Forced Exposure New Releases for the Week of 9/4/2023

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: 3000GRAD 004LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LP version. On The Fly tells about the small moments of the big journey that is the path of jPattersson as a musician: Barefooted gratitude in the shade of a palm tree, a hike through the dreamlike colors of the highlands, a balcony scene with a glass of wine and the view of another galaxy... It's these small moments that fuel his contagious enthusiasm and hope that form the backbone for his signature "jPatterssong-writing". On The Fly is a very personal album that invites you to join the flight yourselves: six of the eight tracks come with the highly stimulating catchiness of a four-to-the-floor beat. Sometimes it's jPattersson's voice that sets the mood, sometimes it's his trumpet, and then again, it's the frequencies of electronically processed harmony which stretch like elastic rubber bands between delicate introspection and buzzing euphoria. A track generously marinated in sunlight and dub as well as a piece of oceanic downbeat relaxation round off this forth jPattersson album just perfectly. "Baila Conmigo" features Macarena Gómez.

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: 3000GRAD 025CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

On The Fly tells about the small moments of the big journey that is the path of jPattersson as a musician: Barefooted gratitude in the shade of a palm tree, a hike through the dreamlike colors of the highlands, a balcony scene with a glass of wine and the view of another galaxy... It's these small moments that fuel his contagious enthusiasm and hope that form the backbone for his signature "jPatterssong-writing". On The Fly is a very personal album that invites you to join the flight yourselves: six of the eight tracks come with the highly stimulating catchiness of a four-to-the-floor beat. Sometimes it's jPattersson's voice that sets the mood, sometimes it's his trumpet, and then again, it's the frequencies of electronically processed harmony which stretch like elastic rubber bands between delicate introspection and buzzing euphoria. A track generously marinated in sunlight and dub as well as a piece of oceanic downbeat relaxation round off this forth jPattersson album just perfectly. "Baila Conmigo" features Macarena Gómez.

 

PRICE: $18.50

CAT #: AALP 046LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Tracks by Scientist, Barrington Levy, Johnny Osbourne, Linval Thompson, Wayne Wade, Wade Brammer, Barry Brown, Sammy Dread, and Wailing Souls. Produced by Brad Osborne.

 

PRICE: $18.50

CAT #: CTLP 4967LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Crucial set featuring Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, Aston Barett, Winston Wright, Sly Morris, J. Francisque, and Skully "Zoot" Simms.

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: ALT 074CS

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Cassette version. The collaboration between Klara Lewis and Nik Colk Void somehow seemed inevitable. Both artists having seen their releases published by Editions Mego, individually carving out idiosyncratic voices in the worlds of extreme, abstract electronic music. With Full-On, Lewis and Void explore and assimilate the very edge of their individual practice where a unique collaborative interface allows two voices to combine and morph into a third voice. Lewis and Void play ping pong with the conversation of sounds, generating ideas and bouncing them off each other, simultaneously encouraging the other to go further with their ideas opening up an opportunity to engage with previously unexplored terrain. Guitars, synths, Eurorack modular systems, voice, sampling, and outboard processing are folded in a playful unification with a propensity to tease, explore and extract new ideas and shapes, sometimes brutal, sometimes playful. Trust was also a compositional tool allowing instinct to freely move on any aspect of the sound and space. This sound/feeling/instinct/association let this wild and wonderful material grow organically into something new. The result of this exploratory interplay are 17 intense miniatures reveling in the process of unadulterated experimentation and whimsical interplay, not just between the humans, but the machines themselves. United in an endless series of sonic U-turns, this daring duo intertwine pop and noise whilst also bringing together visions of tender techno and forthright ambient. The various zones which manifest from all these reveals vocals shifting in mysterious ways, dust drenched beats churning limpidly and devilish string loops navigating a disorientating domain. The experience of listening to Full-On is to be confronted with a range of ideas resulting in a platter of emotions. A place where beauty and the beast collide with the impulsive and outright weird. What a wonderful world.

 

PRICE: $14.00

CAT #: AX 059CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

The Tomorrow Comes The Harvest project started with late Tony Allen, one of the originators of Afrobeat, and Jeff Mills, who got together to create an improvisational type of performance. The idea was to not pre-prepare or to preplan anything, but just to play in the moment spontaneously and to reach for the same understanding musically. Jean-Phi Dary had been working with Tony Allen for a long time, naturally joined the unit. After an untimely passing of Tony in 2020, they thought that maybe a good idea to continue with the project and to consider it in a much more broader respect other than just three main musicians that may be, it's interesting to make it open, to be able to invite other musicians in for certain concerts. They decided to invite Prabhu Edouard, who already had an experience of working with Jeff for classical concerts in France. The album was recorded live at Bozar in Brussels, Belgium in 2022.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: B 143LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Warehouse find, last copies. Part two, on clear vinyl in clear plastic sleeve with blue lettering. Limited edition 500 copies.

 

PRICE: $39.50

CAT #: BANG 167LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Reissue, originally released in 2006. Gala Mill is considered as Exile on Main Street in The Drones' discography. Gala Mill is the third studio album by Australian band The Drones, which was released in September 2006. Recorded in an abandoned mill in Tasmania, it was their last album to feature founding member Rui Pereira and the first to feature Mike Noga on drums. The music, which makes "an epic leap beyond garage rock", adds influences from folk rock and contemporary folk music to their usual punk blues style. Gareth Liddiard's lyrics for the album are centered more on Australia's colonial and recent history, evident in tracks such as "Jezebel", "Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce", and "Sixteen Straws". Much like its predecessor, the album received critical acclaim from sources both within and outside Australia, with much of it centered on the album's raw musical style and Liddiard's dark lyricism. In 2014, Flavorwire included the track "Sixteen Straws" on their list of "The 50 Best Album Closing Tracks Ever". In 2021, Rolling Stone Australia listed Gala Mill at number 155 on their list of "The 200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time" (one of two Drones albums on the list). New sleeve artwork.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: BANG 172LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Tyla is an English rock musician, best known for his work with The Dogs D'Amour as well as an extensive solo catalogue. Not only performing vocals, guitars and other instruments, he also illustrates the album covers in his own recognizable style. Libertine is his second solo album and it was recorded and released only on CD and in the UK in 1996. Now for the first time on vinyl, Libertine contains material which arguably bares the closest stylistic similarity to The Dogs D'Amour. There has been speculation amongst fans that some of the songs were written for his former band. As on Tyla's first solo album (also available on Bang! Records), Libertine contains both electric and acoustic material. For fans of Jacobites, The Dogs D´Amour, and Johnny Thunders.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: BPR 036LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The first vinyl reissue of Tucker Zimmerman's 1974 album. A self-described "songpoet," Zimmerman's long and storied life as an American "exile" in Europe has so far produced nine studio albums and many hundreds of poems and, more recently, led to his current collaborations with Big Thief. Running through it all is a sustained, singular will to create beautiful low key, low ego art on the biggest, most timeless themes. Tucker's experimental use of keyboards, synthesizers and that rarest of birds -- the Ondes Martenot (a kind of theremin hybrid) -- creates a shifting palette to lift songs with a classic singer/songwriter feel into something new. Perhaps only the early '70s Beach Boys were onto the same idea, albeit with slightly different budgets. Tucker produced this LP himself. Cutting his production teeth with another life friend Tony Visconti in London, experimenting with tapes and electronic sounds while working with others on many albums, including Marsha Hunt and Paul Butterfield, as well as on his own debut (one of Bowie's favorite records). Zimmerman is the real deal and Over Here In Europe was a new direction which would end seven years later with the excellent Word Games, whereupon he paused from the creation of albums in this form.

 

PRICE: $35.00

CAT #: BT 104LP

FILE UNDER: CLASSICAL

Black Truffle announce Symphony No. 107 - The Bard, a previously unheard archival recording of the legendary improvising ensemble MEV (Musica Elettronica Viva), captured in concert at Bard College, New York in 2012. Formed by a group of American expat composers in Rome in 1966, the MEV ensemble played an important role in the development of free improvisation, bridging the live electronics tradition begun by Cage and Tudor and the high-energy squall of free jazz. Early recordings like Spacecraft (WELLE 104LP) or The Sound Pool unleash volleys of metal and glass amplified with contact microphones, howling winds, primitive synthesizer bleep, and raucous audience participation, the intensity of which puts much later "noise" to shame. In later decades, the ensemble would go through many iterations, often including legendary free players like Steve Lacy and George Lewis. In its final years, MEV settled into the core trio of founding members heard here: Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, and Richard Teitelbaum, using piano, electronics, and small instruments. MEV is the sound of these three personalities coming together, their contributions radically individual yet attaining a state of "fundamental unity" that Rzewski, in a text written in the collective's earliest years, defined as the "final goal of improvisation". Of course, listeners familiar with aspect of the trio's individual works might hazard some guesses about who is doing what: the crisp piano figures are probably Rzewski's, the cut-up hip-hop samples most likely Curran's, the sliding, squelching synth possibly Teitelbaum's. But often these identities are dissolved in a constantly shifting hall of mirrors. The two side-long sets here occupy a similar terrain of constantly shifting texture and instrumentation, unexpected interruptions, and moments of sudden beauty. The first set is sparser, at times almost ominous, as a bell repeatedly sounds across wheezing harmonica, seasick orchestral textures, and creaking wood, making room for episodes of yodeling and delicate prepared piano before exploding into a storm of buzzing synth and piano fragments. The second set is more frenetic, moving rapidly across centuries and continents: cars crash into post-serial piano pointillism, wailing voices collide with chopped and screwed hip-hop samples, Hollywood strings are buried under layers of electronic gurgles. The performance slows in its final moments, making way for a sampled voice repeating the phrase "protest and the good of the world", reminding you that MEV's idea of freedom was always more than musical. Symphony No. 107 - The Bard is a beautifully recorded example of the endlessly multi-layered later MEV sound, accompanied by new liner notes by Alvin Curran and a selection of previously unseen photographs from across the many decades of the group's activity.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: BT 105LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Black Truffle welcome free jazz legend Joe McPhee back to the fold with Oblique Strategies, a wild trio recorded in Antwerp in 2018 in the company of Mette Rasmussen's fire-breathing alto saxophone and Dennis Tyfus's post-Fluxus antics on tape, voice, and percussion. Rasmussen and Tyfus have previously recorded together as Bazuinschal, and some similar strategies are on display here: mysterious metallic scrapes, extended tones in which voice and sax become indistinguishable, comic explosions of varispeed tape. With McPhee on board, however, proceedings are more sumptuous, with the two horns moving fluidly from expeditions into the extremes of their instruments' registers to pointillistic note-splatter and Ayler-esque folk melodies; we even get to bask in some of the slow-motion free blues that McPhee has now been playing for half a century. McPhee is heard primarily on tenor, Rasmussen mainly on alto, but with Rasmussen doubling on sundry objects, and the whole trio contributing vocals, certainty about who is doing what becomes nigh impossible. The recording and production add to this hazy unclarity. Where much contemporary improvised music aims at dryly clinical hi-fi, the lively reverberant space of Oblique Strategies calls to mind the less-than-pristine sonics of classic free jazz artifacts like John Tchicai's Afrodisiaca or McPhee's own Underground Railroad. Spread across four pieces ranging from four to nineteen minutes in length, Oblique Strategies moves with anarchic swagger from explosions of clattering cymbals and bellowing horns to near-silent episodes of mysterious rumble and clunk. "Death or Dinner?" opens the record with a lovely duet of climbing melodic patterns shared between the two saxophones, played with a buzzing oboe-like tone. A long, wavering note sung by Tyfus cues the first of countless changes of direction, eventually leading to a crescendo of watery splutters and dueling saxes. At points Tyfus's keening resemble the signature moves of his friend and collaborator, Ghédelia Tazartès; at others, his tape-sped huffs and puffs possess a rawness reminiscent of Henri Chopin or Gil Wolman. The dialogue between wailing saxophones and vocal cries, punctuated by percussive thuds and crashes, can at times feel less like a musical performance and more like the calls of some mysterious forest creatures. Oblique Strategies can also be delicate at times, as on the beautiful third piece, "Destilled Edible", dominated by a slow, microtonal melody played with a breathy tone resembling a shakuhachi. The closing side-long "Light My Fire" ranges across classic improv call and response, skittering trumpet blurts, inept cymbal clatter, mock-operatic vocals, and crude tape maneuvers. Oblique Strategies is an invigoratingly free-spirited blast of improvisation.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: BT 106LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Black Truffle announce The Leisure Principle, a new solo LP from London-based bassist and sound artist Otto Willberg. A key player in the London underground, Willberg is often heard on acoustic and electric bass in free improv settings and bands with Laurie Tompkins (Yes Indeed) and Charles Hayward (Abstract Concrete), as well as the fractured no wave unit Historically Fucked. His previous solo releases have ranged from extended technique double bass to explorations of the acoustics of a 19th century artillery fort. But nothing Willberg has committed to wax so far prepares a listener for The Leisure Principle, six unashamedly melodic improvisational workouts created almost entirely with heavily filtered bass harmonica and electric bass. On the opening "Reap What Thou Sow", a single-note bass harmonica loop pulses along underneath a roaming bass solo, the side-chained envelope filtering (where the dynamic behavior of the bass determines the filter for both bass and harmonica) fusing the two instruments into a single stream of burbling shifts in resonance. After several minutes of patient exploration of this low-end landscape, the music suddenly opens up in widescreen with the entrance of Sam Andreae's graceful melodica chords, spreading out across the stereo field. From this epic opener, each of the remaining pieces goes on to explore a slightly different aspect of the terrain. On "Shadow Came into the Eyes as Earth Turned on its Axis", a similarly buoyant harmonica bass line provides the foundation, but this time playing a soulful descending riff, it's almost R&B feel abstracted and half-obscured by the filtering. On "Mollusk", echoed bass arpeggios skitter between elegiac chords somewhat reminiscent of the opening of John Abercrombie's "Timeless", before settling into a hypnotic groove. On the record's second half, Willberg pushes further into the possibilities of his idiosyncratic instrumentation. On "Wetter", bass and harmonica come together into a monstrous, growling jaw harp; on "Had we but world enough and more time", the subtly shifting pulsating patterns start to feel almost like a kind of evaporated, drum-less dub techno until an eruption of wheezing bass harmonica gives the piece a comically folkish turn. Willberg's melodically inventive and virtuosic bass performance calls to mind any number of fusion touchstones, from Jaco Pastorius to Mark Egan's singing tone in the early Pat Metheny Group. But with its radically reduced instrumentation, The Leisure Principle is also an exercise in minimalism, and the absence of percussion gives even its funkiest moments a strangely abstracted quality. At times, its uncanny blend of the abstruse and the immediate suggests the fried pop experiments of David Rosenboom or the skewed but deeply musical DIY of '80s underground groups like De Fabriek.

