News & Events

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: ALA 2101LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

Limited restock, last copies... "A unique live performance at Issue Project Room gathered the former Sonic Youth member and artist Kim Gordon and the legendary minimal blues master and artist Loren Connors in 2014. Alara Music is proud to release a testimonial of this unique duet as a limited vinyl record. In December 2014, the Issue Project Room venue in New York City offered the first-time duo with the legendary Brooklyn-based guitarist Loren Connors and the rock icon Kim Gordon. From this almost 1 ? hour set, Kim and Loren decided to archive their favorite movement on a physical record which is a 12" vinyl now available from the French label Alara. Through this long, improvised session, Kim and Loren do dialogue and browse between installations of deep soundscapes at the limit of drone, and distorted, abrasive sonic attacks wrapped in reverberated harmonics. In this unprecedented exchange between two legends, the languages are as borrowed from one to the other: Kim Gordon plays on the land of the first inventions of Loren in rumbling/growling 'unaccompanying' strings pinch, when Loren Connors envelops the entire hall of distorted harmonics that Kim would not have denied in her loudest attacks within her solo or group experiences from decades. Just through the story of each of the protagonists and thanks to the quality of the recording and the mastering that bring the intensity of this meeting to life as if we were physically attending to the show, this album is a unique opportunity to witness the exceptional meeting between two legends of sonic and experimental music."

 

PRICE: $43.00

CAT #: ALARA 2102LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

"Alara Music (France) is releasing the new album of OXY, the new stunning electronic project by Ivan Pavlov (COH) and Sasha Galianov (Shortparis). OXY is a transient project combining talents of Ivan Pavlov, major electronic artist better known as CoH who has collaborated with Coil, and Sasha Galianov, the main force behind the electronic sound of the avant-garde performance collective Shortparis. The two once met at a festival where they performed a semi-improvised live set. The first performance sparked mutual interest in continuing joint experimentation, which, after a series of concerts, eventually led to this studio recording. The name of the album is constructed of the two titles presented each on one side of the LP. The first side, 'AETHER,' delivers a powerfully charged contemplative exploration, in which the two seem to carefully study the sound of each other's instruments. The search for balance between the analogue and the digital reveals a murky terrain of focused sonic pressure interwoven with potent silence filled with echoes. Towards the end, 'AETHER,' amorphous in the beginning, gains structure and rhythm, as if preparing the listener to its more agitated sequel, 'GUST.' Side two, starting with trademark minimalistic patterns of CoH quickly picks up in intensity and wanders into the domains of digital heavy-metal, in which Sasha's menacing guitar riffs are meticulously disjointed in favor of power focus. Then 'GUST' takes the listener through a minor apocalypse, past a few relieving joyful moments of temporal enlightenment, and towards a strange peace found in a disorienting, synth-framed collage of acoustic guitar sounds. Aether Gust is a record that requires listener's full attention, offering in return a captivating journey though peculiar landscapes at the intersection of the worlds of two adventurous music explorers, exchanging their sonic beliefs and passions. An intense journey through a landscape of contrasts, between the warmth of analogue sounds and the aridity of demanding electro, both minimalist and abundant. This journey, these intersections, but also this permanent encounter between analogue and digital, are magnified by the physical version of Aether Gust: it comes as a bundle of both Vinyl and CD versions of the album, all in a 12" vinyl sleeve then nestled in a thick crafted carboard black embossed sheath. Limited edition of 300 copies.

