm industrial synths while a soulful vocal teases and shimmers of resonant acid. The title track "Strange Brew" combines chugging organic percussion with classic Detroit house stabs. The burner titled "Move" with rapid fire percussion, vintage acid lines and a super slick vocal hook. "After Dark" follows up with huge melodic stabs and rising strings building pressure while speedy percussion fuels a feverish endeavor.
ADRIATIQUE: Patterns Of Eternity EP 12" (SIAMESE 001EP)
Adriatique present the first release on Siamese, Patterns Of Eternity EP. The title track is an almost 11 minute trip, which tries to put the dance floor into a hypnotic state. The layers and synth lines create a special vibe while the bass line pushes the track forward. "Womb" has made its cycle around the clubs and festivals. While the title track may be complex, "Womb" focuses on keeping it simple. "Quadrivia" is reminiscent of the mid-2000s, starting with a wobbly melody before breaking down and coming back in full effect.
Skokiaan presents a reissue of Albert Ayler Quartet's Ghosts, originally released in 1965. Ghosts, by free jazz master Albert Ayler and his quartet, is a classic. Ghosts is some of the most intriguing and wicked music ever experienced. Ayler and his mates, Don Cherry on trumpet, Sonny Murray on drums and Gary Peacock on bass guitar, are definitely on par with the other free jazz gods like John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. From a pop music perspective, this may be only screeching and overblown saxes and some non-structured fiddling on drums and bass, so that it's far different than the average mainstream. But if the listener has a fondness for soundscapes, improvisations and music that creates more of an atmosphere rather than fluffy melodies, this is a great record. From time to time, Ayler and his band start with straight melody lines and soon let it all run free before partly returning to recognizable and memorable melodies. On the title track, Ayler plays some sweet and swinging sax harmonies while drums and bass still rumble and blast completely improvised lines in the back. The composition named "Vibrations" is another of these outbursts of insanity. Ayler and Cherry duel each other for the most free and twisted player. Murray pounds the kettles and cymbals like a maniac and Peacock joins in on standing bass. Ghosts is an ongoing rumbling and definitely strange. Free jazz fanatics will surely love Ghosts. For fans of Coltrane and Coleman, this is a must have.
Skokiaan present a reissue of Georges Garvarentz's Panic Button, originally released in 1964. The mastermind behind this album can be seen as a luminary in the field of movie soundtracks, especially for the '60s and '70s, his career lasting til the early '90s, up to his untimely death. Panic Button is the third album of its kind from Garvarentz, composed for an Italian low budget comedy film, of the same name, released in 1964. The most interesting fact about the movie is the participation of cult actress Jayne Mansfield, who also was part of the inner circle of Anton Lavey in the '60s. The music is a colorful trip through different styles from Italian traditional music to lush orchestral baroque music with most of the tunes being laid down by a well-rehearsed, big band. With big band swing background, Garvarentz explores the more light-footed corners of this genre and the result is a breathtaking joy. The melodies bring images of crowded market places and nifty street restaurants in Italian cities. The performances have the right amount of steam and passion to get the listener dancing and singing along to these sunny harmonies. The pieces themselves are perfectly placed with high energetic moments and gentle parts following each other to sustain the attention of the listener and underline the different scenes of the movie in an ideal way. For fans of old movie scores from the early '60s that make use of big band orchestration, hip-shaking grooves to the tunes and the occasional hushed moods. Panic Button is all about fun and felicity with a deeper feeling accompanying the compositions.