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: BLACKBALL 010LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. "Received a 9.1 Best New Reissue rating from Pitchfork. One of the most popular and successful underground bands of the early- /mid-'90s, California's Jawbreaker was comprised of Blake Schwarzenbach (guitar and vocals), Chris Bauermeister (bass) and Adam Pfahler (drums). The band melded raw vocals, a driving rhythm section and grinding guitar with complex song structures and literary lyrics, forging a distinctive style that has since, along with Schwarzenbach's subsequent band Jets to Brazil, influenced a generation of independent music. By the end of 1993, Jawbreaker was in full stride. The band had completed a full US tour in the summer, played several shows that October with Nirvana, and was attracting significant major label attention. 24 Hour Revenge Therapy, released in early 1994, was Jawbreaker's third album. After the more 'progressive' Bivouac, the trio had returned to a straightforward, poppier sound, and the resulting full-length is widely regarded as their best. The bulk of the recording was done by noted independent producer Steve Albini (though it is officially credited to Albini's cat, Fluss). Following the mainstream success of fellow Californians Green Day and Rancid, Jawbreaker decided to sign with DGC. They released a final studio album, Dear You, before calling it quits in 1996. A feature-length documentary on the band is currently in the works."

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: BFRC3K 001LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

Piero Zuffi made this bizarre film set in the seedy underbelly of Off-Broadway productions, hippie communities, S&M bars and bike gangs. The story follows a serial killer on the loose and an investigator looking into an heiress' kidnapping. With the help of editor Franco Arcalli, the movie was reconfigured into an effective fever dream with a non-linear structure. Once more the music composed by maestro Piero Piccioni is better than the movie. A wonderful kaleidoscope of psychedelic oddness favors the composer's jazz roots and strong percussion work, but also features delightful bursts of source music as well as the self-contained brilliance of the occasional set pieces -- including background scores for the experimental productions of the Off-Broadway world. This highly addictive score, impossible to find on the original LP released by RCA in 1970 and reissued on vinyl only by South Korean label Beatball can finally benefit from a meticulous restoration from the original master tapes, thanks to the involvement of Piccioni's family. It's exactly like buying a copy in 1970 without any compression and digital artifacts. Black vinyl pressing of 500 copies worldwide.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: BJR 088CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Lalalar is back with a new album on Les Disques Bongo Joe! After setting European stages on fire with the release of their first LP in 2022, the mighty Turkish band returns with En Kötü Iyi Olur, an album that reflects their image: edgy, independent, political, and tremendously effective. With their roots in Anatolian poetry and sonorities, but their focus on a club-oriented, uncompromising rock, Lalalar has not given up and is once again ready to turn everything upside down. The streets of Istanbul have always been a melting pot of political energy, social furor, and intense musical progression. It's a hotbed of riotous sounds and artists looking for new outlets and sound; a bi-product of youth culture who have been living under the rule of Erdo?an for almost a decade. It's from these streets that the band Lalalar came to fruition. The alternative electronic-activists Ali Güçlü ?im?ek, Barlas Tan Özemek and Alican ?pek are radicals in terms of their political ideology of sounds; outspoken, ideological, and full of energy, ripe for the dancefloor.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: BJR 088LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Lalalar is back with a new album on Les Disques Bongo Joe! After setting European stages on fire with the release of their first LP in 2022, the mighty Turkish band returns with En Kötü Iyi Olur, an album that reflects their image: edgy, independent, political, and tremendously effective. With their roots in Anatolian poetry and sonorities, but their focus on a club-oriented, uncompromising rock, Lalalar has not given up and is once again ready to turn everything upside down. The streets of Istanbul have always been a melting pot of political energy, social furor, and intense musical progression. It's a hotbed of riotous sounds and artists looking for new outlets and sound; a bi-product of youth culture who have been living under the rule of Erdo?an for almost a decade. It's from these streets that the band Lalalar came to fruition. The alternative electronic-activists Ali Güçlü ?im?ek, Barlas Tan Özemek and Alican ?pek are radicals in terms of their political ideology of sounds; outspoken, ideological, and full of energy, ripe for the dancefloor.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: BJRA 003LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

After the success of Cruise Control repress, Les Disques Bongo Joe are proud to announce the official reissue of Polymood, second album of L'Éclair and maybe their most renowned project for the moment. Recorded live in Amsterdam by the wizard Japser Gelük (Altin Gün, Allah Las, Jacco Gardner), this library-groove-oriented album goes deep into L'Éclair influences back in the days: Piero Piccioni, AIR, Sly Stone or Can.

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: BRINE 005LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Limited 2023 restock; LP version. "Prior to co-founding the Incredible String Band, Clive Palmer had already made a name for himself as a versatile instrumentalist from his teenage years busking around London. Just after the first ISB album was released, he would quit the band and seemingly vanished from the scene, traveling around Europe, India and Afghanistan. He resurfaced with his banjo a few years later under the guise of COB, Clive's Original Band, with instrumentalists and songwriting partners Mick Bennett and John Bidwell. Guitarist Ralph McTell agreed to produce the project as a labor of love, and with the newly coined trio they created what is considered to be one of the most beautiful acid folk albums ever to come out of the British Isles. McTell kept the production organic, with most of the vocals and rhythm tracks recorded live. Experimental in nature, Spirit of Love is a highly original album that embodies the spirit of UK folk amidst reality at the time. Bootlegged several times, this is the first official vinyl reissue of this eternal classic."

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: BR 169LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Relikte aus der Zukunft (Relics from the Future) is a new album by experimental German artist Baldruin. Growing up in a small Bavarian village rectory around 10 meters beside the church and serving as an altar boy; organ music, church bells, and spiritual chanting were very much present in Johannes Schebler's ears during his childhood years. This experience was probably the basis for his ongoing interest in transcendental and mysterious atmospheres, he recalls. Schebler started making music as Baldruin back in 2009 with DIY experimentations which were first released on tape, a CD-R 3" and later on several LPs all over Europe (Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Finland, Netherlands, Slovakia), as well as in the USA and Japan. While in the beginning Baldruin's tracks were mostly created with acoustic instruments, later synthesizers and other electronic sound sources joined, expanding the sound palette and letting primordial and futuristic worlds merge organically into each other. Although Relikte aus der Zukunft feels like a journey to the unknown, with constantly changing moods, all of the recordings were done in a small and improvised home studio in Schebler's living room in Wiesbaden, Germany, using mostly a single MIDI-keyboard for recording. The tracks are full of color and amazement, detailed and thorough when evoking the setting and conjuring the experience. They can be playful and bright, or suspenseful and ominous, until bursting into ritual and hallucination. The gloomiest soundscapes can jump into a ship fueled by retro sci-fi arpeggios, the solemn can turn to rejoice, and a star can shrink into a fireplace. Mastered by Alberto Cendra at Garden Lab Audio. Cover art by Johannes Schebler. Edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: BR 177LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Implosiones is the second album by Búho Ermitaño, Peruvian psych explorers. With references to kraut rock and the Andean folk of groups like El Polen, the sound of Búho Ermitaño is immersed in hypnotic instrumental explorations, melodic passages, and bursts of cosmic rock. Implosiones is a renovating sound synthesis that places the band as one of the new referents of psychedelic rock in Peru. Formed in Lima in 2008 by Franz Núñez (guitar) and Diego Pando (guitar), they began as a jam band. With the addition of Irving Fuentes (charango) and Leo Pando (synthesizers), the group's sound began to have its own color, which found its final formation with the inclusion in 2014 of Ale Borea (percussion) and Juan Camba (drums). Since then, they have been an active band in the underground circuit of Lima, alternating with psychedelic rock bands and experimental music artists (several members of Búho Ermitaño play at the same time in various sound experimentation musical projects). It is with this formation that the group has recorded Implosiones, incorporating a wide range of instruments that includes guitars, bass, drums, synthesizers, theremin, electronic loops, bongos, flutes, djembes, charango, among others. All of this is reflected in songs like "Herbie" with a marked percussion base, or in "Explosiones", and their high-energy neo-psychedelia, unlike their first album, the inclusion of vocals in song format is now present, opening up a new creative path. Implosiones also includes some of the group's classic songs such as "Buarabino", a drift of psychedelic folk, but also new compositions such as "Entre los cerros", where synthesizers set a course for space rock. Implosiones has been recorded and mixed by Camilo Uriarte at Eco Estudio and mastered by Alberto Cendra and Camilo Uriarte. Produced by Búho Ermitaño and Camilo Uriarte. Art by About Visual Studio. Edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: CF 029LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Recorded live by Jürgen Lindenau on April 14th and 15th, 1974 during the Workshop Freie Musik at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. This album was originally released on FMP(0180) in 1975 and remastered in 2022 by Martin Siewert. Featuring: Peter Brötzmann (alto and baritone saxophone, clarinet); Albert Mangelsdorff (trombone); Fred Van Hove (piano); Han Bennink (drums, selfmade clarinet, homemade junk, voice). Artwork and design by Peter Brötzmann.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: CF 030LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Recorded live by Jost Gebers on May 4th,1974 at the Ost-West-Festival in Nürnberg. This album was originally released on FMP(0200) in 1975, and remastered in 2022 by Martin Siewert. Featuring: Peter Brötzmann (alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet); Fred Van Hove (piano); Han Bennink (drums, clarinet, homemade junk, everything, anything). Artwork and design by Peter Brötzmann.

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: CTLP 1415LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Twofer reissue of the excellent Lee 'Scratch' Perry & The Upsetters LPs, Chapter 1 (1981) and Blackboard Jungle Dub (1981). Comes with large poster. Not an exact duplication of the original LPs. "The material is weirdly wonderful and represents some of Perry's earliest and most unrestrained efforts at dub madness. Issued on one disc, they ebb and flow seamlessly (set your CD player or playlist on 'shuffle' for proof), with tracks like 'Scratch The Dub Organizer' and 'Dub From Africa' especially delicious. This is a great way to dig deep into Perry's unique mindset without spending a ton of money." --John Dougan, AllMusic

 

PRICE: $18.50

CAT #: CTLP 876LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Track by King Tubby and Aggrovators, Tower Unlimited, Rod Taylor, Augustus Pablo, Ossie All Stars, Linval Thompson, Horace Andy, Johnny Clarke, and Johnny Lover.

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: CVSD 100CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

In 1981, British percussionist Paul Lytton and German guitarist Erhard Hirt met and recorded for a couple of days in Belgium. This explosive, ahead-of-its-time first encounter, which had been planned as a release on the legendary Po Torch label, has remained dormant for over four decades. In that period, Lytton and Hirt teamed up often, joining forces with saxophonist/clarinetist Wolfgang Fuchs and bassist Hans Schneider as the quartet X-Pact, a group that has recently reformed -- several years after the untimely death of Fuchs -- with Stefan Keune in the saxophone chair. Lytton and Hirt were key participants in the Aachen (Germany) improvised music scene, also key members of King Übü Örchestrü, one of the most radical improvising large ensembles. Lytton's legacy hearkens back to his time in the London jazz scene of the late 1960s, where he played with a who's who of heavies, and he's perhaps best known for his long-standing collaboration with saxophonist Evan Parker, in duet settings and their collective trio with bassist Barry Guy. He is one of the great innovators of European improvised music, both as a percussionist and with his unique electronics rig. Hirt's super-resourceful guitar work -- here both on electric guitar (with active whammy bar) and acoustic dobro -- deserves to be more widely heard. Along with his own solo music, which started with a killer record called Zwischen den Pausen on Uhlklang in 1983, he's worked intensively with musicians such as Axel Dörner, Phil Minton, Thomas Lehn, Phil Wachsmann, and John Butcher. For its debut voyage, Borne on a Whim was lovingly transferred (for the first time) from the original reels by Ken Christianson, preserving every crispy, crackling noise. The cover features a stencil used to make a poster for them back in the period that Lytton and Hirt first began their work together. Borne on a Whim is the first release drawn from the Paul Lytton Archives at Corbett vs. Dempsey.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: DTW 075LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Dark, evocative beats engulfed by bold raw vocals: this is Totek, the genre-defying electronic project of Allysha Joy and Max Dowling. In their own right, Allysha and Max both lay claim to an extensive musical prowess: the former as a member of the internationally-acclaimed nu-soul outfit 30/70 and her equally revered solo project, the latter as a prolific producer, performer and collaborator (Client Liaison, NO ZU, Parvyn, and countless others). Born out of burn out and edging frustration for the pace and complication of life at times, this collaboration came together almost immediately. Totek found itself in the dark edges, wanting to punch a little harder and move through it all quickly, boldly, unafraid in relief. The chemistry held between Max and Allysha found songs written in mere moments that expressed something new that neither artist had been able to access alone. On face value, the six tracks on ttk.1 could feel musically divergent: representing different idioms, different tempos and different themes. Yet they are unified on a more holistic level through their energy, ethos and character. Totek prefers to view music in this way: what is the overall experience of a record? Pushing boundaries and eschewing conventions has been organically at the heart of Totek from the beginning. The process of crafting a record was no different: the artists intended to create a work that is characterful and unpredictable yet unified by a throughline of potency and intensity. Totek represents a masterful coming-together of influences: a blend of multiple electronic idioms with a unique soul sensibility; channeled through two creatively potent individuals. While their music conjures shades of Dorian Concept, Jana Rush, and Flying Lotus, ultimately their sound is eclectic, elusive and unique. For fans of Allysha Joy, 30/70, Flying Lotus, Saul, Joearmon-Jones.

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: DIAL 047LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Dial announce Ben Kaczor's album, Petrovo Uho. After his debut LP, Sun Chapter One on KCZ, Ben Kaczor presents eleven brand new tracks. "For the album, an important conceptual thought came from encountering a rare ear-shaped seashell called 'Petro Uvo (Peter's Ear).' I found it while diving in Dubrovnik, Croatia in the summer. Inspired by the sound of a foreign language, I decided to keep all the tracks in Croatian, some of them in the dialect of the town of Dubrovnik, because the atmospheric soundscapes of the tracks reflect memories and feelings of traveling through Croatia, the force of the sea and wind, the play of lights and moods." --Ben Kaczor, 2022. Edition of 250.