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: BW 008CD

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

A fortunate and successful meeting "between the romantic and the analytical, the sentimental and the pragmatic." This double soul lives inside the ambient-electronics contained in Rote Um, the debut-album by the artistic partnership between TeZ (Maurizio Martinucci, member of Clock DVA since 2010) and Saverio Rosi (aka Leastupperbound and member of the band Open to the Sea with Enrico Coniglio and Matteo UIggeri). Both Italian composers based in Amsterdam, TeZ and Rosi top a ten-year friendship by exchanging their musical skin to generate eight gems of great intensity, divided between icy dronic expanses and warm electroacoustic embraces. The main feature of Rote Um is its complementarity: Rosi's analog experiments, imbued with low-fi and field-recording, are nestled in the endless digital landscapes, with cold hues and full of hypnagogic sensations, painted by TeZ. All this gives birth to a synesthetic and touching experience, halfway between the moody ambient by Labradford and the nocturnal abstractionism by Mirt. All tracks on Rote Um were recorded and mixed in 2022 at Optobunker Studio in Amsterdam, and wizardly mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: BST 84427LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2024 restock. Released in the Blue Note Tone Poet series. 1979 release. "Jackie McLean's 1960s Blue Note output is a fascinating body of work, especially viewed with the benefit of hindsight. In between recording two venturous modernist sessions -- Let Freedom Ring and One Step Beyond -- that would set the tone for the alto saxophonist's future explorations, came the seemingly more conventional and relaxed quartet date Tippin' The Scales. Recorded in September 1962 but not released until 1979, the date featured McLean with Sonny Clark on piano, Butch Warren on bass, and Art Taylor on drums delivering a swinging hard bop set that presented 2 originals by McLean ('Tippin' the Scales' and 'Rainy Blues') along with three by Clark ('Nursery Blues,' 'Nicely,' and 'Two For One'), as well as a tender version of Vernon Duke's 'Cabin in the Sky.'"

 

PRICE: $12.50

CAT #: BORNBAD 172CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

The relative classicism of Frustration's sixth album, Our Decisions, quenches the thirst of fans whose reputation is well established. Their music is driven by an initial desire that is sufficiently complex that its expression is never a repetition. Frustration doesn't teach music history, but that doesn't mean they don't know where they come from. One of the great joys of listening to a band that's had time to figure out what it wants is that it plays together. The keyboards have six strings, the drummer has a mediator, the bass sings, no one's pulling their punches, and it shows. No doubt there are plenty of presets on his synths, but Fred Campo had to rip out what wasn't being used, and the result: no lasagna of layers, it's played like a scraper. If this is your first knife, be confident: the quintet crafts its blades with the savoir-faire of a Thiers cutlery factory. For snobs who roll on the floor when English is sung on the wrong side of the Channel, two tracks in French, "Omerta" and "Consum?s," remind listeners that Fabrice Gilbert sings in an interlanguage that has kept the best of both idioms. It's the perfect way to savor his acid, no-holds-barred rants, which cut a swath through this "generation of apathetic truffles/fantasizing about assholes full of money." Produced in-house at Mains d'Oeuvres, premixed by guitarist Nicus, mixed by Jonathan Lieffroy, with Krikor on mastering: there's been a bit of a shift to port since their last album, So Cold Streams. The sound is less radically cold wave, and seeks a balance close to the instruments (the guitar plays inside your face, closer is in). There are traces of Indus on the drum skins of "Riptide," tunnel produced like a banger, and sung like new wave. Anne, from the Rouen combo Hammersh?i, sings in German on "Vorbei," a rare moment of pause in this very intense record. The cardio-packed drums of "Catching Your Eye" recall the joyful drone of "Shades from the past," an instrumental from their first album, and confirm, if confirmation were needed, that Mark Adolf forms a formidable tandem with Pat Dambrine on bass. "Secular Prayer," which closes the album, confirms that Frustration are as much in the Ian Curtis family as they are in the Ian Dury family: it takes great care not to take themselves so seriously with such success.