$10.39 EAN: 3891121305672 SOUNDTRACK
01. Opening (Generique) (1:40)
02. Flight To Rome (1:44)
03. Venezia (Venice) (2:33)
04. Traffic In Rome (2:13)
05. Un Clochard Ma'Dit (1:52)
06. Mediterranean Samba (2:26)
07. The Chase (1:36)
08. Chase In Venice (5:03)
09. Love Is Wonderful (2:21)
10. Panic Button (3:57)
11. Venezia (Night Club) (2:47)
12. On The Balcony (2:16)
13. Finale (1:04)
Skokiaan present a reissue of Sonny Murray's Sonny's Time Now, originally released in 1965. Only a few months after recording Ghosts (SKOK 001CD, 1965) with Albert Ayler, Sonny Murray released his first album as a leader. Sonny's Time Now is one of the holy grails for collectors and aficionados of free avant garde jazz music from the 1960s. This 2016 vinyl reissue is the first vinyl reissue of the album in 30 years. The last CD reissue was in 1991. Albert Ayler and his Ghosts album from 1965 was already a hard thing to swallow, except for the most adventurous explorers of the furthest corners of the border districts of music. An unconventional view on onomatopoeia is necessary to enter this world and drummer Sonny Murray went another step ahead on Sonny's Time Now. The lengthy piece "Virtue" presents an ever pulsating wall of rhythm that sounds like a wuthering ocean with the horn section going nuts on top. The saxes and trumpets are constantly erupting and it is a challenge for the listener to find the melodies among their output of sound. "Justice", another lengthy piece divided into two parts, continues the quest "Virtue" began. The atmosphere of these free improvisations slowly swallows the listener and the shrieks of the saxophones and trumpets, frees souls from physical bodies. What feels like an impenetrable thicket of sound at first is soon enlightening and a memorable structure within all the chaos. The same year that John Coltrane took the last step away from traditional jazz and music in general, this album was equally as radical but seems to have disappeared within the depths of music history. The most radical piece on this record comes with the shorter "Black Art", a writing by activist and controversial poet Amiri Baraka read by LeRoy Jones and underlined with freak-out eruptions from Sonny Murray and his mates. This is the right soundtrack for a cathartic meditation. For a must have for fans of Coltrane. "The Lie" is not featured on the original release.
$10.39 EAN: 3891121305818 JAZZ
01. Virtue (11:07)
02. Justice (12:43)
03. Black Art (feat. LeRoy Jones) (6:33)
04. The Lie (5:55)
Skokiaan present a reissue of Sahib Shihab's Sahib's Jazz Party, originally released in 1964. In a time before jazz music went free and avant garde, there were a couple of inspired souls who put an emphasis on extended jams and improvised, yet melodic parts based on a rather repetitive rhythm background. The result in turning away from the rather artistic and complicated bebop was the modal jazz that came up in the second half of the 1950s, lasting as the leading style until the mid to late '60s. Sahib Shihab can be seen as one of the protagonists of modal jazz despite being more of an underground star in the scene and being more popular in Europe than in the USA, from where he originates. He often worked as a member of an ensemble but had a couple of albums out as a bandleader. Sahib's Jazz Party is his third album as a bandleader. Recorded live in its entirety Sahib's Jazz Party features a few highly entertaining announcements by the master himself leaving the impression that Sahib was a bit far out that day. The performance is beautiful and passionate. He plays flute and saxophone backed up by a Danish jazz orchestra even with an electric guitar, in clean mode of course. Especially in the third part of the "Conversation" piece the dialogues between saxophone and trumpet are amazing while in "Charade" Shihab uses his flute to conjure a mind-relaxing atmosphere. The rhythms are all quite hot and whipping. The drummers must be some kind of madmen. Yes, there are two drummers indicated for the "Conversation" long track and the ever pulsating and vibrating rhythm patterns will prove that right. Bass and guitar rather back up everything and fill the gaps with simple notes which add just enough to leave the whole picture feeling full and round. Sahib's Jazz Party holds the same level as the most appreciated works of Miles Davis and John Coltrane during their modal jazz stint. All-in-all, the whole band is steaming and so full of passion, any listener will be electrified without fail.