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: CREP 094LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

More than a decade after the release of Land Lines, the mythical Humboldt County, California based duo of Brian Pyle and Merrick McKinlay reappears seemingly out of nowhere with Atheistsaregods. With past releases on such cult-like labels as Root Strata, Weird Forest, Blackest Rainbow, or Digitalis, Starving Weirdos were an indelible part of a sprawling and loose network of artists in Northern America whose DIY work ethic and extreme activity revolved around shoestring-budget constant touring, numerous limited editions on CDR, tape, and vinyl, and a relentless drive to push the boundaries of genre. Out of that cauldron, Starving Weirdos stood out as one of the most persistent and visionary acts, developing a mind-altering body of work that went from warm soundscapes through droney digressions, freeform improvisation, and raucous noise summoned from a myriad of instrumentation and low budget processing -- vocals, keyboards, violin, flute, percussion, and an assortment of less identifiable sound sources. Ten years on their legacy remains a timeless and wildly under-appreciated one, but hopefully this new album will shine a light on their idiosyncratic approach. As time itself was never a constraint. This is music suspended outside of it. Right from the start with the echoing percussion, dissonant keys and processed vocals of "Haiku Nagasaki", Atheistsaregods draws a continuous flux of psychedelic elevation that goes from the gloomy electronic motifs not unlike the early Cluster vibes of "Invocation" into the dank percussive maze of the appropriately titled "Barulho do Samba". The self-titled track induces a sense of post-apocalyptic vertigo via hallucinatory scraps of voice, suspended synth tones and reverberating field recordings, connecting into the droney mystics of "Dudukahar (Reed Prayer)". Coming full circle, "For Vinny" brings back the echoing percussion amidst hypnotic cello lines until it drifts off into the unknown. With the same palpable sense of urgency, Starving Weirdos feel as vital as ever. Welcome back. Artwork by Mioshe. Mastered by Rashad Becker.

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: DC 759LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Recorded in 1995 and 1996, mostly in John Fahey's room at a Salem, Oregon boardinghouse, the performances on Proofs and Refutations prefigure the ornery turn of the page that marked Fahey's final years, drawing another enigmatic rabbit from his seemingly bottomless musical hat. Cloaked in the language of dogma, this is Fahey dancing a jig in the Duchampian gap, jester cap bells a-jingling. Right out of the gate, Fahey re-materializes before us, somewhere between Oracle of Delphi and Clown Prince at Olympus. Mounting a thundering dialectic from on high, 'All the Rains' resembles nothing else in his extensive discography -- betraying roots in everything from Dada to Episcopal liturgical chant -- and contains nary a plucked guitar note. When the lap steel of yore appears on 'F for Fake,' it serves more as soundbed for an extended sequence of vocal improvisations, running the gamut from wordless Bashoian caterwauling to free-form (but decidedly fake) Tuvan, even revealing a burnished falsetto in the process. Fahey takes on a different kind of provocation in the two acoustic guitar-based tracks closing Side 1 -- 'Morning' parts 1 and 2 -- the first of four recordings in this session that have him wrestling with the ghost of Skip James, perhaps Fahey's effort to wrench the 'bitter, hateful old creep' (his words) back into the grave. Anchoring Side 2 is the two-part 'Evening, Not Night,' the second half of his extended cathexis on James. The opening and closing pieces again feature Fahey's guitar as drone soundbed -- employing distortion, oscillation, and an altogether absurd quotient of reverb to create texture and harmonics that are --if we wanna go there -- not dissimilar to the sustained tonic clusters of Tibetan singing bowls, the hurdy gurdy, Hindustani classical music, or La Monte Young. Portions of this material appeared on obscure late '90s vinyl in the 7" or double-78 rpm format, but as a 'session' it has lain dormant more than a quarter century now. Taken together, we can now see these tracks as secret blueprints to latter-day Fahey provocations, several years prior to records like 1997's City of Refuge and Womblife."

 

PRICE: $36.00

CAT #: DC 872LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Straight outta Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York City, Prison is a state of mind, an experience, a loose collective, a band, a jam band and a bunch of psychedelic dudes who aren't your average bunch of jambanders. You get what you're dealing with here? No...you don't. The only way to REALLY get it is to go to Prison -- and if you're not from greater NYC and haven't showed at any of the shows, here's your best bet: their breakout album, Upstate. And what a breakout! So high, you can't get under it; so wide, you can't get over it! How wide? Every song has two titles, that's how wide. And almost everybody sings, like, all the time. That wide. Sure, you can break down the numbers -- five guys, five songs and four sides of vinyl in one gatefold sleeve -- but that won't get you Upstate, either. Prison is the sound of everybody in the room figuring out where to go, individually and collectively. As they go through it, the meaning changes, the destination changes, the words mean something different. It's meaning and no meaning, rising and falling, sinking and flying on the back of something massive cacophonized by three guitars, four vocals, a bass and drums. A lot of information bouncing around and enough time to really get you out of yourself! Take a look at the titles: each one a dichotomous inquest that the assembled Prison-ers march upon with fervor, glee, vengeance -- a whole spectrum of feels and perspectives woven into the jam for you to see. This'll take you places! The Prison population changes with the seasons, and during the season this album was recorded, Sarim Al-Rawi, Mike Fellows, Sam Jayne, Matt Lilly and Paul Major were in Prison. Sarim you might know from Liquor Store; Mike's made a bunch of scenes and records as Mighty Flashlight; Sam, who passed away in 2020 (R.I.P., brother) was in Love as Laughter -- and Paul Major you know from Endless Boogie, and despite being 'just a skateboarder who loves music' with no previous experience on the drums, he and Sarim inaugurated the Prison experience, like, seven years ago. Since then, it just fell together and it keeps doing so. A free thing called Prison. Just go for it! Follow the signs, listen up, have fun. That's how Prison got Upstate."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: DRUNKEN 164LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"If you've ever spent any time in the darkest recesses of the internet, you'll know that 'powerpop' is an emotive term. For every pockmarked tenderfoot flying the flag for some fuzzed-out alterna-rocker's harmony-drenched new single, there's a grizzled veteran insisting that there's not enough jangle, not enough hook, not enough oomph on display... This is where Class come in. Class are a four-piece from Tucson, AZ, who are most assuredly all the power, all the pop, all the time. They've served time in a bunch of bands you already know and love -- most notably everyone's favorite 'delinquent slobs' Rik And The Pigs -- and Matt Rendon of their citymates The Resonars is the guy behind the mixing desk, so you know whatever comes out is gonna be good. 2-4-1 compiles the two cassettes they've released on Cincinnati's Feel It Records (which also released their debut LP proper, Epoca De Las Vaqueros) and it's absolutely rammed with new pop classics. 'Steady Hands', 'Wrong Side Of Town', 'Inspect The Receipt', 'Left In The Sink'... get learning these titles now, 'cause you're gonna get very well acquainted when you spin 'em until your needle's worn down to a flattened-out nub. Sound-wise, it's pop music as envisioned by the punks -- straight to the point, no fucking about. Some of these songs feel like Alex Chilton playing 'September Gurls' on a curious cocktail of cheap speed and wayyy too much sugar; others are kinda like the aforementioned Resonars if they ditched their British Invasion records and got obsessed with a heady mixture of The #1s and Richard Lloyd's Alchemy. Sometimes it just sounds like a forgotten late '70s punk classic, so I think we're all in the right place here. It's scuzzy and scuffed up in all the right places, with blazing guitar solos and crashing drum fills designed to get you where you need to go, with a minimum of fuss. 'Class' is an apt name. As you'd expect from a band with three vocalists, there's more than one style at play here, meaning this record pulls from enough varying strands to keep things interesting without sounding unfocused. There's no time to get bored, unlike when reading my drivel. What the fuck are you waiting for? This is power pop at its best, punk at its funnest, a whale of a time in less than 30 minutes. Let the nerds wage war on each other -- clearly, I'll be reading it -- and claim your own victory by playing this one to death. This band are in a class of their own, and if I've not laid it out explicitly enough, you need to start listening. Now." --Will Fitzpatrick

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: DUMBYLP 001LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Mungo's Hi-Fi return with their exciting new vocal project Past and Present. Released on their Dumbarton Rock label, it's the eagerly awaited vocal companion piece to 2021 dub album Antidote. Past and Present is unique for Mungo's in being devoted to the Rub A Dub reggae style that arose in late '70s and early '80s Jamaica. The record has its roots in both past and present. Back in 2021, Mungo's responded to the pandemic with the dub project Antidote, an album of reflection among wide spaces and nature. As the world has reopened, Past and Present celebrates the return of verbal communication and dancing to hypnotic basslines, with the original vocal cuts by veteran and rising microphone talent. The haunting voice of French pure sing-jay Pupajim encourages you to face living in the now, on title track, "Past and Present". Pioneering Jamaican female deejay Lady Ann toasts the importance of "Good Lovin" over a sensual, waist-winding rhythm. Ethereal UK neo lovers rock singer Hollie Cook revisits her classic "Sugarwater", floating above a sparse and eerie future Rub A Dub soundscape. Honey-toned Londoner Kiko Bun exudes confidence and humility as a "Riddim General" while veteran talker Solo Banton shakes up the dance on his seismic, much requested, "We Pulsating". The biblical voice of Jamaican legend Prince Alla sounds fresh on a revisit to his immortal "Only Love Can Conquer". Fellow elder statesman of reggae Johnny Clarke contributes the sole non-Rub A Dub offering with the "Flying Cymbals" driven, deep roots track "Rain Keeps On Falling". French singjay Shanti D and Israeli chanter Ranking Levy pair up on the mighty Jaqueline rhythm for a warning against "Total Disaster". The prodigious Charlie P joins Godfather of UK emcee-ing, Daddy Freddy, to request freer movement on "Control The Border". The final statement is without words or vocals: as Mungo's production team take centerstage for the soaring "Birds Of Vice" -- the A side to Antidote's closing dub, "Birds Of Pleasure". In reggae, the vocal traditionally precedes the dub. By completing their pairing of Antidote with Past and Present, Mungo's have flipped the script and reversed the process --crafting a loving tribute to Rub A Dub's rolling basslines and upward vibes in a modern style.

 

PRICE: $52.50

CAT #: DUST 113LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2x12" version. "... For months, we'd been working away on various projects and then, without really thinking about it, The Black EP just happened. It seemingly appeared from nowhere. We'd been talking about the old days; making music with friends and dodgy kit, renting small practice rooms and using makeshift recording studios. It was such a common thing back then, you could pick a dusty space in a half-derelict building for as little as £25 a month. In those days, the Cabs and Human League had studios with posh-sounding names, but in reality, they were the same old workspaces long abandoned by the industries they were built for. Nevertheless, the grand names made them sound magical. Sheffield had thousands of these spaces, and some still exist today, but their abundance and low-cost made Sheffield a very active place. Someone was always doing something. They'd exploded onto the scene in a flurry of excitement before disappearing just as quickly. There's something about these little mesters (workshops) that we believe lives in the very consciousness of Sheffield. It's one of the reasons we never really had big scenes like Manchester or Leeds. The Hacienda would've never been built here. We don't really do big gangs or have that kind of mentality. We tend to exist in little pockets, often leaving each other alone. It would be 30 years before any member of The Black Dog talked to Cabaret Voltaire. Sure, we'd stood outside their practice room as kids, trying to listen in, but never felt any reason to approach. Sheffield is like that. Once we had the first two tracks of the Black EP, we set off to see Jon at Do It Theesen, where he manually cut the tracks to an extremely limited set of 7" singles using a vinyl lathe. It just felt right to go back to the old ways; a small gang creating something special in workshops and sheds . . . We pushed further by adopting old practices, working with one synth per person and limiting the use of our computers. We only stopped short of putting everything on beer crates. It seems like madness these days, but there is raw creativity within these confines. Pretty much every band started this way. Depeche Mode travelled to the studio on the London Underground for their first appearance on Top Of The Pops, all lugging a synth each. That's how we approached the creation of this album; stripped back, raw and minimal -- it just felt so right. And then there's the competitive element that was influenced when the original Human League split and became Human League MK II and Heaven 17. Both continued to use the same studio to write what became the albums Dare and Penthouse and Pavement. There is something about that drive that is very Sheffield, just making stuff and hoping everything falls into place..."

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: ECHO 092EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Echocord welcomes the return of Mathimidori to the imprint with his Anata EP, accompanied by a remix from New Yorker and Novel Sound boss Levon Vincent. Mathimidori is the dub techno leaning guise of Germany's Mathias Kaden, known for his works under his own name on imprints such as REKIDS, Ovum, and Freude Am Tanzen, while Mathimidori material has found a home on the likes of Mule Musiq, Raum, Ornaments, and of course, Echocord where he returns here following 2020's Akebono LP (ECHO 086LP). Opening the release is "Anata", a texturally dense six-and-a-half-minute composition fusing pulsating subs, billowing synth atmospherics, spiraling dub echoes and sporadic dubbed out spoken word running atop a crisp 4/4 rhythm. "Zanziba" follows and dives deeper via ethereal pads, snaking low-end pulsations, choppy stab sequences and heavily echoing reggae chants. Levon Vincent steps up to remix "Zanziba" next, delivering a typically raw and dynamic rework, upping the energy levels as dub stabs dynamically unfold and retract amongst a thunderous low-end drive, intricate synth flutters and low-slung drums across its ten-minute duration.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: EUDEMONIA 015EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Eudemonia Records present you the newest record by no other than Zeta Reticula. The Slovenian born artist needs no introduction as he has released several iconic releases during the last 23 years. For this EP he explores his more melodic side and presents three unique tracks ranging from electro to breakbeat.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: FEELIT 094LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"A band famous for their unfussy, monolithic anthems, Sweeping Promises elegantly ravage us again with another future classic. They return as a fist of velvet rose petals roaring inside a compact wrecking ball. Gone is the Boston brutalist ambience of their subterranean concrete laboratory and the revelatory single mic recording technique. In its place, a retired and resplendent nude painting studio in Lawrence, Kansas, bathed in light with high ceilings and hardwood floors. Guided once again by their surrounding architecture, a reverb-rich space remains the defining element at the heart of their highly stylized sound. A watery ghost from the golden age of art-punk now wields sharper knives and more microphones. If the mood of HFAWO was hungry, GLICFY is RAVENOUS. In 2023, appetite is addressed in new ways: Power struggles are aired in 'Eraser,' restraints are broken in 'You Shatter,' anguished exclamations sting in 'Good Living Is Coming for You.' The taboo subject of aging is (s)heroically dragged out into the open. Every line is delivered with such joyous, soaring layers that each punch lands like a chef's kiss. Sweeping Promises are Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug. A chance meeting in Arkansas led to a decade of playing in an eclectic assortment of projects together. Their relentless practice made perfect. Bass playing Lira is an emotive bolt of thunderous energy with the iconic blast of a girl group rolled into one robust throat. Caufield is an intentional guitar player and drummer. No note or hit is extraneous. Together they are meticulous sound engineers, using space as a key ingredient to their distinct sound. Controlling every aspect of their craft, from the first note they write together, all the way through to the final mastering process, each record is an unspoiled fingerprint unique to their dynamic chemistry. Written before the pandemic, Hunger for a Way Out was released on Feel It Records in the summer of 2020. These songs drip with the anxious urgency of a commanding live performance yet their gauzy production transports us like the fading memory of a favorite song. This distorted sense of time resonated with thousands of quarantined listeners who turned the album into a life-saving floatation device and most beloved album of the year. This is when Feel It Records joined forces to divide/unite and conquer; beginning with the 2021 single 'Pain Without a Touch' and now carrying through to Good Living Is Coming For You. The pandemic went on to trigger an absurd chain of events for Sweeping Promises. Under financial strain, Mondal and Schnug uprooted their lives. They surrendered their studio in Cambridge to take refuge with family in Texas. They completed over 50 demos between their Austin bathroom and a Marfa abode, but feeling unsatisfied, they sought another fresh start. When a disused church in Ohio proved too difficult to rehab, they ultimately found lasting inspiration in Kansas. With their home and studio all under one roof, life is music and music is life. Good Living Is Coming For You ultimately reflects being thrust into a severely unpredictable world. A capsized boat isn't entirely bad. In fact, it can be the necessary push toward finding solid ground." --Tracy Wilson (Courtesy Desk)