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: BORNBAD 172LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. The relative classicism of Frustration's sixth album, Our Decisions, quenches the thirst of fans whose reputation is well established. Their music is driven by an initial desire that is sufficiently complex that its expression is never a repetition. Frustration doesn't teach music history, but that doesn't mean they don't know where they come from. One of the great joys of listening to a band that's had time to figure out what it wants is that it plays together. The keyboards have six strings, the drummer has a mediator, the bass sings, no one's pulling their punches, and it shows. No doubt there are plenty of presets on his synths, but Fred Campo had to rip out what wasn't being used, and the result: no lasagna of layers, it's played like a scraper. If this is your first knife, be confident: the quintet crafts its blades with the savoir-faire of a Thiers cutlery factory. For snobs who roll on the floor when English is sung on the wrong side of the Channel, two tracks in French, "Omerta" and "Consum?s," remind listeners that Fabrice Gilbert sings in an interlanguage that has kept the best of both idioms. It's the perfect way to savor his acid, no-holds-barred rants, which cut a swath through this "generation of apathetic truffles/fantasizing about assholes full of money." Produced in-house at Mains d'Oeuvres, premixed by guitarist Nicus, mixed by Jonathan Lieffroy, with Krikor on mastering: there's been a bit of a shift to port since their last album, So Cold Streams. The sound is less radically cold wave, and seeks a balance close to the instruments (the guitar plays inside your face, closer is in). There are traces of Indus on the drum skins of "Riptide," tunnel produced like a banger, and sung like new wave. Anne, from the Rouen combo Hammersh?i, sings in German on "Vorbei," a rare moment of pause in this very intense record. The cardio-packed drums of "Catching Your Eye" recall the joyful drone of "Shades from the past," an instrumental from their first album, and confirm, if confirmation were needed, that Mark Adolf forms a formidable tandem with Pat Dambrine on bass. "Secular Prayer," which closes the album, confirms that Frustration are as much in the Ian Curtis family as they are in the Ian Dury family: it takes great care not to take themselves so seriously with such success.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 058LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2024 restock. 140-gram LP. Cluster's self-titled debut was originally released by Philips in 1971; this edition is the first reissue to restore the track running order of the original Philips release. Includes liner notes by electronic avant-garde pioneer Asmus Tietchens. In 1998, The Wire listed Cluster's self-titled debut as one of "100 Records That Set The World On Fire (When No One Was Listening)." Very few albums from Germany can lay claim to this honor. Cluster is a monster; it contains a mere three untitled tracks and was quite an ordeal for untrained ears when it was released. Yet the album pointed the way forward like no other electronic opus. Cluster's previous incarnation was a trio called Kluster. A change in direction and musical differences moved Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius to split from the group's third member, Conrad Schnitzler, in 1970. The following year, in addition to playing live, they recorded their first album in publisher Ralf Arnie's Star Musik Studio in Hamburg. Here they first met Conny Plank, who would himself become a legend. They remained close friends until Plank's death in 1987. Early Cluster music was new. New in the sense that it did not continue any tradition, instead laying the foundations for a future tradition. The duo's utter renunciation of conventional harmony and rhythm, embrace of near total aural abstraction, and confident use of noise, rigorous live electronic improvisation, and a positive mindset were all factors in Cluster's innovative trailblazing of 1971. For want of a better category, Cluster was classified rather inappropriately and incorrectly as "cosmic." Few recognized Cluster for what it was -- a synthesis of pop music, stripped of embarrassing glamor, and so-called serious music without intellectual constraints. Moebius and Roedelius took the liberty of raiding both disciplines to perfect their musical concept. A common enough practice today, but akin to a palace revolution in 1971. So it is that three pieces of electronic music meander and pulsate through Cluster, with no beginning and no end. Cluster's music is free and open in all directions. There are sounds, noises, and structures to be heard on this album that would become ingrained in the electronic pop music of the 1980s and 1990s. Cluster had taken the first step into the future.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 066LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2024 restock. 180 gram LP version. Bureau B reissues the eleventh solo album by German keyboardist Hans-Joachim Roedelius, originally released in 1986 on the small Norwegian label Cicada. If we can agree on 1969 as the year of Cluster's inception, then Roedelius needed a good 17 years to discover the aural qualities and musical beauty of the grand piano for his own compositions. More precisely, he must have become aware of the grand piano during the recording sessions for Jardin Au Fou (1979) and Lustwandel (1981) in Peter Baumann's Paragon studio. Another five years would pass before he built an album entirely around the piano, with electronic elements altogether absent. There is no sign of the Farfisa organ or indeed any of the synthesizers which had previously been such a common feature of Roedelius' solo works. The piano sounds were left untreated. Indeed, he was clearly so fascinated by the sonority and potential of the B?sendorfer grand piano that, a few overdubs notwithstanding, he dispensed with virtually all distinguishing features of his musical approach. On Wie Das Wispern Des Windes, Roedelius played his way into virgin territory, as new to his listeners as it was to him. It's no wonder that Wispern was released not on a specialist electronic label in Germany, but on a small Norwegian label called Cicada. Rarely has the title of a Roedelius album (trans. "Like the whispering of the wind") so poetically and yet so accurately described its content. Roedelius expands his ?tudes towards amorphousness; then suddenly, a disarmingly familiar melody appears, from a completely different source, perhaps (Harmonia? Cluster?). To continue the poetic theme of the LP's title, Roedelius is not only listening to the wind, he surrenders to it, allowing himself to be carried hither and thither; effortlessly, weightlessly transported to where the sun shines brightest. In this context, the image of a butterfly may be pushing the metaphor a little too far, but an apposite one nevertheless. Liner notes by Asmus Tietchens.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: BB 138LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress; LP version, on 180 gram vinyl. Tired of quarreling endlessly with his imperious brother Klaus, Thomas Dinger quit the production of Viva, the second La D?sseldorf album, and promptly set off for the south of France. Frustrated and far away from home, his mind turned to the possibility of a solo album. An album devoted to his own musical ideas, free from domineering voices telling him what to do. Presenting his own vision in the context of a La D?sseldorf LP would have been difficult at the best of times. "I wanted to create something by myself, to make something just for me and nobody else," the third member of the band Hans Lampe recalls him saying -- hence the album title F?r mich. He recorded the album in La D?sseldorf's studio in 1981, with Hans Lampe on board as co-producer and engineer. The six instrumental pieces, melancholic and elegiac in character, featured layers of synthesizer sounds, closer to the music of Wolfgang Riechmann or Michael Rother than that of La D?sseldorf. (The pulsating 4/4 beat associated with Klaus Dinger can be heard just the once. Two tracks are actually written in a 3/4 signature). The nearest points of reference in the La D?sseldorf canon might be the more measured "Rheinita" and "Silver Cloud." In the studio, Dinger and Lampe allowed themselves plenty of time to experiment. As Thomas wished, his brother Klaus stayed away from the recording and mixing sessions. Hans Lampe described the creative process thus: "There was a large balcony to the rear of Thomas' apartment, looking onto a vast, overgrown courtyard. A little park, a verdant oasis in the big city. We sat here often, listening to music, working on the LP and musing on life. Thomas and I complemented each other marvelously, bouncing ideas off each other. Our understanding was so great, the mood was so deep and heartfelt, we thoroughly enjoyed working together." Which is how the album sounds: simultaneously conveying a sense of somber depth and unfettered lightness, even playfulness.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: BB 357EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2024 restock. Auf Dem Schwarzen Kanal is one of the most outstanding, most sought-after releases in Conrad Schnitzler's extensive catalog. It was the only Schnitzler record to appear on a major label and saw him flirting with the experimental new wave sound that was emerging in 1980, particularly on the title track. Nevertheless, it still managed to sound idiosyncratically unlike any other music around at the time. Recorded with Wolfgang Seidel at Peter Baumann's Paragon Studio in Berlin, the four tracks take us on a caustic, dissonant mutant disco trip which has lost none of its fascination in the years since. It gives us at Bureau B great pleasure to reissue this long lost work.