$10.39 EAN: 3891121305870 JAZZ
01. 4070 Blues (11:50)
02. Charade (7:50)
03. Conversations, Part I (10:40)
04. Conversations, Part II (3:10)
05. Conversations, Part III (9:00)
ASHBY, DOROTHY: The Fantastic Jazz Harp Of Dorothy Ashby CD (SPELL 4001CD)
Spellbound Music present a reissue of Dorothy Ashby's sixth album, The Fantastic Jazz Harp Of Dorothy Ashby, originally released in 1965. Ashby was a Detroit born jazz harpist who passed away in her early 50s in 1986. She left a rich legacy of music with The Fantastic Jazz Harp Of Dorothy Ashby being one of her milestones. The music is purely bright and swinging with a joyful mood. Dorothy Ashby is always there upfront while the brass section mostly fills the background with color. Typical for the ancient jazz, there are no vocals on this record but this only adds to the depth and intriguing atmosphere of the music. Ashby starts where Coltrane left the field of real song-oriented albums for his experimental efforts and she really pulls it off. The Fantastic Jazz Harp Of Dorothy Ashby is haunting but with a rather relaxed approach to this style. For the time it was released, this album was an utterly progressive effort and the pop sensibility of many tracks make it a great joy to spin. Jazz fans will dig it and open minded people who love the music of the '60s will also develop a fondness for this beauty.
$10.39 EAN: 3891121305337 JAZZ
01. Flighty (3:30)
02. Essence Of Sapphire (2:14)
03. Why Did You Leave Me (2:58)
04. I Will Follow You (3:08)
05. What Am I Here For (2:21)
06. House Of The Rising Sun (3:01)
07. Invitation (2:59)
08. Nabu Corfa (3:47)
09. Feeling Good (5:15)
10. Dodi Li (2:18)
Spellbound Music present a reissue of Muddy Waters's Folk Singer, originally released in 1964. Muddy Waters, real name McKinley Morganfield, is cited as the father of modern Chicago blues, having an influence on folk, jazz, blues, rock'n'roll and even heavy rock, he was a composer of quite a few popular standards. Folk Singer is his forth long player from 1964 and his first and only all acoustic affair. Backed by some big names from the blues community such as Willie Dixon on standing bass and a young Buddy Guy on second acoustic guitar, Waters created an album that was reduced to the bare bones. Every note played on these wooden guitars is so meaningful and vibrant. Even an acoustic version of a song like "Good Morning Little School Girl" rocks the hell out of the speakers. It is a remake of a Sonny Boy Williamson composition and develops from the strongly pronounced guitar play between Mr. Waters and Buddy Guy. His voice comes very much upfront but since he is the commander and preacher man, the storyteller and wizard, this comes as another advantage of this record. There is much room in the sound, so much space in between the instruments where passion and magic flow. The listener can hear how much of an obsession Waters and Guy have for their instruments, while Dixon pulls out the most laid-back bass lines possible, as not to disturb the master and his apprentice in firing smoking hot lead work from their fretboards. Folk Singer is indeed an album that has much more to say than most over amplified rock efforts which came later. Just listen and be enchanted.