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: FIELD 033LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Matching expansive ambience with environmental sound, Chihei Hatakeyama's new album continues Field Records' exploration of Japan and the Netherland's shared approach to water management. As with Sugai Ken's 2020 album Tone River, a specific project becomes Hatakeyama's area of focus -- in this case the Hachir?gata Lake in Akita Prefecture. Previously the second largest body of water in Japan, the government ordered extensive drainage work of Hachir?gata Lake after the second world war with the help of Dutch engineers Pieter Jansen and Adriaan Volker. After the project was completed in 1977, reclaimed land took up eighty percent of Hachir?gata Lake's total size. As a result, a new ecosystem was established as plants spread from surrounding areas, bringing with them a wider variety of birds and other wildlife. Hatakeyama's approach to this unique subject matter took in field recordings from particular locations around the lake -- the drainage channels, the Ogata bridge, grassland conservation reserves and other key areas. The aquatic subject matter and sonic material is a natural fit for Hatakeyama's accomplished sound, which has featured on numerous solo works for labels including Kranky, Room40 and his self-run White Paddy Mountain. From the intimate intricacies of the sampled material to the glacial expanses of droning synthesis and languid guitar, Hatakeyama creates a tangible environment which at once reflects the settings around Hachir?gata Lake, while offering the listener any number of imagined scenes to observe in their mind's eye.

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: FIELD 035LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Field Records presents the first complete vinyl edition of Monolake's seminal excursion into experimental dub techno, Hongkong. Originally released on the now-classic Chain Reaction label in 1997, this collection of early singles by Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles has gone on to become a vital listening experience in its own right -- a genre classic alongside the other groundbreaking works from the likes of Porter Ricks and Vladislav Delay. The tracks which make up Hongkong were made while Henke and Behles studied computer science and immersed themselves in Berlin's techno scene. Their early forays into computer-based music production were enabled by the use of the Max/MSP programming environment, forming a backdrop to the landmark work they would undertake in developing the Ableton Live DAW. Henke and Behles traveled to Hong Kong in 1996 to attend the annual International Computer Music Conference, and while there recorded extensive field recordings. These recordings became the glue that pieced together their collaborative tracks into a fluid listening experience for a CD-compilation at Chain Reaction's request. While absolutely rooted in the embryonic sound of European dub techno, Monolake's early work possesses a back room, headphone-ready demeanor which lends itself to the album listening experience. In the cascade of rhythms created by precision engineered delays and subliminal, expansive spatial world building occurring throughout Hongkong, the stage is set for a full and thorough immersion. Before the Monolake sound progressed into a more pointillist form of computer music as Henke's solo project, Hongkong presented a gritty, grainy sonic still tied in some way to the traditional methods of techno production, even as the artists' ideas were sending the sequencing and arranging in exciting new directions. Remastered and presented for the first time as a complete double 12" package, this is the definitive edition of an essential work in the evolution of experimental techno. As Henke himself explains, "twenty-five years later, this record still holds immense value to me in many ways."

 

PRICE: $41.00

CAT #: FR 006LP

FILE UNDER: CLASSICAL

2023 repress. Double-LP version, black vinyl in gatefold sleeve -- on vinyl for the first time, in a revelatory new remaster by Jim O'Rourke. In 2016, Finnish label frozen reeds published the première release of Julius Eastman's Femenine, for chamber ensemble. Laying unheard for decades prior, the release documented a 1974 performance by the S.E.M. Ensemble with the composer himself on piano. Lauded in Pitchfork (awarded "Best New Music"), The New Yorker, and The New York Times, the first release of Femenine served as the catalyst that propelled Eastman's music into the mainstream. Articles on Eastman's music and its immediate disruptive impact on the classical canon began to appear in every major news organ in the English-speaking world and beyond. His music began to be programmed in major concerts and festivals, several of these entirely themed around his life and work. New recordings sprang up from a fresh generation of musicians engaging with his ideas and interpreting them for a modern audience hungry to hear more. But the raw, emotionally cascading spirit of the original performance continues to inspire listeners. Joyous, insistent, and immersive, Femenine bathes the listener in surges of tonal color from intertwining winds, piano, violin, pitched percussion, synthesizer, and -- uniquely -- the composer's own invention of mechanized sleigh bells, which provide the 72-minute piece with its characteristic pulse. Femenine was recorded live by Steve Cellum -- co-producer of Arthur Russell's World of Echo -- and the new vinyl reissue has been remastered from the original high-definition tape transfer by Jim O'Rourke at his Steamroom studio in the Japanese mountains. Illuminating sleeve notes are provided by composer and author Mary Jane Leach, key figure of the Eastman revival and co-editor of the Gay Guerrilla collection of essays on his life and music. Gatefold. "Eastman's stated aim with Femenine was to please listeners, saying of the piece that 'the end sounds like the angels opening up heaven . . . should we say euphoria?" --Mary Jane Leach

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: GR 2157LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Reissue of Kosmos Kino, originally released in 1988. A Spanish industrial classic album by Esplendor Geométrico, has been unavailable on vinyl for more than 12 years, now out on limited, numbered, and remastered 2023 edition. Kosmos Kino is the third album of the influential Spanish industrial cult band Esplendor Geométrico. Recorded and originally published in 1988 and unavailable on vinyl for many years, now available again in its original format. Remastered in 2023, this release reproduces the original cover but with a different exclusive artwork on the back cover. After a start in which the line of acute distortions and buzzy basses of their previous albums continues, it follows a surprising rhythmic visceral nature, reaching its peak in the track "Trybuna Robotnicza", suitable for the most frantic dance and one of the greatest moments in their vast discography.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: GR 2158LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Expanded reissue, originally released in 2009. Esplendor Geométrico's style continues having a unique and unmistakable mark that distinguishes them from later bands they have had influence onto. At first sight, Pulsión is pure industrial hypnosis based on the electronic manipulation of sounds together with irresistible rhythms, repetitive, machine-like, industrial, hypnotic, sometimes tribal, sometimes danceable, that mix up with voices and chants. Some of them are taken from traditional Arab and oriental music (Mongolia, China, Tibet...) to be later electronically manipulated, others are simply speech fragments, as the one of a leader of a radical political party in Japan, Che Guevara, or an anti-occidental harangue from an Islamist leader. But the idea of EG is not to transmit any political or ideological message, the sources have been chosen for their strength and sonority. New cover design by Juan Carlos Sastre, founding member of EG, inspired by the original one. Special reissue, with a bonus LP. Not available on vinyl for more than twelve years. Includes a reconstruction of "Aplicación Insospechada" by M.S.B. and Luca Spagnoletti. Includes for the first time on vinyl the five exclusive tracks from the original CD version. 2023 remaster; edition of 600 (numbered).

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: VPGS 7064CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"King Jammy breathes new life into a top draw selection of Cool Ruler Classics on this highest upgrade to Gregory Isaacs' Kingston 11 catalog. Making the journey down to Jammy's warehouse HQ to lock down the safest combinations is an A-list selection of Jamaica's finest including Sean Paul, Shaggy, Alborosie, Jesse Royal, Bounty Killer, Jr. Reid, and Ras Shiloh."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: VPGS 7064LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

LP version. "King Jammy breathes new life into a top draw selection of Cool Ruler Classics on this highest upgrade to Gregory Isaacs' Kingston 11 catalog. Making the journey down to Jammy's warehouse HQ to lock down the safest combinations is an A-list selection of Jamaica's finest including Sean Paul, Shaggy, Alborosie, Jesse Royal, Bounty Killer, Jr. Reid, and Ras Shiloh."

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: HAFTW 003LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

First re-press in a decade for The Caretaker's 2009 masterpiece, one of the earliest and most iconic releases on his label History Always Favours the Winners, and a true classic of the early 21st century. Spine shivers, all the way. Persistent Repetition Of Phrases was the follow-up to Leyland Kirby's 7CD boxset Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia (2006), and a landmark on the path that ultimately led to the influential An empty bliss beyond this world and Everywhere at the End of Time albums. Beloved of departed cultural theorist Mark Fisher, The Caretaker's alchemic transformations of 78RPM shellacs have, over time, come to hold a unique place in underground and popular imaginations simultaneously. It's the sort of music that elicits strong feelings from gen Z as much as Janus-faced xennials, jaded gen X-ers and perhaps even your gran, in a way practically incomparable to any other records of this strange century so far. It's an album that transcends notions of ambient or even concrète, sharing a palpable uncanniness, on the cusp of soothing, melancholy and something deeply ineffable. An essential listening experience for anyone who prizes the capacity of music to transport across time and space, or more acutely impact your sense of self. Pour one out and drink in deeply.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: IRON 2607EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

In Brasil, with the rise of sound systems inspired by the UK and JA scene, Monkey Jhayam was one of the first reggae artists to express his art and also build a solid and prominent career alongside many sound systems in his country. Out of São Mateus, Monkey broke barriers and has been collaborating with producers from all over the world. Monkey Jhayam features on an interpretation of the Johnny Osbourne roots reggae classic, "Truths & Rights" on the A side and a re-mix version of "Great Old Men" on the B side. All tracks also feature Alvin Davis (horns), Asha B (congos and percussion) with rhythm/lead guitar from Steven "Marley" Wright.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: JR 7007EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Tappa's classic Pick Up The Rockers cut at Channel One by the Revolutionaries, alongside its King Tubby dub cut.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: JR 7008EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Winston Wright, the original organ player with the Harry J's Allstars cut of the 1969 "Liquidator" hit. This great version features the mighty Dennis Alcapone toasting in fine style.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: JR 7009EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Johnny Clarke's roots classic, plus a great King Tubby dub cut.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: JR 7019EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Two classic tracks from one of Jamaica's finest singers, Mr. Jamaican soul himself, the great Pat Kelly.

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: JR 7020EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Jamaican Recordings presents a 7" with Horace Andy's "Skylarking."

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: JR 7021EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Jamaican Recordings presents a 7" of Ken Boothe's "You're No Good."

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: PROJR 10-08

FILE UNDER: WORLD

2023 repress. Two tracks taken from the forthcoming budget priced CD sampler on Jamaican Recordings in the shape of a couple of "long lost" dubs from the mid '70s, both produced by Bunny Lee. "Dub Knowledge" is a version of a rare Leroy Smart track and "Dub Direction" is a cut to Cornell Campbell's "My Confession."

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: KOM 460LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The 23rd edition of Kompakt's annual compilation series Total. Total 23 kicks off in a disco mood with a well-tempered double punch from label co-founders Michael Mayer and Jürgen Paape. Jörg Burger calls out a trippy new genre named Cinematic Dance before C.A.R. and Patrice Bäumel resurface with a club mix of their early 2023 single "Four Down." Sofia Kourtesis' sultry remix of Perel "Matrix" finally gets a well-deserved vinyl release. "Ice Cream Cake" by Cologne's newcomer M.A.P.E. helps cool things down a bit before another debutante, Argia from Madrid makes her first entry to the Kompakt catalogue. Gui Boratto's recent single "Drink In Paris" raises the energy levels just in time for Reinhard Voigt's ruthless closing track "Endlich XXL," an ode to some of the best things in this world: beer and techno. Also featuring Lhana Marlet and Eduard Weber.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: KOM 469EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Drei Remixe für Andreas Dorau -- Unsichtbare Tänzer follows on from the extensive series of remixes for Andreas Dorau that have been produced by Wolfgang Voigt since the mid-1990s under a wide variety of project names, but also by Michael Mayer, Tobias Thomas, and Reinhard Voigt (Forever Sweet) released on Ladomat. The limited 12" Unsichtbare Tänzer will be released as an edition of 500 copies, hand-numbered and signed by Andreas Dorau and Wolfgang Voigt.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: KOM EX128EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The sun is getting stronger in our northern hemisphere and the festival season is looming around the corner. This calls for a new Speicher release from someone who knows how to deliver joy in abundance: Kölsch. The first track's name "Cold Air" might be somewhat misleading as it is a hell of a heater. Same goes for the heavy polka hitter "Environ" on which Rune is conjuring the vibes of his legendary Speicher debut from 2010, Loreley. As you've come to expect from the man with the hat: This is 100% primetime customer satisfaction with heart and soul.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: KOMP 177CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

The 23rd edition of Kompakt's annual compilation series Total. The lively dance begins solemnly with Kollmorgen's deep-subtle minimal gem "Muddy." Making her debut is the wonderful Argia with the somewhat misleading title "No Concept" -- the Madrid native indeed has a very precise plan. Also, our number one hit guarantor, Jürgen Paape, is represented here with his brand-new super hit "Alone In Italy." His colleague Michael Mayer is also in top disco spirits with "Talmi." One of the secret weapons of the current season comes from Stephan Barnem and Futuristant. "Don't Cry" is a passionate new wave belter for eternity. Jörg Burger proclaims a new, trippy genre: cinematic dance, before C.A.R. and Patrice Bäumel slowly raise the energy level in the "Four Down" club mix. John Tejada then cruises calmly at the desired cruising altitude while the cabin crew serves refreshments. "Duration" by Barnt/Mayer pays tribute to an artist formerly known as Prince with grand rave romanticism, and about Rex The Dog's summer smash hit "Change This Pain For Ecstasy," there's really nothing more to say. The Thuringian force of nature Robag Wruhme must not be missing here, of course. "Fire" once again shows him in top form, with one of the dirtiest basslines in techno history. Joining us from London is Hardt Antoine, who spells "understatement" with "All We See." And finally, Reinhard Voigt featuring Eduard Weber bring it all together -- live from the grand Comedy Barn of folk music.