 

PRICE: $16.00

CAT #: DEVIATION 001EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Elite Controller/Softness on the Other Side is the second 7" single containing two of four tracks produced by transcontinental duo Gruuel, featuring James Vinciguerra and Beau Wanzer, between 2019 and 2023. The duo appear here in an expanded form with third member and Vinciguerra Act Now collaborator Tarquin Manek, heard as multi-instrumentalist jack-of-all-trades performing guitar, bass guitar, synthesizer and bass clarinet to accompany Wanzer's hazy drum machine patterns and Vinciguerra's mutated vocals. The single is the first release on Elations Recordings' Deviations imprint, focusing on the outer realms of experimentation and fringe expression. Two subterranean, science-non-fiction snapshots capturing the spirit of the forward-looking art-experimental groups of the late 1970s and early 1980s that were lumped in with the punk movement. The a-side "Elite Controller" is the more immediate of the two tracks; a paranoid fever dream of raw, psychedelic guitars underpinned by dub bass and Vinciguerra's deranged mutant vocals; while the B-side "Softness on the Other Side" takes a more self-reflective turn. A passive, spoken word cautionary telling of the dangers while searching for personal nirvana accompanied by Manek's tortured bass clarinet impressions. Recommended for fans of Chrome, Tuxedomoon or K. Leimer's experimental "artificial" band Savant.