$16.99 EAN: 3891121305405 ROCK
01. My Home Is In The Delta
02. Long Distance
03. My Captain
04. Good Morning School Girl
05. You Gonna Need My Help
06. Cold Weather Blues
07. Big Leg Woman
08. Country Boy
09. Feel Like Going Home
ZONNEVELD, REINIER: Megacity Servant CD (SVT 178CD)
Reinier Zonneveld's third studio effort, Megacity Servant, stands as a coherent 16-piece techno outfit tinged with experimental tones while playfully deconstructing classic acid and disco fragments. Reinier's style of production ranges from cavernous power tracks to more concise trips subdued with melancholic piano-stemmed soundscapes. "Plastic People" swiftly introduces a raw techno dungeon mood with varying elements make for a surrealist atmosphere. Following up in the same timbre, a heavy-hitting percussion sets off "8 Ball". The moving bassline is revealed as centerpiece, while faint vocals antagonize the rhythm. Cari Golden stellar vocals and skillful lyrics on "Things We Might Have Said" shine paired with Zonneveld's production prowess. Seizing attention for the full length of the track, the entire arrangement seduces the listener, making for a clamorous earworm. "Disturbed Minds" offers an experimental set of distorted synths permeating the speakers. "Spacedge" comes in the form of a groovy, laid back offering, with a blunt loopy vocal and a fractured field recording of over 50 layers as memorable high points. "Gateway" has a focus on dancefloor antics, elements zigzag, mimicking the initial arrangement. Having created an immersive loop, the percussion switches sides playing the melody. "Megacity Servant" makes use of the classic Roland SH-101's ability to emit a nearly tridimensional sound ray, unfolding newer details with each listen. The relentless melody, padded with grave synth arrays, establishes a melancholic mood. "EHT" unveils a heavy-hitting resolution, as the artist layers on hefty polarizing synths. A powerful arrangement that is unsettling and playful at the same time, diving into dark techno realms. Sharp clangs and high synths pepper the melody in "Modern Voodoo" amounting to a relentless, mind-reprogramming tidbit. "Dive" slows down the storyline, leaving just enough room to breathe until "Dynamite" pops in. Bolstering a progressive melody with a spacy vocal hook, the track turns the usual SH-101's '70s string loop into a techno-palatable disco instance. "Sharp Bust 2.2" previously released, is now reworked and reconstructed to amp up and stabilize the raw techno energy. Aymar's lush voice offsets the metallic production pads in "Beast" which unfolds as a spacious and multilateral sonic journey. American pop-folk singer Simone White comes "You Could Be The One I Want", a ludic techno ballad. A steady groove with a wandering synth line, "Abstinence" brings a moment of brief calm, followed by pure downtempo in "Anti Matter".
$11.99 EAN: 4260038314937 ELECTRONIC
01. Plastic People
02. 8 Ball
03. Things We Might Have Said (feat. Cari Golden)
04. Disturbed Minds
05. Spacedge
06. Gateway
07. Megacity Servant
08. EHT
09. Modern Voodoo
10. Dive
11. Dynamite
12. Sharp Bust 2.2
13. Beast (feat. Aymar)
14. You Could Be The One I Want (feat. Simone White)
15. Abstinence
16. Anti Matter
INUIT: 55 Historical Recordings Of Traditional Music From Greenland 1905-1987 CD (SR 115CD)
2016 repress. 55 Historical Recordings Of Traditional Music From Greenland 1905-1987 features historical recordings of traditional Greenlandic music recorded between 1905 (by the British ethnologist William Thalbitzer) to 1987 and collected by the Danish ethnomusicologist Michael Hauser. It was published in Greenland by Ulo. Sub Rosa took the decision to enlarge the distribution of this tribute to traditions and roots of the Inuit culture. This is more than an hour of ultra-rare documents, the testimony of a century of Inuit recordings. As a guide through this abundant material, included is a 24-page booklet with notes, comments and photos. Voices recorded in Greenland almost hundred years ago on wax glader cylinders, a lost shamanic story, a duel-song, a mournful melody and a unique collection of drum dance and songs. Hope, happiness and mournings - all of humanity is right here.
RADIONICS RADIO: An Album Of Musical Radionic Thought Frequencies CD (SR 423CD)
Daniel Wilson's Radionics Radio project draws upon the fringe-science of radionics, with its invisible forces and psychic resonances, to spawn electroacoustic and electronic compositions employing very alternative tuning systems. Radionics's idea that thoughts can be represented as frequencies is vigorously explored on An Album Of Musical Radionic Thought Frequencies through microtonal compositions which range from mutating drones to electronic sambas, with nods to Raymond Scott and Daphne Oram along the way. In 1962, Oxford's Delawarr Laboratories built their groundbreaking multi-oscillator instrument comprising multiple electronic tone generators. The multi-oscillator was the summation of all Delawarr Laboratories's acoustical research into radionics. It was a strange instrument far ahead of its time. In a process best described as "dowsing with oscillators," the unorthodox device was employed intuitively to select clusters of frequencies that embodied thoughts, ailments or concepts. The Laboratory submitted an application to broadcast the resulting thought-frequency tones over the radio, but were denied a broadcasting license. In 2014, Resonance FM's Sound and Music Embedded Composer in Residence Daniel Wilson launched Radionics Radio. Through an online app replicating Delawarr's multi-oscillator, users submitted their own thoughts and frequencies for radio broadcast. Along with a dozen original works, an exclusive 1968 tape recording of the original multi-oscillator is also featured on this CD. Daniel Wilson, who records under the alias Meadow House and performs in electroacoustic quartet Oscillatorial Binnage, has long been interested in composing with found physical objects and working within the restrictive tunings offered by those objects. Radionics Radio is an extension of this: the submitted thought-frequencies are themselves "found objects", each with their own unique harmonic worlds. All sounds heard in the Radionics Radio compositions are strictly derived only from the respective submitted thought-frequencies. This is an album unlike any other, and, if radionic theory is to be believed, one that contains more than the sum of its parts.