 

PRICE: $67.00

CAT #: KRANK 050LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress on triple-vinyl. "Are there other earthling-conjured soundworks rivaling the majesty of Henry Flynt's minimalist hillbilly fiddle fantasias or the heavens-rending power of Messiaen's works for organ? Undoubtedly, else why bother listening. But the only thing speaking at us right now from these charmed regions are the celestial airs of these Stars of the Lid. Alternately lulling and wielding a potency that wholly escapes 'experimental' musics, SOTL bring big, whomping chunks of sonic firmament with a sustaining, life-affirming sweep. For the most part the latest SOTL missive offers sound sources which refuse to readily reveal themselves. Treated strings, organ or backwards tubular bell runs -- it's simply a sublime chorus of instrument voices, irresistible as the undertow. Also gurgling up in the mix are whimpering pups, shuffling feet, Dictaphone-preserved foreign lecture hall blather, a city bus shouldering to an unsteady stop -- common enough stuff, but rendered here as the sounds of civilization heard distantly, the human receiver filtering everything through a palpable dis-ease that bespeaks a Higher yearning." -- Dean Blackwood "I simply feel that they are making the most important music of the 21st century." --Ivo Watts-Russell (4AD label founder)

 

PRICE: $67.00

CAT #: KRANK 100LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. "This is the first time this monumental album has been available on the vinyl format in five years. Painstakingly recorded, processed and assembled over five years, SOTL once again deliver a massive work filling two compact discs and three vinyl albums, clocking in at over two hours. While most albums of this length would be considered tedious at best, SOTL are arguably the only contemporary composers who can seemingly alter the time-space continuum simply through the playback of their organized sound. They take time itself and stretch, compress and turn it inside out, altering what would otherwise be an arduous test of nerves into an interlude of half awake dreams that ends too soon. In this album, SOTL picks up where The Tired Sounds Of... left off with an emphasis on melodic development, moving their epic soundscapes beyond mere drone and subsequently frustrating all the typical ambient cliches associated with their music. Perhaps the best references for this current work would be found in the score to the film Le Mepris by Georges Delerue, the orchestral works of Zbigniew Preisner, or the 1958 CSO/ Fritz Reiner recording of Hovhaness' Mysterious Mountain, specifically the third movement. But in the final analysis, such comparisons are superfluous at best, as Stars of the Lid have created a musical universe in which they are the sole inhabitant. Simply put, this album is a masterpiece."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: KRANK 153LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2013 repress. "First time vinyl release for this classic Low holiday recording. We would suggest that few bands from an ostensibly 'indie rock' background should release Christmas music, if not out of respect for the holiday or material then at least out of a sense of self-esteem. Low, however, were made for this. Their attention to musical detail combined with the heavenly vocal harmonies of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker are perfectly attuned to both traditional carols like 'Silent Night' and more contemporary tunes such as 'Blue Christmas.' Christmas contains a selection of seasonal songs, including four originals by the band, mostly recorded at Low's 20º Below studio in Duluth, MN. 'If You Were Born Today' and 'Blue Christmas' were released as a 7" single in 1997 on the English Wurlitzer Jukebox label, while 'Taking Down The Tree' is taken from a 1998 compilation of live recordings issued by the Dutch VPRO radio station."

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: MUS 277LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Bursting through the door with a raw martial snap, Spirits Di Lupo blast out snarling anarcho-hardcore anthems inspired by the raspy maniacal sounds of the '80s Italian punk greats and the sloganeering/passionate-rant lyrical delivery style of the UK's legendary anarcho punk scene. A riveting combination that doesn't pull any punches and serves to highlight the beauty of the world rather than dwell in the brooding fodder that usually haunts those genres. Catchy, rudimentary and ecstatic music of the highest order.

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: MCD 002LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"At last, the second installment of this ass-kicking compilation of obscure, snotty and moronic punk masterpieces that time forgot. With contributions from the U.S. and U.K. and collecting 17 given-up-for -lost gems from 1979 to 1983, this is an endless barrage of lost hits any fan on the Killed By Death or Bloodstains compilations should absolutely put their hands on. Satisfaction guaranteed, up the punks!"

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: MUSIQ 287EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Mule Musiq is proud to announce the debut release of Mexico City-based DJ and artist Soos. He is a resident DJ of Mexico City's best party Sunday Sunday. This release is his first physical release. A-side is unique mixture of '90s ground beat, break beats and obscure sound. B-side is '90s underground vibe deep house.

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: MR 441LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Internationally labeled as nuggets (after the original compilation of the same name concocted by Jac Holzman and Lenny Kaye in 1972 for the Elektra label), the more common garage rock label has been used to place and describe one of the most fertile chapters of rock n' roll history during its most creative years. An underground story which has luckily become known, with participants from all around the globe which included anonymous musicians, independent record labels with impossible names and ridiculously limited pressings, often not more than a few hundred copies. After three previous volumes in our series Algo Salvaje devoted to the Spanish nuggets, this new instalment explores the darkest, neglected and rebellious side of Peruvian beat. Many of the 14 tracks are reissued for the first time, including extremely hard-to-find records, and are mostly taken from the Discos MAG catalog, owned, and directed by Manuel A. Guerrero. Guerrero's intuition and talent for business allowed his artists to be given creative freedom. Despite initially feeling challenged by the unusual songs that the bands proposed to him, several musicians of the time agree that he ended up giving in and betting on them. As a consequence, the MAG studio was always very busy, working as a sound lab for musicians and engineers to learn how to record these new sounds properly. Songs were recorded weekly, including originals and versions that were often better than the original. The tracks chosen for the occasion, a selection filtered strictly by their musical value, adhere to the rules of the classic nugget genre while demonstrating the permeability of garage sound and its inevitable evolution at the turn of the decade (1965-1970) through mixes that embraced psychedelia, soul, beat, and tropical arrangements. Epic and pretty wild. Just the kind of material that this record label usually handles. Many of the 14 tracks are reissued for the first time, including extremely hard-to-find records, and are mostly taken from the Discos MAG catalog from Peru. This compilation includes notes by genre-expert Marco Caballero featuring the original record labels and artist photos.Features Los Mutables, Pina Y Sus Estrellas, Los York's, Los Dacios, Los Saicos, Los Teddy's, Delai Alamos Con Los King Stay, Melcochita, Los 007, Traffic Sound, Los Junior's, Los Silvertons, Jean Paul El Troglodita, and New Juggler Sound.

 

PRICE: $38.00

CAT #: MOV 1686COL-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Born in Natick, Massachusetts, singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jonathan Richman began playing music and writing his own songs in the mid-60s. While in Boston, Richman formed the Modern Lovers, a proto-punk garage rock band. Other notable members of the group were keyboard player Jerry Harrison and drummer David Robinson, who later joined Talking Heads and the Cars, respectively. In 1975, Richman moved to California to record as a solo singer/songwriter. In January 1976, Richman put together a new version of the Modern Lovers, which included original Modern Lovers drummer David Robinson, along with former Rubinoos bassist Greg 'Curly' Keranen, and Leroy Radcliffe on guitar. The album Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers was released in May 1976, three months prior to the earlier Modern Lovers sessions which were released as their eponymous self-titled debut studio album. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on gold color vinyl."

 

PRICE: $38.00

CAT #: MOV 3348COL-LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Michael Campbell started out as an engineer with the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation and made reggae history presenting his Dread At The Controls radio program, after which he embarked on a successful career as an innovative performing artist, producer and bona fide dubmaster. As such, he was among the first to utilize the incredibly talented, young the Roots Radics to lay the foundations of his tracks. Much less relying on endlessly recycled riddims from the Studio One and Treasure Isle catalogues than many of his peers, Mikey mostly delivered crisp, original tunes. They were 'deconstructed' at King Tubby's studio -- the birthplace of dub -- in this case by virtuoso Scientist with Mikey himself. Dread at the Controls indeed! This catalogue includes the majestic 'Two Track Dub' (a version of the Roots & Culture riddim) and 'Demo Dub' (versioning Radio One, featured on the B-side of The Clash' Hitsville UK). Dub Catalogue Volume 1 is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on translucent yellow color vinyl."

 

PRICE: $59.00

CAT #: MOVATM 184PR-LP

FILE UNDER: SOUNDTRACK

"Call Me By Your Name, the film by Luca Guadagnino, is a sensual and transcendent tale of first love, based on the acclaimed novel by Andre Aciman. Summer of 1983, Northern Italy. An American Italian is enamored by an American student who comes to study and live with his family. Together they share an unforgettable summer full of music, food, and romance that will forever change them. The film received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for Chalamet, Hammer and Stuhlbarg's performances, Guadagnino's direction, and the screenplay. Call Me By Your Name won a variety of awards, including an Academy Award, BAFTA, GLAAD and the 23rd Critics' Choice Award amongst others. Sufjan Stevens' song 'Mystery of Love' was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Luca Guadagnino wanted the film's music to be connected to Elio, a young pianist who likes to transcribe and adapt pieces to get close to Oliver. The music is used to reflect the time, the characters' family, level of education and 'the kind of canon they would be a part of.' Guadagnino found himself resonating with Sufjan Stevens' lyricism through his work and initially asked Stevens to record an original song. Eventually, Stevens contributed three songs to the soundtrack: 'Visions of Gideon,' which was used at the end of the film, 'Mystery of Love,' which was featured in the film's first trailer, and a new rendition of 'Futile Devices' with piano. Stevens penned the songs by using the script, the book, and the conversations with the director about the characters. It marks Sufjan Stevens' first soundtrack for a feature film. Call Me By Your Name is available as a limited edition of 15,000 copies on 'Velvet Purple' colored vinyl. The double LP is housed in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with rainbow laminate finish and includes printed innersleeves, an insert with movie stills, and a poster."

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: NS 7902CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"Volume 2 out of 11. This is the last recording with Jesse Sharps as the bandleader before he left for the Army. An incredible afternoon of music and a fitting 'Departure' for a Jesse, a true pillar of the '70s Arkestra. Macrame was originally released in 1979 on the IUCC 2LP; it is presented here, in a raw transfer of the master reel. Mykowski's 1st Fifth is nothing but pure fire with those blistering solos by Sharps, Session, and a very special reading by Kamau Daaood. The take of Stanley Cowell's 'Departure' is sure to wake the neighbors and drive away evil spirits. The Arkestra would never be the same."

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: NS 7906CD

FILE UNDER: WORLD

"This 2-disc set documents a legendary concert at the Immanuel United Church of Christ -- June 24th, 1979. This is the sixth in a series of eleven recorded concerts from the Immanuel United Church of Christ! This month features the longest recorded version of the 'Village Dance,' also a lovely version of 'Many Nights Ago' featuring Linda Hill on vocals. The only previously released track is 'Noissesprahs', but taken direct from the master reel it has a new depth and sense of space."

 

PRICE: $11.00

CAT #: OPT4 054CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Expanded version of the 1987 mini-album released on Creation Records. Described as a "minor classic" by Luke Haines. Band features Luke Haines, Martyn Casey (The Triffids, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) and Alsy Macdonald (The Triffids). Includes: Dave Westlake's Westlake album from 1987; BBC session recorded with members of The Go-Betweens plus two studio demos of unused songs. David Westlake's first album finally gets a new day in the sun in the wake of his brilliant current LP My Beautiful England. 36 years after it first appeared in 1987 on Creation Records David Westlake formed The Servants in 1985, who released two excellent singles and appeared on the NME compiled C86 LP. Searching for a stable Servants line-up to release an album he recruited Luke Haines (The Auteurs/Black Box Recorder) via an NME advert, who came on board, and stayed for five years. After failing to find a committed rhythm section, he enlisted the help of Martyn Casey and Alsy Macdonald and recorded the 1987 Westlake album for Creation. Overlooked at the time, the record was later described as a minor classic by Luke Haines himself. It is included here. It also contains the previously unreleased Janice Long BBC session recorded in the summer of 1987 featuring Go-Betweens members Robert Forster, Amanda Brown, and Robert Vickers. As chronicled in an interview in US music magazine The Big Takeover (issue 53, 2004), Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch was a huge Westlake fan and tried to locate him in the early 1990s in hope of forming a band with him, before launching Belle and Sebastian in his school class instead. Sleeve notes by Luke Haines.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: OPT4 054LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Clear vinyl; printed innersleeve. Expanded version of the 1987 mini-album released on Creation Records. Described as a "minor classic" by Luke Haines. Band features Luke Haines, Martyn Casey (The Triffids, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) and Alsy Macdonald (The Triffids). Includes: Dave Westlake's Westlake album from 1987; BBC session recorded with members of The Go-Betweens plus two studio demos of unused songs. David Westlake's first album finally gets a new day in the sun in the wake of his brilliant current LP My Beautiful England. 36 years after it first appeared in 1987 on Creation Records David Westlake formed The Servants in 1985, who released two excellent singles and appeared on the NME compiled C86 LP. Searching for a stable Servants line-up to release an album he recruited Luke Haines (The Auteurs/Black Box Recorder) via an NME advert, who came on board, and stayed for five years. After failing to find a committed rhythm section, he enlisted the help of Martyn Casey and Alsy Macdonald and recorded the 1987 Westlake album for Creation. Overlooked at the time, the record was later described as a minor classic by Luke Haines himself. It is included here. It also contains the previously unreleased Janice Long BBC session recorded in the summer of 1987 featuring Go-Betweens members Robert Forster, Amanda Brown, and Robert Vickers. As chronicled in an interview in US music magazine The Big Takeover (issue 53, 2004), Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch was a huge Westlake fan and tried to locate him in the early 1990s in hope of forming a band with him, before launching Belle and Sebastian in his school class instead. Sleeve notes by Luke Haines.