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: DIRT 150EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

In Dirt Crew's 20th celebration year comes Loz Goddard. With his standout debut collab release with Harry Wolfman in 2016 he has developed a unique mix of electronica, deep soundscapes and lush organic Deep House on labels such as Oath, Razor N Tape, Church, Outplay, and Apparel Music. Now he finally returns with a mini album that features beautiful crafted ambient and electronica cuts paired with three upbeat tracks that will for sure shake the dance floors in and outdoors. In his own words, here are some insights on the influences and production process of these six pieces: "The release is named after a night in the White Hotel in Salford watching Skee Mask. At the time I had a bunch of unfinished ambient ideas as a result of making Balloon Tree Road (out on Oath). There were a lot of ideas I still loved that didn't get finished for that release, so I set about finishing them late 2022 and early 2023 with the view to releasing an EP or 'mini album' that was again angled a bit more towards home-listening. The more upbeat tracks are newer jams that I created in 2023. I wanted to include a few club-ready tracks on the record as well, so the release appeals to DJ's as well as home listeners. I approached the production much like my past two records on Oath, with lots of live drum elements, some sampling and a mixing approach which keeps everything sound warm and organic. It's rough round the edges -- as has been the case with my productions of late - and offers a nice contrast to my DJ sets and radio shows at the moment, in which I am playing mostly deep/progressive house, breaks, and techno. There's some influence on the title track from the deep and lo-fi house sound of artists like Baltra and Mall Grab, and I have taken influence from all the breaks I've been playing in DJ sets for 'How's This for a Vague Song Title.'"

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: DOX 869LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2024 repress. 180-gram vinyl. In the late fifties the Chicago-born John Jenkins was an up-and-coming young alto saxophone player on the New York jazz scene, playing with top jazzmen like Charles Mingus, Donald Byrd, and Hank Mobley, among others. It looked like he was going to have a long and promising career, when suddenly in the mid-sixties he gave up music altogether and disappeared from the jazz world. Thankfully, before doing so he recorded several sessions, including two as leader for Blue Note in 1957. This quintet session (recorded with the all-star rhythm section of Kenny Burrell, Sonny Clark, Paul Chambers, and Danny Richmond) is considered to be the better of the two. Here Jenkins also gets an opportunity to show off his flair for composition as well, contributing three of the six pieces found on the album ("Motif," "Sharon" and "Chalumeau"). After such a competent start, jazz fans can only mourn the fact that Jenkins didn't continue recording!

 

PRICE: $27.00

CAT #: DOX 878LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2024 repress. Although Sonny Clark was just 31 years old when he passed away, he still managed to carve out his place in history as one of jazz music's top pianists. Blues in the Night, recorded in December 1958 for Blue Note, was a trio session featuring Sonny Clark on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Wes Landers on drums. Blues in the Night is an extremely rare LP that was shelved until 1979, when it finally released as part of the Japanese Blue Note series by King Records. It has since also been released on CD, but it has never been reissued on vinyl. The session finds the piano trio playing an array of standard tunes that were originally intended for release as jukebox singles. The final track, "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You (Alt. Take)," recorded in November 1958, was taken from Sonny Clark's Art of the Trio session, also recorded at the Van Gelder studio, and featuring Jymie Merritt instead of Paul Chambers on bass. 180-gram vinyl.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: DC 895CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"This is long overdue. I mean, looooooonnnnnng overdue. A solo album by Jim [White]. The trap kit -- so straightforward, so mysterious. What's inside those things? Air and light -- from which century? Which continent? Which planet? Depending on how and when you hit them it can be a vibration sent through a prehistoric breath, particles of Saturn's atmosphere, the dead, wet leaves you walked through on the way to the first day of school. These are the memories of the drums on this record. Infinite and personal. Editing each other as they muscle to the front or soft shoe to the shadow. Cymbals can override/cancel everything out -- wipe your memory clear or make the memory clearer. Drums are the instrument where you can feel the presence of the player the most -- the full body -- and sense the thoughts of the player the most. The instrument with the most choices to be made sends out the most brainwaves. A bouquet of brainwaves is on this LP. Jim oversees it all, surveys from the lost place we're in, the void -- the drumless song. We trust. We trust, Jim. His big green eyes search for the right tool (mallet, brush, etc), eyes that search you like you're a song he wants to join, wants to see if he can add to or understand. Before humans, drums were playing -- these drums. 'Genesis' was a solo drum piece. After humans, these drums, this album. Someone -- the last man -- is out in a spaceship at the edge of space. He plays a single chord on a synth to set time free from its bind and then lets go. This album sets time free, lets it frolic, lets it graze, lets it remember. This is a record of thoughts, memories, surgery. A deft surgical operation you may not even realize is happening as it's happening but you're back on your feet when it's over. Memories refreshed. Did you really even listen to it?" --Bill Callahan, November 2023

 