FIS presents From Patterns To Details, his second full length release. Natural patterns of organic life make the most efficient use of space and surface area and in permaculture design one observes natural patterns in a landscape and plans details accordingly. Taking a self-occurring pattern like the veins of a leaf, contour lines, or the spirals of water and letting that guide interactions with the surface of the earth. The ethos is to work with natural flow and processes rather than to impose. Mirroring this idea, From Patterns To Details draws from the sense of a deeper underlying order. It sees continuity between environment and individual, continuity between external bodies and the internal emotional landscapes that music can communicate beyond the affordances of language. The album embraces technology as something that is not in conflict with the organic processes of nature. Technology is treated as life in a different state. Human beings are gardens in a different state; all temporary forms of the same thing. From Patterns To Details imagines states of alignment with all and harmonious design, a complete integration between personal and external systems whether organic or technological. FIS composes physical, spirited, exploratory electronic music inspired in part by his work as a permaculture designer. Initially developing his craft on the sound systems of his birth country New Zealand, he went on to a string of critically acclaimed releases on Tri Angle Records and Loopy.
Lustmord, often credited as the originator of dark ambient, presents Dark Matter. Dark Matter was derived from an audio library of cosmological activity collected between 1993 and 2003; the audio was gathered from various sources including NASA (Cape Canaveral, Ames, The Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Arecibo), The Very Large Array, The National Radio Astronomy Observatory and various educational institutions and private contributors throughout the USA. Lustmord writes: "The universe we inhabit is a vast expanse far larger than we are able to comprehend. As we attempt to understand its underlying structure and as we gain new insight into the nature of matter, new questions arise and further gaps in our understanding are revealed. Behind the world that we experience lies a veil of darkness and much is hidden between, beyond and unseen. We are limited by our inability to truly grasp the infinite breadth of the Universe, the time scales involved in its measure and our insignificant position within. Some things will always be unknowable, and existence does not begin or end with man's conception. Everything that has ever been observed by man, even with our most sophisticated instruments amounts, to less than five percent of the universe. Approximately sixty-eight percent of the universe is unseen dark energy and approximately twenty-seven percent is unseen dark matter. We have yet to discover what dark matter is, and only know the things it is not. Although it has not been directly observed, its existence and properties are inferred from its effects on visible matter, its influence on the universe's large-scale structure, and its effects in the cosmic microwave background. The universe began of darkness, not of light. While space is a virtual vacuum, it does not mean there is no sound in space. It exists in space as naturally occurring electromagnetic vibrations, many well within the range of human hearing while others exist at different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum and these can be adjusted with software to bring them within our audio range. The recordings of these interactions in space come from several different environments including radio, ultra violet, microwave and X-ray data and within these spectra a wide range of sources including interstellar plasma and molecules, radio galaxies, pulsars masers and quasars, charged particle interactions and emissions, radiation, exotic astrophysical objects, cosmic jets and flares from magnetars." Recorded in Los Angeles between October and December of 2015. Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft.