 

PRICE: $36.50

CAT #: OM 027LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Back in 2018, two mysterious twelve-inch singles appeared in underground record shops. Credited to Blotter Trax, a previously unknown outfit who cherished "faceless" anonymity, the pleasingly twisted and mind-altering music on show was a mutant form of electronic psychedelia. The included tracks were variously informed by analogue techno, acid, electro and minimal, but inhabited their own clandestine sonic space. These tracks were, Optimo Music later discovered, lightly edited "straight to tape" jams, crafted on the fly by their creators in one of Berlin's most admired studios. By the time Blotter Trax delivered their follow-up on Clone offshoot Frustrated Funk a year later, the secret was out: the project was in fact a collaboration between two storied artists, techno titan Magda -- a DJ/producer who should need little introduction -- and serial underground aggravator (and man of many aliases) Jay Ahern, sometime Hauntologists member and acid techno royalty thanks to years spent releasing similarly shadowy EPs as T.B Arthur. In the years that followed, and before the COVID-19 pandemic grounded them in Berlin, the pair took their incendiary, modular-driven live show to esteemed clubland institutions (fabric included), on an acclaimed tour of Japan, and onto the stages of festivals across Europe. Four years on from that appearance on Frustrated Funk, Blotter Trax are back in updated and expanded form. Now a trio thanks to the addition of bassist Hannes Strobl, the band is set to release their far-sighted, funk-fueled debut album, Super Conductor, a pulsating, thrill-in-minute ride includes contributions from a swathe of notable guests (Nina Hynes, Ilhem Khodja, and David Moss provided vocals; Shigeru Tanabu played guitar; Matthew Styles mixed the set; and old friend John Tejada mastered it). While rooted in electro and acid, the album is impressively low-slung, stylish and funky, with nods towards Blotter Trax's mutual love of Arthur Russell, early '80s NYC downtown disco, leftfield new-wave pop and flash-fried punk-funk. Released by JD Twitch's Optimo Music imprint, it charts the ongoing dancefloor evolution of a band whose days of mystery and mischief are now a distant memory.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: TAPEITMRL 016LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Dark, cute and cool" has always been a mantra for Pleaser, starting as an inside joke on how the members come across in everyday life but perhaps also being a fitting description for their iconoclastic tendencies and aesthetics. On their debut album, Pleaser manifests themselves as a punk band in both a strict and a loose sense of the term. Their musicality, ethics and community are undeniably punk, but their expression is vast and more personal than sub-genre-bound. The band projects the heart-on-the-sleeve of early emo, the catchy viciousness associated with original punk rock, a dark convolutedness of certain kinds of metal -- and yet an earthiness and willingness to explore that harkens back to earlier forms of rock music and all the way up to a current experimental music scene. Songs are both catchy and impenetrable at the same time, appreciating a pop hook just as much as a labyrinthine song structure. Pleaser's self-titled debut album is the result of a combination of hard rehearsal space labor, playfulness, and increasingly sharp band-instincts. Lyrically, the songs contemplate themes of life/death, subconscious patterns, internal search for hope and love, demons, fear and desperation but also growth, playfulness and the shaping of new pathways. Songs dating back to the formation of the band three to four years ago have built in vigor from the band's growing stage experience and willingness to treat songs like football tackles. Harmony, dissonance, riffs and rhythmic shifts are jumbled together and allowed to remain tumultuous and imperfect, just as a debut album should be. The album is recorded, mixed and mastered at No Master's Voice Studio in Copenhagen.

 

PRICE: $15.00

CAT #: PZ 34079LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress. Space funk from keyboardist Dexter Wansel, originally released in 1976. Sampled by DJ Shadow. "American R&B/jazz fusion singer, arranger, musician, composer and conductor Dexter Wansel. The album is considered to be a ;space-funk' classic, inspired by David Bowie's 'Life On Mars?'. Wansel composed his own sci-fi sounds with swirling, ring-like oscillators, cosmic sub tones, and metallic, otherworldly leads using his signature ARP 2600 synthesizer. Wansel's pioneering synth sound was shared on numerous records with artists like MFSB, Billy Paul, Evelyn 'Champagne' King, Teddy Pendergrass, and The Jones Girls. The album inspired other artists and Wansel's 'Theme From The Planets' drum beat intro is hailed as being one of the first foundation beats of hip-hop. His sampled music has been used by Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Drake, Rick Ross, J. Cole, Wiz Khalifa, and Ice Cube amongst others."

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: PING 080LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Hat?ralar was Anadol's second album, originally composed between Berlin and Istanbul around 2012 and released years later only in digital form on the Istanbul based label Inverted Spectrum. The title Hat?ralar ("Memories") turns out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Anadol recalled and revisited the music in 2023, gently editing and mixing the compositions for the newly mastered LP format in which they now see the light of day. Hat?ralar represents an early version of the melodic, instrumental synth-pop that Anadol refined on her album Uzun Havalar (PING 065LP, 2019) before exploring the more free, krautrock-inspired musique concrète of her last album Felicita (PING 074LP, 2021). Here is the text that accompanied the original 2017 release: "Anadol, named after an old-fashioned Turkish automobile brand, is an instrumental synth-pop project by Gözen Atila, an artist, DJ and keyboard player. She records with mini organs manufactured during the 70s and 80s, the built-in rhythms and arpeggios of these machines provide the backbone of her sound, and her melodies are influenced by pop music and soundtracks from France, Italy and Turkey from the same period. The music is awash with allusions to the moods of old Turkish and European cinema, from the erotic to the melodramatic, and with a reminiscence of the sound and spirit of so-called 'tavern music' popular in Turkey's urban nightlife in the 1980s, a flexible pop style usually performed by a solo keyboardist-singer. Anadol is a continuation of the tradition of lone synth experimentalists like Bruce Haack and The Space Lady with their childlike curiosity for electronic sounds, and of the keyboardists pushing the boundaries of minimal equipment to entertain middle aged drunk couples in pubs and wedding parties of Istanbul."

 

PRICE: $42.00

CAT #: PING 081LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

Upopo Sanke means "Let's sing a song" in the Ainu language. Umeko Ando (1932-2004) was one of the best-known artists of the Ainu, an indigenous, long-suppressed community in northern Japan. She sings their traditional songs together with Oki Kano on the Tonkori harp, who also recorded the album. The two are supported by members of the female vocal group Marewrew as well as Ainu percussionists, a string player and a male singer who provides rhythmic shouts and also throat singing. The call-and-response structure of many of the songs is performed with a mantric quality in a vocal style that is perhaps best described as elastic and breathing. There seems to be a gentle smile in every note and syllable. This music softly hits the heart. Upopo Sanke was recorded on a farm in Tokachi in the summer of 2003. You hear dogs barking, a distant thunderstorm and voices imitating animals. The liner notes that accompany the double-LP release gather the anecdotal memories of Umeko Ando and Oki Kano about the stories of the 14 songs. Oki Kano is a musical ambassador of the Ainu culture who tours worldwide with his Oki Dub Ainu Band and also gives solo concerts, always playing the Tonkori, the five-stringed Ainu harp. The Ainu have suffered from the oppression of their culture and language by Japan, especially since the 18th and 19th centuries. Only recently, in 2008, were the Ainu officially recognized again as an indigenous people culturally independent of Japan. As a result of the marginalization, there are now only a few hundred native speakers of the Ainu language left, making it a particularly worthy object of preservation. Upopo Sanke was mixed again in part by Oki Kano, before being mastered and cut to vinyl by Kassian Troyer. This album was the second album by Umeko Ando, the follow-up to Ihunke (PING 060LP) and also re-released in 2018 by Pingipung together with Oki Kano. 45rpm.

 

PRICE: $33.00

CAT #: R-M 206CD

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Ödipus, Herrscher is the debut release of Japanese sound artist Mieko Suzuki on raster. Her work is the result of a composition commissioned by Schauspielhaus Bochum. The classic, timeless material of Oedipus has been staged as a gloomy dystopia in Bochum since 2021. With her immersive sound layers for the play, Suzuki focuses on the processing of archaic resonance media such as wood, stone, metal, fur, and clay. Already before the first words of the play are spoken, the auditorium is filled with a gloomy, static drone; a sound that anticipates what will later become the bitter basic tendency of the material on stage: pestilence, decay, fear, and resignation. Anticipating the plot theme with this drone also underlines the key role of the sound, the importance of the music for this production. Suzuki processes sounds with contact microphones, gently stroking on wood, but later increasing to scratching and hitting. Only in the background the sound sources are electronically manipulated, alienated, and distorted. Her central concern is direct interaction, the correspondence between acting and music through the direct improvisation of her sound spheres. Without the primary use of classical instruments, music emerges that includes the gesture of triggering sound events. The titles of the individual tracks such as "Disaster", "Taboo", "Pest", and "Vertigo" express the underlying story line musically and emotionally without illustrating it as a compositional narrative. "Vertigo", for example, features a constantly playing Shepard tone, expressing the inevitability of the abyss. In addition to this production, Suzuki is involved as a sound artist and musician in other theater plays such as Hamlet at Schauspielhaus Bochum and Richard II at the Vienna Burgtheater. She has performed at Mutek.JP (Tokyo), CTM Festival (Berlin), Human Club (Barcelona), and E1 (London), among others, and co-organizes the Berlin event series Kookoo. Mieko Suzuki lives and works in Berlin.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: R-M 211CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Originally released in 2005 on his brother's online label Tokyo Trauma, Die Wiederholung der Geschichte der amerikanischen Heimatlosigkeit is Grischa Lichtenberger's debut release, predating his involvement with raster. Anticipating and framing his later works, the visceral sound palette, ranging between harsh digital noise and compelling analog roughness, is put to play in a very unconcerned and uncompromising way on this release, in harmony with an idiosyncratic beat science and an organic, natural feel of song structure and melodies. The influence of independent rock music of the '90s as well as an artistic experimental approach center this record, as his brother David Lichtenberger put it in his description of the record: "Very arty stuff, but first of all characterized by an incredibly direct and heavy sound oscillating between punching beats and digital harsh noise making your ears bleed and you (me at least) scream for more." Conceptionally, Die Wiederholung der Geschichte der amerikanischen Heimatlosigkeit (the repetition of the history of American rootlessness) parallelizes the history of European and American relations with the dialectics between digital and analogue technologies. Experimental methods of electronic music are put in a metaphoric relation with a historical topic, like in "Durchquerung 3" scrubbing a wave form of an audio file that is put in a relation to the crossing of the Death Valley by early American settlers. Using the compressor as an expressionistic tool of composition, overshooting the 0db barrier creating noisy artefacts, time stretching, collaging all work as tools for regenerating material, create a relation to an acoustical subconsciousness of recorded sounds (similar to the optical unconsciousness of slow motion and montage that Walter Benjamin described in his first analyses of cinema in the 1920s). raster reissue this early work of Grischa Lichtenberger, remastered and for the first time in physical format. Silkscreen artwork; edition of 300.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: EZRDR 152LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"Cursed to ride forever on this mortal plane after partaking in a satanic drug ritual, The Death Wheelers pledge allegiance to the god of hell and fire. However, in order to prove themselves to their newly anointed leader and for the spell to take effect, the band will need to engage in a series of lewd acts of sex and violence across the country. Immortality comes at a price and the listener is about to pay for it... The beating heart of The Death Wheelers is a rumbling engine. Since their self-titled debut in 2015 and in 2020's cinematic-storytelling breakout, Divine Filth, the Canadian outfit have tapped into wind-through-hair freedom and careened down open roads of groove, not a cop in sight. Their third record, Chaos And The Art of Motorcycle Madness, more than lives up to its name on all fronts. With songs like 'Morbid Bails' and 'Lucifer's Bend,' the in-the-know references abound, and The Death Wheelers draw from classic underground metal, scummer heavy rock and cast themselves into a cauldron of cultish biker devil worship, reveling in any and all post-apocalyptic dystopias with genuine glee at having just seen the world eat itself. One might hear some surf guitar. Crazy things can happen."

 

PRICE: $24.50

CAT #: RM 4205LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

A note from Lawrence English: "I first met David Toop some 20 years ago. I think we were in touch shortly before that, but our first meeting took place when I invited him to Australia to perform and to speak as part of REV, a festival held at Brisbane Power-house. It was a memorable meeting, I vividly remember his solo performance and the edition A Picturesque View, Ignored documents an improvised meeting during that time. Over the years, David and I have shared an interest in both the material and immaterial implications of sound (amongst other things). Moreover, we've connected many times on matters which lies at the fringes of how we might choose to think about audition, our interests seeking in the affective realm that haunts, rather than de-scribes, experience. The Shell That Speaks The Sea very much resonates from this shared fascination. I'm not exactly sure when we first mooted this duet, but I sense its initial trace is now more than a decade ago. I tend to live by the motto of 'right place, right time' and I believe David likely also subscribes to this methodology. A couple of years ago, David and I reignited the duet conversation and began exchanging materials. As a jumping off point, I explored a series of field recordings that, for me at least, captured something of this affective haunting that I mentioned previously. One such recording was of a tawny frogmouth at Nugum (White Rock) on the lands of the Yugarabul people. The frogmouth is an utterly elusive creature whose voice is like a modulating low frequency oscillator. They are a magical bird, and like the Potoo, have captivated David and I at various points if our lives. The recording seemed to suggest a whole way of approaching sound and, for me at least, it opened an entirely new range of sound worlds which are present in the final version of this recording. This edition is the product of spontaneous burst of exchanges, buffered by periods of tempered silence. A patient work, charged with unexpected dynamics. It's with great pleasure we share this recording with you."

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: RLP 3232LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Never one to rest on her laurels and always eager to break new ground, it's full steam ahead for guitarist Hedvig Mollestad when teaming up with sublime keyboard player Ståle Storløkken (Elephant9, Supersilent) and young drummer ace Ole Mofjell in a new trio bearing her name. Beautifully subtle and fiercely burning, Weejuns is a solid step into shimmering, hardcore improvisation and breathtaking instrumental interplay, a temporary move away from the composed music of her regular trio and the ensemble projects. It was not the intention, but with this in mind and great recordings of a handful of concerts, it made perfect sense to make the trio's debut a double live album. One could place the trio in the same musical landscape as Bitches Brew-era Miles, Supersilent, Henry Cow, and King Crimson '73-'74.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: SEAL 016LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

14-track compilation from Swiss punk and bubblegum indie pop band Chin-Chin. This compilation features the unreleased four track Janice Long Session recorded for the BBC in 1988 (which includes songs only heard on the broadcast plus tracks from the Stop Your Crying! 12" from 1986), a selection from the classic Sound of the Westway LP from 1985, and two tracks from the 1984 We Don't Wanna Be Prisoners 7". Formed in 1982 in Biel Switzerland, Chin-Chin are a group that sits perfectly next to the Ramones, '60s girl groups, The Shop Assistants and Blondie. The sound is instant, urgent, and with choruses that stick in your head for days, weeks and years. The songs are perfectly produced and have aged like a fine wine. The LP comes with an insert featuring photos handouts and archive.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: STSLJN 380LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Farewell to Faraway Friends finds Anja Lauvdal at her Wurlitzer, captured by two mics in the room, with no additional overdubs or edits. Her set of hushed, jazzy flourishes and pregnant pauses is so well realized that it's hard to believe they were improvised, while the "kitchen feel" of the room recording (as Marhaug describes it) enhances a sense of brittle intimacy. Much in the same way that Dominique Lawalrée imbued his ostensibly naive music with glimpses into a multifaceted inner life, Lauvdal explores an ocean of feeling through the most-humble components, transporting us through some alchemical act of emotional teleportation. Lauvdal avoids meandering flights of fancy, instead exposing a filigree level of detail and beauty through the cracks of her spartan recordings. There are no arbitrary found sounds, no sound design or overdubs, just Lauvdal and her Wurlitzer, occasionally singing at a barely perceptible volume in the background. If there's melancholy, it's not self-absorbed or effacing, but trapped behind sunny rays and poetic, romantic phrases. One of those effortlessly impactful records we've not been able to stop listening to for a while now, Farewell to Faraway Friends is apparently the first in an ongoing series. Here's hoping. Required listening if you're into Harold Budd, Loren Connors, Dominique Lawalrée, Robert Wyatt, and Vincent Gallo. Released as part of the Le Jazz Non series. Edition of 300 copies.