PRICE: $12.00

CAT #: DC 895CS

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Cassette version. "This is long overdue. I mean, looooooonnnnnng overdue. A solo album by Jim [White]. The trap kit -- so straightforward, so mysterious. What's inside those things? Air and light -- from which century? Which continent? Which planet? Depending on how and when you hit them it can be a vibration sent through a prehistoric breath, particles of Saturn's atmosphere, the dead, wet leaves you walked through on the way to the first day of school. These are the memories of the drums on this record. Infinite and personal. Editing each other as they muscle to the front or soft shoe to the shadow. Cymbals can override/cancel everything out -- wipe your memory clear or make the memory clearer. Drums are the instrument where you can feel the presence of the player the most -- the full body -- and sense the thoughts of the player the most. The instrument with the most choices to be made sends out the most brainwaves. A bouquet of brainwaves is on this LP. Jim oversees it all, surveys from the lost place we're in, the void -- the drumless song. We trust. We trust, Jim. His big green eyes search for the right tool (mallet, brush, etc), eyes that search you like you're a song he wants to join, wants to see if he can add to or understand. Before humans, drums were playing -- these drums. 'Genesis' was a solo drum piece. After humans, these drums, this album. Someone -- the last man -- is out in a spaceship at the edge of space. He plays a single chord on a synth to set time free from its bind and then lets go. This album sets time free, lets it frolic, lets it graze, lets it remember. This is a record of thoughts, memories, surgery. A deft surgical operation you may not even realize is happening as it's happening but you're back on your feet when it's over. Memories refreshed. Did you really even listen to it?" --Bill Callahan, November 2023

 

PRICE: $23.00

CAT #: DC 895LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "This is long overdue. I mean, looooooonnnnnng overdue. A solo album by Jim [White]. The trap kit -- so straightforward, so mysterious. What's inside those things? Air and light -- from which century? Which continent? Which planet? Depending on how and when you hit them it can be a vibration sent through a prehistoric breath, particles of Saturn's atmosphere, the dead, wet leaves you walked through on the way to the first day of school. These are the memories of the drums on this record. Infinite and personal. Editing each other as they muscle to the front or soft shoe to the shadow. Cymbals can override/cancel everything out -- wipe your memory clear or make the memory clearer. Drums are the instrument where you can feel the presence of the player the most -- the full body -- and sense the thoughts of the player the most. The instrument with the most choices to be made sends out the most brainwaves. A bouquet of brainwaves is on this LP. Jim oversees it all, surveys from the lost place we're in, the void -- the drumless song. We trust. We trust, Jim. His big green eyes search for the right tool (mallet, brush, etc), eyes that search you like you're a song he wants to join, wants to see if he can add to or understand. Before humans, drums were playing -- these drums. 'Genesis' was a solo drum piece. After humans, these drums, this album. Someone -- the last man -- is out in a spaceship at the edge of space. He plays a single chord on a synth to set time free from its bind and then lets go. This album sets time free, lets it frolic, lets it graze, lets it remember. This is a record of thoughts, memories, surgery. A deft surgical operation you may not even realize is happening as it's happening but you're back on your feet when it's over. Memories refreshed. Did you really even listen to it?" --Bill Callahan, November 2023

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: DC 901CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"High Llamas present Hey Panda?-- a modern pop music/deep listening experience that could only issue forth from their personal quadrant of the galaxy. Hey Panda projects soulfully through an enervating abstract of today's popular music; the sound of the Llamas' stately melodies and expressive ditties laid open?--?blissfully shattered?--?with drums and vocals hitting different, burning sounds and contemporary production twists pulling the ear at every turn. For the past few decades, High Llamas have trafficked in contemporary pop sounds directed toward the avant end of the spectrum as much as not. But here the message was clear. Llamas' composer-in-residence Sean O'Hagan was determined to let go. Hey Panda does just that, with a set of tunes reflecting on multiple levels how definitions change over the course of a lifetime, radiating an optimism derived from the diverse conundrums of today. Hey Panda's wide reach is aided by two co-writes from Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, (who bonded with Sean over a shared love of gospel soul during writing sessions), guest vocals from Rae Morris and Sean's daughter Livvy, production twists from Fryars and the stalwart, flexible presence of High Llamas. For all of its sense of departure, Hey Panda is a movement in the High Llamas oeuvre that's been a long time in development. Aspects of soul music were addressed at the time of Can Cladders; similarly, aspects of electronic dance music were in the mix in the late '90s, around the time of Cold and Bouncy. But nothing up to now has refocused the music of High Llamas so completely. Sharing the impulse of late-period Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, with further inspiration from Steve Lacy, SZA, Sault, No Name, and Ezra Collective, among many others, Sean O'Hagan and High Llamas are living joyfully in the new and the now, with Hey Panda!"