Twitchin' Beat Records present a reissue of France Gall's self-titled debut album, originally released in 1964. Gall was the shooting star of French pop in the '60s with tunes like the very famous "Poupee De Cire, Poupee De Son" and a comeback hit in the late '80s, "Ella Elle L'a". She was a beautiful girl with brown eyes and blonde hair when she hit the scene aged 17 in 1964, and her rise to fame and stardom happened in an amazing pace. This is France Gall's debut album, released in 1964 along with a couple of Rolling Stones, Hollies and Beatles albums and it could compete with all these heavy weights of that era. France Gall contains a nifty mix of songs that present elements of chanson, soul and heartache ballad, vocal jazz and contemporary pop. "Jazz Á Go-Go" for example is such a rather haunting vocal jazz track with a wicked saxophone solo and on the other hand "Les Rubans Et La Fleur" comes as a beautiful pop/beat song with melodies ranging between happy and thoughtfully folky, as if some chanson and classic English folksong have been mixed up with a playful beat background. "Pense À Moi" owes much to cool jazz hero Dave Brubeck and his 5/4 rhythms and piano block chords of the "Take Five" anthem. A beautiful French pop album that emanates an angelic innocence that pop music had actually lost by that time with plenty of emotional depth to be found here, but Gall's innocence just keeps it all together. Happy songs, dark songs, dramatic melodies - her early works were a bit more serious and cool than later in the '60s when she adopted a full, but tame, chanson pop sound. The melancholic ballad "J'entends Cette Musique" has an utterly sad but hopeful melody. For fans of '60s female fronted pop music stuck in between the more adventurous mid '60s style and '50s heartbreak songs, France Gall's debut is a must have.
$16.99 EAN: 3891121305917 ROCK
A1. Mes Premières Vraies Vacances (2:15)
A2. Jazz À Gogo (2:26)
A3. Soyons Sages (2:30)
A4. Les Rubans Et La Fleur (2:45)
A5. Pense À Moi (2:32)
A6. Ça Va Je T'aime "Hip-Huggers" (2:13)
B1. La Cloche (2:05)
B2. N'écoute Pas Les Idoles (1:50)
B3. J'entends Cette Musique (2:33)
B4. Ne Dis Pas Aux Copains (2:34)
B5. Ne Sois Pas Si Bête "Stand A Little Closer" (2:16)
B6. Si J'étais Garçon (2:10)
The first CD release of Bamboo's Prince Pansori Priestess, released on vinyl in 2015. This CD version includes a bonus set of live recordings made at Café OTO during Upset The Rhythm's showcase on April 10th, 2016. Bamboo is a sublime project from Nick Carlisle (of Peepholes, Don't Argue) and Rachel Horwood (of Trash Kit, Halo Halo). Their music is vivid and deeply poignant, locking into a magnetic attraction between Horwood's flawlessly resonant folk cadence and Carlisle's pristine synth pop production. Far from being a one-off, Bamboo is very much a fully realized pursuit, with the band working on multiple records simultaneously from their Brighton and London base camps. Prince Pansori Priestess is the first album to see the light from this pairing of talents. Recorded from spring 2014 to spring 2015, this was before the band expanded to a four-piece for live performances, showcasing Bamboo as an original duo with a sound-world very much their own. The title references a Korean genre of musical storytelling alongside notions of majesty and faith, which are all streams that weave their way through the record. Central to the work's sound is the meeting of the warmer tones evident in the vocals, acoustic drums, and banjo with the immaculate, spatial nature of the synths and beat-scapes. It feels very pure, prismatic, and even mystical at moments without losing any of its human touch. "Auroch" opens this debut album and slowly unpacks all the qualities that make Bamboo such an incredible band. At first the pitched-banjo paces out a chiming circle allowing Horwood's entrancing vocal to follow the line, then Carlisle's pristine beats and synth clusters blossom into almost sub-aqua realms of lush swirling melody. "Stone" is an aching song of self-reflection set amid flourishes of reverberating keyboard that at times sound like gamelan and at others like fireworks in the daylight. "Sangokushi Love Theme" was written by Haruomi Hosono of Yellow Magic Orchestra, and in the hands of Bamboo it begins to shine with even brighter colors. It's beautiful, serene, and nothing short of spellbinding. "Be Brothers" is another highlight from the second half of the album. The first part of the song begins with a fragile plucked banjo motif underscored by drifts of blushing ambience before the percussion picks up, allowing the rippling synths to walk hand-in-hand with Roedelius toward the horizon. Verity Susman (of Electrelane) guests toward the end of "Be Brothers" on saxophone, helping the song reach its more resolved future. Bamboo hit the ground running with this debut record, sounding as unique and mercurial as the gift of song itself.