 

PRICE: $75.00

CAT #: SS 095-97LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Triple LP version. "'The Truth' features K. Waterman. 'Snakes' features D. Deporres."

 

PRICE: $25.00

CAT #: SSCAS 007CS

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Cassette version. "'The Truth' features K. Waterman. 'Snakes' features D. Deporres."

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: SSCD 016CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"'The Truth' features K. Waterman. 'Snakes' features D. Deporres."

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: STUDIOMUL 046LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Tenderly propelling and full of haunting melodies: Studio Mule reissues Sakura Tsuruta's so far digital-only, self-released debut album C/O from November 2022. An evocative first long player by Tokyo based artist, who was trained in classical piano during childhood, played with brass instruments, studied music production, and is today active as a composer, live performer, and versatile DJ. With C/O, she expressed her personal history in a fluid, around 43-minute-long light flooded, yet darkish musical vision. Eight profoundly composed tracks, melding complex rhythms with emotional airs, tripping arpeggios, and ghostly sounds, slightly influenced by some of her favorite artist like Björk, Holly Herndon, or Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. "C/O is a love letter for the experiences, people, and memories I had in the last two years that I spent producing this album. I also like that the letter 'c' looks like an incomplete circle, whereas the letter 'o' is a full circle."

 

PRICE: $21.50

CAT #: STUDIOMUL 047EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Studio Mule announce the debut release of a new artist on the label. Soshi Takeda has released some cassettes on 100% Silk. This release is his first vinyl release. Six tracks modern ambient Balearic stuff. If you like the sound of obscure new age stuff, you can't miss it.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: STUDIOMUL 048LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Originally released in 1983 through Apollon Music industrial corp's alty sublabel, Mule Musiq sub-label Studio Mule presents the first official digital reissue of Shinsuke Honda's rare Silence album. Recorded as part of alty's resort mind music series, Honda-san's contemplative guitar instrumentals tint the air with nostalgia, longing and a gentle sadness at the impermanence of all things, transporting the listener to an eternal sunset of the mind. A masterful guitarist and composer with a well-listened ear, Honda-San grew up in Hiroshima during the middle years of the 20th century, eventually making his way to Tokyo in the early 1970s, where he spent several years as a member of the pioneering Japanese language folk-rock group Hachimitsu Pie. After they disbanded, Honda-San spent some time in Japan's jazz and experimental rock scenes before turning his hand to film and television soundtrack work in 1978. Five years later, as new age and kanky? ongaku (environmental music) became commercial record label concerns, alty offered him a record deal. Over Silence's eight songs, Honda-San collapsed time and space, effortlessly integrating his sepia-toned memories of the rock instrumentals of his childhood with his adult love of jazz, minimalism, electric blues and soundtrack composition. Although Honda-San went on to have an accomplished career in soundtrack work, along the way scoring the Japanese films Target of Lust (1979), Koichiro Uno's Shell Competition (1980) and Moonlight Whispers (1999), and working on the theme music for the Fuji tv travel program Kazemakase Shin Shokoku Manyuuki, his early work spent decades languishing in obscurity, until it was rediscovered in recent years by record diggers like Tsunaki Kadowaki and Diego Olivas. Forty years on, Mule Musiq and Studio Mule are pleased to be able to contribute to the critical re-evaluation of Shinsuke Honda's Silence album as an essential desert island disc for lovers of contemporary jazz, steel-string blues and Balearic guitar bliss.

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: SV 162LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress. LP version. "For five decades, Harold Budd stood on the forefront of the West Coast avant-garde. Born in Los Angeles, he studied with Schoenberg-pupil Gerald Strang and began teaching at CalArts in 1970. While searching for his own voice, he was influenced as much by abstract expressionist painters as by John Cage and Morton Feldman. In his work, Budd brought delicate, slowing-moving melodies to the foreground -- creating a new musical language based on 'eternally pretty music' and smooth surfaces. In the early '70s, Budd started an extended cycle of compositions that would comprise The Pavilion Of Dreams. For Budd, the album was a signpost for a new direction in thinking about music: 'The Pavilion Of Dreams erased my past. I consider that to be the birth of myself as a serious artist. It was like my Magna Carta.' Produced by Brian Eno in 1978, The Pavilion Of Dreams stands toe-to-toe with another minimalist masterpiece also released that year, Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians. Budd's gorgeous pieces reveal a lightness of touch that draws the listener in, while sublime voices float in and out as if in a recurring dream. Featuring saxophonist Marion Brown and multi-instrumentalists Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman, The Pavilion Of Dreams remains a master class in exquisite timbre and shimmering texture. The Pavilion Of Dreams was both the final release on Eno's Obscure imprint and a transition point towards his seminal ambient series. This first-time reissue is recommended for fans of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jon Hassell and Mark Hollis."

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: TPR 130LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"After countless hours of data driven market research it was determined that the wild success of the first Retail Simps album, Reverberant Scratch was 82.6% due to the cheeky and iconic album cover, as such the group was faced with a dilemma. Using focus groups funded by the Center for Odd Human Behaviour (COHB), the group surmised that the man pictured on said cover, none other than Montreal born chanteur Joe Chamandi, reminded the typical unsophisticated commoner of their ner'e do well uncle, and it is this sense of uncanny familiarity that drove people to purchase the record. Upon first needle drop it was revealed to house an abhorrent and obfuscatingly decrepit take on roots rock. Armed with this keen analytical knowledge, the band and their creative team harnessed the boundless marketability of the Trashmen, Dancing Cigarettes and 2 Live Crew to adorn their new disc with an equally palatable and deceptive frontal armour, provoking the straight-laced garage rocker of yore to pay the price of entry. Once the branding and visual identity of this little package invited potential listeners in, they were met with incorrigible confusion. You see, after being pigeonholed by the punk paparazzi as a lowly party band, the Simps were tasked with driving home their knack for fervent versatility. This new record captures a group, in the clutches of maturity, boasting their emotional depth, triumphant chops and humble servitude to the trade of rock n roll clowning. Recalling the double speak of VU's murder mystery, the soul bent lament of Fred Cole and the bastardized funk of Minutemen, the Simps have thusly widened their sonic palate and created yet another masterpiece of the modern age. This is the southern soul of Memphian tradesmen flipped on it's snowy head, conjuring an impure regionalism that was largely thought to be dead and gone. An alternate kind of Northern Soul with a frosty Arctic sheen. More spazzed out guitar, more howling lunacy, more heat of the moment, turnt poetry and outside the box-isms. 'The Simpies have done it again!' Proclaim the industrial-indie-music-complex! Bolstered by the angelic croon of theee Simpettes and the honking heart-wrench of theee Horny Boys, Theee Retail Simpletones bring you this 82.5 % Total Punk din!"

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: TOYT 152EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Toy Tonics welcome one of the US' absolute legends in the game on their roster -- Kai Alcé! One of the original masters of jazzy house, Kai is a prime example, someone who witnessed the genesis of Detroit's electronic musical landscape and strives to keep that spirit alive. Being of Haitian descent laid the foundation for his musical ear starting with his childhood in Queens, New York. Some of his earliest musical influences included his mother's penchant for soca music and the distinct Caribbean rhythms of his culture. An appreciation of jazz would be further guided by his father's expanding audiophile home system. During the 1970s the kindling of hip hop and the heyday of disco perked the ear of a young Kai while they were living in NYC. The Big Apple would remain a constant throughout his musical journey as the years went on, but it was the move to Michigan that ultimately shaped his artistic vision. On this five-track EP, Kai once again makes it all feel so easy! Deeply musical, yet also instantly effective on the dance floor, tracks like "New Life Livin" and "Slide It In" come with an ease that shows why he's shaped the game for decades.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: UR 012GRE-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Green vinyl. Includes three-page concertina booklet. London slowcore band deathcrash have today announced their new album Less via untitled (recs). Recorded at the UK's most remote studio in the Outer Hebrides, Less follows their critically acclaimed 2022 album, Return, with a statement in reduction that turns out to be as powerful and potent as it is tender and introspective. "The mission statement was to be super minimal," says deathcrash singer Tiernan Banks. "Just simple and beautiful guitar parts and to be really bare. To be...less." Swiftly following Return, the band initially had no plans to make a full length. "The last thing we felt like doing was making another album," says bassist Patrick Fitzgerald. "It was like, 'let's do this little EP that's aesthetically quite different and pared down'." Less was always planned to be a statement in reduction but it soon became apparent that the songs the band were writing were significant, personal and, despite the intentions to strip things back, bigger. "As time went on, we started putting much more emotional weight into it and it became more important to us," says Banks. The result is a record that is as powerful and potent as it is tender and introspective, with arrangements that manage to feel refined yet detailed and with a deep emotional resonance at the core of the record. Banks's voice shifts from hushed whispers to guttural screams, one minute tapping into the kind of fragile beauty that artists like Elliott Smith managed so well, on tracks such as "Duffy's" before unleashing a doom metal growl in thundering unison with the band on "Empty Heavy".

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: UR 012LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

London slowcore band deathcrash have today announced their new album Less via untitled (recs). Recorded at the UK's most remote studio in the Outer Hebrides, Less follows their critically acclaimed 2022 album, Return, with a statement in reduction that turns out to be as powerful and potent as it is tender and introspective. "The mission statement was to be super minimal," says deathcrash singer Tiernan Banks. "Just simple and beautiful guitar parts and to be really bare. To be...less." Swiftly following Return, the band initially had no plans to make a full length. "The last thing we felt like doing was making another album," says bassist Patrick Fitzgerald. "It was like, 'let's do this little EP that's aesthetically quite different and pared down'." Less was always planned to be a statement in reduction but it soon became apparent that the songs the band were writing were significant, personal and, despite the intentions to strip things back, bigger. "As time went on, we started putting much more emotional weight into it and it became more important to us," says Banks. The result is a record that is as powerful and potent as it is tender and introspective, with arrangements that manage to feel refined yet detailed and with a deep emotional resonance at the core of the record. Banks's voice shifts from hushed whispers to guttural screams, one minute tapping into the kind of fragile beauty that artists like Elliott Smith managed so well, on tracks such as "Duffy's" before unleashing a doom metal growl in thundering unison with the band on "Empty Heavy".

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: VAMPI 263LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

First time reissue, originally released in 1970. The only album by Venezuela's most prolific percussionist, Nené Quintero, and his first band sounds like a somewhat artisanal classic rock album from the end of the '60s but made by "salseros" (as involved in Salsa music). Grupo Pan was formed in 1970 in the popular Caracas neighborhood of Marín at the initiative of Carlos "Nené" Quintero together with his brother Jesús "Chú" Quintero. His experience as a professional musician as part of Los Dementes, Ray Pérez's group, would allow him to retain the rhythmic strength and brass arrangements typical of salsa, but also explore other sounds based on powerful guitars. The band would be completed with Alfredo Padilla (percussion), David Azuaje, and Carlos Guerra (trombones), Henry Camba (trumpet), and Rubén "Micho" Correa (electric guitar), already with a solid reputation as a guitarist after years playing in rock bands. Nené Quintero would resume contact with his acquaintance Mario Tepedino, at that time artistic director of 2001 Juvenil, a Venezuelan TV show focused on the promotion of young musical values, who would offer them to appear on said program. Through the popularity provided by, their frequent television appearances, they were offered the opportunity to record an album. In December 1970, their first and only LP would be released, recorded at the Fidelis studios in Caracas and produced by Mario Tepedino. It was published by Souvenir, a label responsible for the release of many other essential Venezuelan rock albums, such as the highly sought-after records by The Love Depression or Ladies W.C. Pan's successes in overcoming through its grooves the eternal rivalry between the followers of the hard rock sounds and those who, on the contrary, were devotees of salsa. All the songs on the album are written by "Nené" Quintero himself and remain as fundamental milestones in the history of Venezuelan rock. The album would contribute to the birth of a new paradigm of Latin rock, along the lines of what other artists such as Santana or El Chicano were doing from the United States in those same years. After this Souvenir release, the band would also record two singles on another label called Promus. Grupo Pan would remain active until 1973 when the band members would follow different paths. Pan, their only LP, has become one of the essential and most sought-after Venezuelan albums. Remastered sound; includes two bonus tracks, liner notes, and exclusive photos; 180 gram vinyl.

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: VAMPI 45098EP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

First time reissue. Afrosound was born from the desire of Discos Fuentes vice-president José María Fuentes to come up with a domestic version of the emerging African and Latin rock sounds coming from outside the country, inspired by groups like Osibisa and Santana. The mission was to emulate the guitar-heavy tropical sounds emanating from Perú and Ecuador at the time. According to various sources, the 1972 tune "La danza de los mirlos" (by Peru's Los Mirlos) emerged as a great success in Colombia and with it a new way of interpreting the country's most famous musical export, namely cumbia, through a Peruvian perspective. Fuentes executives convened an expert crew of musicians led by Julio E. Estrada, aka Fruko, the following year to create this type of music for the domestic market because they sensed a potential for similar success. Once again Fruko is at the helm in the studio for this recording, simultaneously holding it down and allowing the musicians to explore their most spaced-out fantasies. This time Jose A. Villerias is in control at the mixing console, pulling all sorts of tricks with space sounds, reverb and echo, and everyone sounds as if they are having a lot of fun. Both songs had been previously recorded and included on Afrosound's 1974 album Carruseles -- recently reissued on Vampisoul (VAMPI 282LP) -- but these new versions from 1983 feature an updated sound with an extensive use of space effects and unexpected sonic tricks. Taking advantage of the pull the film was having at the time, the result was carefully packaged with an E.T. themed artwork, aiming commercial success.

 

PRICE: $38.50

CAT #: WE 002LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

For the exhibition "Flowers in 20th and 21st Century Art", Eiko Ishibashi and Jim O'Rourke had created the installation Lifetime of a Flower in which they set parameters but allowed the process itself to grow uncontrollably. Literally: in the garden of their Japanese house, they planted seeds and filmed the plant growing and thriving throughout the duration of the exhibition. Visitors were able to watch the stream in real time -- and they heard a composition in which Ishibashi and O'Rourke reflected the organic process in sound. The eponymous composition now available on LP, is an enigmatic and sophisticated layering of sounds, melodies and rhythms, noises from everyday life, all of which are repositories of associations, memories and expectations.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: WE 004LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

In 1972, left-wing intellectual film critic Uwe Nettelbeck suggested to Anthony Moore that he might write some straight songs (relatively speaking), which in turn prompted Moore to invite his old school friend Peter Blegvad over to Hamburg to form the band Slapp Happy. Dagmar Krause, a young singer from Hamburg and Moore's girlfriend, joined them both on their trip to Wümme to record what was to become this album, Sort Of, using Faust as their rhythm section. In honor of this album ?s 50th anniversary the album will get a nicely remastered reissue with the newly founded Week-End Records -- the festival's inhouse label who managed to get the band together for a final reunion shows in November of 2016 and Spring of 2017.