 

PRICE: $23.00

CAT #: DC 901LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. "High Llamas present Hey Panda?-- a modern pop music/deep listening experience that could only issue forth from their personal quadrant of the galaxy. Hey Panda projects soulfully through an enervating abstract of today's popular music; the sound of the Llamas' stately melodies and expressive ditties laid open?--?blissfully shattered?--?with drums and vocals hitting different, burning sounds and contemporary production twists pulling the ear at every turn. For the past few decades, High Llamas have trafficked in contemporary pop sounds directed toward the avant end of the spectrum as much as not. But here the message was clear. Llamas' composer-in-residence Sean O'Hagan was determined to let go. Hey Panda does just that, with a set of tunes reflecting on multiple levels how definitions change over the course of a lifetime, radiating an optimism derived from the diverse conundrums of today. Hey Panda's wide reach is aided by two co-writes from Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, (who bonded with Sean over a shared love of gospel soul during writing sessions), guest vocals from Rae Morris and Sean's daughter Livvy, production twists from Fryars and the stalwart, flexible presence of High Llamas. For all of its sense of departure, Hey Panda is a movement in the High Llamas oeuvre that's been a long time in development. Aspects of soul music were addressed at the time of Can Cladders; similarly, aspects of electronic dance music were in the mix in the late '90s, around the time of Cold and Bouncy. But nothing up to now has refocused the music of High Llamas so completely. Sharing the impulse of late-period Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, with further inspiration from Steve Lacy, SZA, Sault, No Name, and Ezra Collective, among many others, Sean O'Hagan and High Llamas are living joyfully in the new and the now, with Hey Panda!"

 

PRICE: $19.00

CAT #: JP 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Exact repro edition of Lip Cream's second LP from 1986. Lip Cream were a hardcore punk band from Tokyo, Japan that existed from 1983 to 1990.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: DOME 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. With the demise of the group Wire in 1980, founder members Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis joined forces to create Dome. With the assistance of engineer Eric Radcliffe and his Blackwing Studio Dome took the ethic of "using the studio as a compositional tool" and recorded and released three Dome albums on their own label in the space of 12 months: Dome (July 1980), Dome 2 (October 1980), and Dome 3 (October 1981). A final fourth album, Will You Speak This Word: Dome IV was released on the Norwegian Uniton label in May 1983. These albums represent some of the most beautifully stark and above all timeless exercises in studio experimentation from early 1980s alternative music scene. Previously issued in the out-of-print Dome 1-4+5 box set in 2011. Now available as standalone LP; Includes download card. New artwork by Dave Coppenhall. B.C. Gilbert: voices, guitars, bass, percussion, tapes, drums; G. Lewis: voices, guitars, bass, percussion, tapes, synthesizer; A.M.C. - voice on "Cruel When Complete". Recorded on March 10th & 16th, 1980 and April 1st, 1980; Produced by B.C. Gilbert and G. Lewis; Engineer - Eric Radcliffe; Asst. engineer - John Fryer; Floating-point re-master by Russell Haswell, August 2011; Cut at Dubplates & Mastering by Rashad Becker, August 2011.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: DOME 002LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. With the demise of Wire in 1980, founding members Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis joined forces to create Dome. With the assistance of engineer Eric Radcliffe and his Blackwing Studio, Dome took the ethic of "using the studio as a compositional tool" and recorded and released three albums on their own label in the space of 12 months: Dome (DOME 001LP, 2019), Dome 2 (1980), and Dome 3 (1981). A final fourth album, Will You Speak This Word: Dome IV was released on the Norwegian Uniton label in 1982. These albums represent some of the most beautifully stark and above all, timeless exercises in studio experimentation from early the 1980s alternative music scene. Previously issued in the out of print DOME 1-4+5 box set in 2011, Dome 2 is now available as standalone LP, with new artwork by Dave Coppenhall. Floating-point re-master by Russell Haswell, August 2011. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering by Rashad Becker. Includes download.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: DOME 003LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. With the demise of the group Wire in 1980, founder members Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis joined forces to create Dome. With the assistance of engineer Eric Radcliffe and his Blackwing Studio Dome took the ethic of "using the studio as a compositional tool" and recorded and released three Dome albums on their own label in the space of 12 months: Dome (July, 1980), Dome 2 (October, 1980), and Dome 3 (October 1981). A final fourth album, Will You Speak This Word: Dome IV was released on the Norwegian Uniton label in May 1983. These albums represent some of the most beautifully stark and above all timeless exercises in studio experimentation from early 1980s alternative music scene. Previously issued in the out-of-print Dome 1-4+5 box set in 2011. Floating-point re-master by Russell Haswell, August 2011. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering by Rashad Becker, August 2011. New artwork by Dave Coppenhall. Includes download card.