$10.99 UPC: 828887017511 ROCK
01. Auroch
02. Stone
03. Hexag onal
04. On Bohol
05. Sangokushi Love Theme
06. Hotaru
07. Khene Song
08. Be Brothers
09. Stone... reprise
10. Islands
11. Auroch (Live at Café OTO)
12. Stone (Live at Café OTO)
13. On Bohol (Live at Café OTO)
14. Be Brothers (Live at Café OTO)
15. Islands (Live at Café OTO)
16. Hexagonal (Live at Café OTO)
FORTHCOMING, OTHER LABELS:
GOOFIN':
SONIC YOUTH: Confusion Is Sex CD (GOO 022CD)
"Originally slated to be a seven-inch single to follow up their self-titled debut, Sonic Youth's Confusion Is Sex blossomed into the band's first album: a brain-bludgeoning, completely fried endeavor of dissonance and disarray, a perfect soundtrack for running from a chain-wielding gang near the SIN Club. This was the sound of 1983 New York City: nothing like London where punks were starting to scrub their faces and sounds to get on Top of the Pops, and nothing like the jangly roots of college radio rock starting to formulate in Athens, Georgia. It sounded like no one else on Earth, for that matter. The raw, Wharton Tiers 8-track production is dark, the Kim Gordon-scrawled cover figure art of Thurston Moore is dark, Lee Renaldo 's back cover photo-collage and Catherine Ceresole's crumpled-xeroxed images that adorned the inside are dark. It's an album that moves Sonic Youth forward from their first EP almost by devolving backwards into true ugly, lo-fi primitivity."
$11.75 UPC: 787996802220 ROCK
SONIC YOUTH: Confusion Is Sex LP (GOO 022LP)
LP version.
$15.00 UPC: 787996802213 ROCK
IN THE RED (UNITED STATES):
DANNY & THE DARLEANS: Bug Out CD (ITR 299CD)
"As one-third of The Gories, singer/guitarist Danny Kroha cemented himself in rock history for his contributions to a groundbreaking and influential band. In between the Gories' 1992 breakup and their soft return in 2009, Kroha fronted Danny & the Darleans (amongst other projects), centering around his feral howls and masterful guitar clanging. Bug Out, their sophomore album, refines some of the savage bombast of the Gories while ditching almost all of the glam camp of Kroha's other long-running act, the Demolition Doll Rods. Backed by fireball drummer Richie Wohlfeil (Detroit Cobras, Mother Whale, Saturday Looks Good to Me, and many others) and bassist Colleen Burke (once keyboardist for Chicago art-punks We Regazzi), they're something of a party band. The tunes are often lighthearted, fun, and rowdy, but there is also an undercurrent of science fiction dread. Apocalyptic party rock makes sense from a trio of Detroit shadow dwellers, and the good times are never too far from the hard times over the course of this mono masterpiece."
$10.75 UPC: 759718529920 ROCK
DANNY & THE DARLEANS: Bug Out LP (ITR 299LP)
LP version.