 

PRICE: $18.00

CAT #: WWSCD 016CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress. Wewantsounds present a reissue of Akiko Yano's Tadaima., originally released in 1981. The first release Wewantsounds' ambitious program to release Akiko Yano's albums outside of Japan Tadaima. ("I'm home" in Japanese) is Yano's fifth studio album and a synth-pop masterpiece, co-produced by her then husband Ryuichi Sakamoto and featuring all the musicians from Yellow Magic Orchestra (Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Sakamoto), the group she was touring with at the time. Japan's best kept secret, Akiko Yano is one of the most ground-breaking artists to come out of the '70s Japanese music scene along with Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto. A piano child prodigy, Yano started her solo recording career in 1976 at just 21, recording her debut album Japanese Girl with no less than Little Feat as the backing band. This album created a stir on the Japanese scene and Yano was on the map. She went on to record a series of superb albums mixing funk, electro, and city pop featuring the cream of Japanese (and sometimes American and English) musicians; The fact she was producing, writing and composing herself made her a true maverick in a very male-dominated industry. These albums, incredibly, have never been released outside of Japan to this day. Tadaima. is Yano's first attempt to leave the acoustic piano aside and delve into the synth sounds of the early '80s. The result is a fascinating electro pop masterpiece showcasing her talent as a writer, musician, and singer, creating her own unique universe. Mixing Japanese and English lyrics, Yano crafts perfect pop songs such as "Tadaima.", "I Sing", "Harusaki Kobeni" (which became one of her most famous songs after its use in a Japanese cosmetics ad), while "Taiyo No Onara" is a suite composed of nine short stories written by children. Contributors on Tadaima. also include Shigesato Itoi, one of Japan's most famous copywriters (for Studio Ghibli among others) who wrote two tracks on the album and his friend legendary illustrator Teruhiko Yumura -- aka King Terry -- who revolutionized underground manga in the '70s with his "heta-uma" (bad-good) style, as showcased on the album's striking artwork. Tadaima. is the perfect entry point to Akiko Yano's unique body or work. This reissue includes original artwork by cult illustrator King Terry and a new introduction by renowned DJ Joakim.

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: WWSLP 016LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress; LP version. Obi strip; Includes two-page insert. Wewantsounds present a reissue of Akiko Yano's Tadaima., originally released in 1981. The first release Wewantsounds' ambitious program to release Akiko Yano's albums outside of Japan Tadaima. ("I'm home" in Japanese) is Yano's fifth studio album and a synth-pop masterpiece, co-produced by her then husband Ryuichi Sakamoto and featuring all the musicians from Yellow Magic Orchestra (Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Sakamoto), the group she was touring with at the time. Japan's best kept secret, Akiko Yano is one of the most ground-breaking artists to come out of the '70s Japanese music scene along with Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto. A piano child prodigy, Yano started her solo recording career in 1976 at just 21, recording her debut album Japanese Girl with no less than Little Feat as the backing band. This album created a stir on the Japanese scene and Yano was on the map. She went on to record a series of superb albums mixing funk, electro, and city pop featuring the cream of Japanese (and sometimes American and English) musicians; The fact she was producing, writing and composing herself made her a true maverick in a very male-dominated industry. These albums, incredibly, have never been released outside of Japan to this day. Tadaima. is Yano's first attempt to leave the acoustic piano aside and delve into the synth sounds of the early '80s. The result is a fascinating electro pop masterpiece showcasing her talent as a writer, musician, and singer, creating her own unique universe. Mixing Japanese and English lyrics, Yano crafts perfect pop songs such as "Tadaima.", "I Sing", "Harusaki Kobeni" (which became one of her most famous songs after its use in a Japanese cosmetics ad), while "Taiyo No Onara" is a suite composed of nine short stories written by children. Contributors on Tadaima. also include Shigesato Itoi, one of Japan's most famous copywriters (for Studio Ghibli among others) who wrote two tracks on the album and his friend legendary illustrator Teruhiko Yumura -- aka King Terry -- who revolutionized underground manga in the '70s with his "heta-uma" (bad-good) style, as showcased on the album's striking artwork. Tadaima. is the perfect entry point to Akiko Yano's unique body or work. This reissue includes original artwork by cult illustrator King Terry and a new introduction by renowned DJ Joakim.

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: WWSLP 017LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress; LP version. Includes download card and original four-page insert with lyrics and line-up. Wewantsounds continues their Akiko Yano reissue program with the release of Japanese Girl, her landmark debut album from 1976. Backed by Little Feat with Lowell George and by top Japanese musicians (including Haruomi Hosono), Japanese Girl is one of the most important Japanese albums of the '70s, mixing pop, rock, and Japanese folk together with Little Feat's superb classic sound. After a marriage with musician/producer Makoto Yano and the birth of her son (Fuuta), Yano and her team resumed the recording of the album and decided to pitch Little Feat for a collaboration as she loved the group. Against all odds they said yes and Yano left Tokyo for Los Angeles in March 1976 to record a full side with them. The legend has it they found it so difficult to keep up with Yano's compositions they returned some of their fee. The session was nevertheless stunning and Lowell George even compared Yano to Stevie Wonder. The Little Feat blend of New Orleans groove matched Yano's melodies perfectly, as witnessed on "Funamachi-Uta Part ". Originally a traditional song from The Nebuta Festival in her hometown of Aomori, the Little Feat version is a formidable slow-funk workout not dissimilar to their classic, "Spanish Moon", serving Yano's beautiful vocals and sense of groove to perfection. The whole side is a match made in heaven, showcasing the classic Little Feat line up at their funkiest with Yano's unique Japanese twist. The Japanese side on the album gives a great snapshot of the Tokyo music scene of the '70s with many musicians gravitating around Haruomi Hosono and also several musicians from Japanese band, The Moonriders. Recorded at the legendary Onkyo Haus studio in Tokyo, the sessions mix singer-songwriter sensitivity and pop with traditional Japanese sounds and instruments like the shinobue transverse flute, the koto string instrument, or the Tsuzumi hand drum as played on "Hekoriputaa" by the legendary percussionist Kisaku Katada who was appointed Living National Treasure by the Japanese state in 1999; together they create a beautiful east-meets-west mix masterfully driven by Yano's creativity and unique talent. First international release. Remastered sound.

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: WWSLP 018LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2023 repress; LP version. Obi strip; Includes insert. Wewantsounds present a reissue of Akiko Yano's Iroha Ni Konpeitou, originally released in 1977. Another superb Akiko Yano album and one of her funkiest, highlighting her singing and songwriting talents. Iroha Ni Konpeitou is perhaps Akiko Yano's best-known album in the Western world not just because of its striking front cover -- a shot by famed photographer Bishin Jumonji featuring Akiko holding an inflatable dolphin. A slick mix of Japanese pop and New York funk, the album was recorded in Tokyo except for the title track which was recorded in NYC with an all-star line-up consisting of Rick Marotta, David Spinozza, Will Lee, and Nicky Marrero. For the rest of the album, Akiko is accompanied by some of the best musicians from the Tokyo music scene gravitating around the groups Happy End and Tin Pan Alley: the ubiquitous Haruomi Hosono on bass, Tatsuo Hayashi on drums, Shigeru Suzuki on guitar, to name just a few. Interestingly, two Hosono compositions are featured on the album: "Ai Ai Gasa" which he recorded on his 1973 landmark debut Hosono House and "Hourou" originally recorded in '75 by singer and musician Chu Kosaka, on the eponymous album Horo. Last but not least, Hideki Matsutake is handling the keyboard programming duties on the album as Yano is playing a wide array of keyboards: Moog IIIc, Mini Moog, String Ensemble, on top of the Fender Rhodes, Clavinet, and Yamaha CP7C. Matsutake would soon become programmer in chief for Yellow Magic Orchestra, touring and playing with them around the world (like Yano herself). Although the album feels very accessible and funky, there are complex keyboard layers underneath as on the first short introduction "KAWAJI", a short electro fantasy, or on such tracks as "Ai Ai Gasa" and "Kino Wa Mou" on which Akiko is playing bass with her Moog, making the album a richly textured and inventive one once you scratch its surface. The tracks on the album flow effortlessly also highlighting Akiko Yano's superb songwriting and knack for creating fascinating pop song. "Iroha Ni Konpeitou" sounds as fresh and beautiful as when it first came out more than forty years ago and will please the growing circle of Akiko Yano fans around the world as a welcome addition to her brilliant discography. Remastered sound. First release outside of Japan.

 

PRICE: $34.00

CAT #: WWSLP 055LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2023 repress; double LP version. Following the recent success of the Tokyo Dreaming (WWSCD 040CD/WWSLP 040LP), Wewantsounds comes with another compelling set, this time compiled by city pop expert DJ Notoya who has dug the rich Nippon Columbia catalog to bring a breezy selection of funky gems. Nippon has amassed an incredible back catalog over the decades. Particularly strong in the '70s and '80s, the label was one of the main purveyors of great music at a time when Japan was entering its greatest economic boom and labels had budgets at hand to create the highest quality music. As Notoya explains in the liner notes "Back in the day, the record companies had big budgets and could afford to have many great musicians playing on one record, plus strings and horn sections, top drummers and keyboardists. It all made for a very rich sound, which is generally very different to today's music." Keen to emulate the music created in the US by their American counterparts, Japanese musicians came with their own blend of funk, boogie and soul that has come to be known as city pop. The selection on Tokyo Glow is full of such gems and starts with "Kimugare" a relaxed, mid-tempo track by Kumi Nakamura, famous actress who only recorded one album in 1980 for Columbia. The set continues and flows effortlessly with the sunshine grooves of Miyuki Maki, Hatsumi Shibata and cult keyboard player Hiroshi Sato before the pace starts going faster and funkier with New Generation Company, Kengo Kurozumi -- with his superb boogie, "Juggler" -- and one of the queens of the genre, Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama with "Tuxedo Connection". Tokyo-based DJ Notoya is from a new breed of Japanese DJs there focusing on nippon music and is an expert on funk, modern soul, and boogie from the Island. With Tokyo Glow, Notoya says he "focused more on the slightly more underground tracks from the era, rather than the bigger, well-known releases. For me that was a more fun and satisfying approach." Another fine example on the set is the mid-tempo groove of "I Wander All Alone Part III" by New Generation Company, an aggregate group of some of the best Japanese session musicians led by arranger Katz Hoshi and including Hiroyuki Namba, Kazuo Shiina, and Yutaka Uehara. Tokyo Glow showcases the diversity and specificity of Japanese city pop during the late '70s and '80s. Also features Haruyoshi Yamashina, Sumiko Yamagata, Makoto Iwabuchi, Arakawa Band, Kiyohiko Ozaki, Ken Nishizaki, Jadoes, Midori Hara, Mizuki Koyama, Haruo Chikada & Vibra-Tones, and Mitsuko Horie.

 

PRICE: $31.00

CAT #: WILL 002LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

"The Kyoto-based musician Yusaku Arai is known for his production work in the avant-garde scenes of Japanese hip-hop and R&B. On this solo album, though, he offers more-lengthy, piano-centric meditations that use the techniques of musique concrète. Arai's compositions on the A-side emerged out of a reflection on the corporeal and interwoven relationship between his own body and things he encountered in the world -- the ocean, a flower petal, a plastic sheet, a hand. His intent is to represent a process in which colors gently well up in inside of an object, pass through its entirety -- and eventually permeate into the body itself. The B-side consists mostly of a long composition, which is about an unavoidable surplus that crops up in communication, whether of gestures or of language. This narrative work describes humans as beings torn between enthusiasm and emptiness. The album's artwork is by photographer Azusa Yamaguchi and designer Hejiro Yagi. Mastering by Sean McCann of Recital. An 18x24 inch poster is included."

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: WS 013LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"North Carolina based singer/songwriter Rosali Middleman has spent the last decade using her voice and guitar to construct tunes built upon the spectrum between joy and pain -- deeply personal lyrics, profound vocals, and striking, heady guitar synchronizing as a perfect pair to deliver a very welcome and fresh perspective on folk rock and roll music. On this newest collection of tunes, Variable Happiness, under the moniker Edsel Axle, her voice takes a winter hibernation to showcase the prodigious slow burn thump of her solo electric guitar playing. While this musical pivot may be a risk to some, the worlds of wilderness created within the music are easily navigated with clarity. Recorded directly to a four-track cassette rig in the comfort of her own home -- each chord struck exhales from the gear and onto magnetic tape, finding its true north, and throwing sand on the bonfire before it burns the foundation. First thought/best thought improvisations naturally trickling down and turning puddles into expansive streams of sound. The opener, 'Some Answer' seems to not have any question before it. As if it has always just been. A mode of intrinsic acceptance. Middleman confidently reigns in atonal midrange melodies and lets them rest in the bottom of the ocean. Every new movement coming up for air. Reviving consciousness, and letting go once more. The small combo amp on the recordings sounds like it's being overloaded and exploding into a peace sign, before fading into the next tune. The title track, "Variable Happiness" suggests that serenity is found within acceptance. It begins with a warm, simple, and circular groove. Bridging the giant landmasses of Fleetwood Mac's 'Albatross' and Loren Connors. The light boogie has surgical tremolo dirge doing major brain work and re-wiring . . . 'Come Down From That Tree Now' isn't so much a command as it is a peaceful suggestion. A neon glazed layer of arpeggios sits in the background, while Middleman wails fully in the foreground. An amalgamation that sounds like Windy and Carl records being blown apart by firecrackers in a bucket. Through these six honey-soaked, deeply psychedelic, overdriven ohm-style meditations, Variable Happiness showcases the prodigious left-hand melodies, and ball peen hammer attack of Middleman's right hand. Striking with great patience and humility. A true-blue guitar denizen of a heady state. A new benchmark in solo guitar recordings..." --Ryley Walker"Another beautiful solo-guitar excursion from Rosali Middleman, filled with meditative songs that circle and eddy like leaves on the wind or a mountain stream in springtime. Her guitar playing has a raw, elemental power that is simultaneously soothing and invigorating, hypnotic and transportive." --Ripley Johnson (Wooden Shjips/Moon Duo/Rose City Band)