$13.00 UPC: 759718529913 ROCK
KRANKY (UNITED STATES):
PIOULARD, BENOIT: The Benoit Pioulard Listening Matter CD (KRANK 203CD)
"The Benoît Pioulard Listening Matter is the sixth Kranky album from Thomas Meluch under the nom de plume Benoît Pioulard. It arrives on the 10th anniversary of his first LP, Précis, and offers a rekindled focus on self-examination, as well as a return to vocal-based pop structures following the mostly instrumental Sonnet (2015). Recording for the Listening Matter began during a period of grief, turmoil and self-medication, and continued throughout two years of growth and healing. Reflections on vice ('Layette', 'Anchor as the Muse'), virtue ('Narcologue') and death ('A Mantle for Charon') feature equally in this concise treatise aimed at the flawed-but-resilient core in us all. By coincidence this album was completed on the very day Meluch's only brother died; accordingly, it's dedicated to him and anyone seeking paths away from their demons."
$9.50 UPC: 796441820320 ELECTRONIC
PIOULARD, BENOIT: The Benoit Pioulard Listening Matter LP (KRANK 203LP)
LP version.
$11.50 UPC: 796441820313 ELECTRONIC
NEW WORLD RECORDS:
CARL, ROBERT: The Geography Of Loss CD (NW 80780CD)
"Imagine, if you will, a busy, furiously humming beehive, and, within it, a calm, meditative bee. The image comes from only one work on this disc, and yet it seems curiously apropos to so much of Robert Carl's (b. 1954) music. There is a still center in his music, even at its modernist rowdiest. In his music dissonance and rhythmic complexity do not connote anxiety, fear, violence, but rather the overflow of the exuberant noise that springs up from the ground of life. His music embraces extremes of simplicity and complexity, which in his vision interpenetrate each other. Symphony No. 4 (2008), one of his best and most ambitious works, is a score often dense with polyrhythms and dissonant counterpoint. Its subtitle is The Ladder, and the ladder in this case is the harmonic series, the series of overtones that arises naturally as you move your finger along a piano or guitar string while playing it. Two pieces on this disc were born from the sense of loss following the deaths of both of Carl's parents, in quick succession. The less obvious one is the Chamber Concerto for Guitar, subtitled The Calm Bee in the Busy Hive (2009?10). The ten-member ensemble includes a second guitar, and both guitars are tuned to a scordatura that facilitates a harmonic series on E: E-G#-D-F#-Bb-F. The other is The Geography of Loss (2010), whose form is an alternation of choral and instrumental movements with the chorus and instruments together in two movements and a baritone solo and soprano solo, respectively, in each of those movements. Written considerably earlier than the other works on this disc, The World Turned Upside Down (2000) is somewhat in a different idiom, but Carl considers it a turning point in his output, and its coda the initiation of the harmonic-series practice. Overall, this group of pieces leads us through an enormous diversity of idioms, and Carl has never been one to cultivate a single well-defined style and stick to it. Yet if one listens with an ear for his procedure of shifting from one harmonic series to another, the underlying unity is perceptible, and the disc as a whole gives us a striking picture of one of the most remarkable of early 21st-century composers."
$10.75 UPC: 093228078029 CLASSICAL
PALACE OF LIGHTS (UNITED STATES):
LEIMER, K.: Re-enact CD (POL 001CD)
"Following a few years of back-catalog recovery, K. Leimer has completed work on his first new solo album since The Grey Catalog. These ten new tracks follow an emergent arc, a refinement of the techniques he has used since Permissions. Highly tactile, with an emphasis on subharmonics, Re-enact sketches an antediluvian soundstage of deteriorating fragments scattered among still-recognizable artifacts. This multitude of points-of-collapse in textural, timbre, harmonic and rhythmic relationships, continually folds in on itself to reveal moments of inner coherence and cognition. Embedded throughout with a wealth of digital and analog detail, Re-enact sets a new post-ambient direction for Leimer's work. K. Leimer founded Palace of Lights in 1979. Leimer's early work has recently been reissued by Autumn and RVNG, and his early cassette work is in the critically acclaimed VOD box set American Cassette Culture (VOD 139KL-LP, 2015). Leimer has been actively producing music since the mid-1970s -- his current catalog includes 17 albums plus two collaborative albums with Marc Barreca. Leimer's work is included in the collection of The British Library."