 

PRICE: $27.50

CAT #: FTR 758LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

"A very nice return to unadorned acoustic guitar playing by one of the form's masters. Allred's last album for FTR, What Strange Flowers Grow in the Shade (FTR 656LP) was more of an imaginary band outing, but Folk Guitar plays it straight. Joseph reports they'd been listening to a lot to pieces by 16th-century composer, John Dowland, and the solo work of Pentangle's John Renbourn while this album was gestating. They also note Hammer Studio horror-film soundtracks as a touchstone for certain tunes, while others were inspired by the music in Chinese fantasy TV shows, and poetic fragments by Sappho. All of which means, this is another deeply considered and beautifully rendered set of tunes by this Tennessee-based rambler. Unlike some of Allred's early solo work, which manifested the same sort of syncretic brassiness as Robbie Basho's Takoma-era work, several of the pieces here display an extreme clarity of attack that reminds me a bit of British guitarist, John Pearse, whose work also explored folk and classical traditions (sometimes simultaneously). But of course, Allred's playing is as original as always. They manage to blend whatever influences they have consumed into perfect gems of musical karma -- each facet glimmering like a transcendental star. Folk Guitar is a work of unalloyed brilliance, and will prove to be a boon companion for anyone attuned to the art of solo guitar music." --Byron Coley, 2024

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: FIGURE X039LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

With an album as versatile and expansive as his LP Fusion, Len Faki wanted a collection of remixes to display a similar kind of musical variety. Hand-picked from his favorite producers, the cast now features a diverse group of artists who have re-imagined of Fusion's tracks. FigureX39 kicks off the trilogy, with Arthur Robert at the helm, fittingly remaking the album's pensive closer into a melodic peak time stomper. ? [Phase] ramps up the intensity on straight-laced "Temple," keeping the BPM in line with modern techno's need for speed. On the flip, rRoxymore inverts "Tor 8" into a psychedelic funnel of haunted voices and pummeling percussion, while dubby synth swirls and ferocious filter action give Pangea's rework of "Space Cowboys I" a distinctly UK-feel. Coming in as hard hitting as ever, PAS layers high-octane rave stabs and nonstop propulsive drums on his version of "Yantra" and one of the album's few original house tracks, "It's Time," gets the Truncate treatment, making for lean, clap-heavy groover with enough low-end to move some bodies. Often known for his cinematic compositions, Djrum delivers a complex masterpiece of heady drum science and intricate patterns condensed into one dazzling mosaic of sound. Closing this first EP out in style is Munich-based newcomer Polygonia, presenting her shimmering and always shifting remix of "Friedrichshain Funk," effortlessly moving between driving rhythms and mystical melodies.

 

PRICE: $30.00

CAT #: GET 56035LP

FILE UNDER: HIPHOP

2024 repress. "Jurassic 5 flexed serious old-to-the-new muscles in the '90s, beginning with their independently released single 'Unified Rebelution' in 1994, and book-ending with their stellar debut full-length: 2000's Quality Control. They walked a tightrope between underground and mainstream hip-hop, and toured alongside rap peers as well as punk rockers on the Vans Warped Tour. With double the pleasure of your average hip-hop group -- two DJs and producers (Cut Chemist and DJ Nu-Mark); and four MCs (Chali 2na, Akil, Marc 7 and Zaakir aka Soup) -- they brought the late 1970s 'unison MC' style of pioneering groups like the Fantastic 5 and the Force MCs to a new generation. Even more surprisingly, they did so out of Los Angeles, whose hip-hop flavors generally leaned towards Gangsta, G-Funk or Electro lines. Musically inventive and lyrically forward-thinking, each song on Quality Control is a new adventure, exploring engaging territory, delivered via one of the best live hip-hop shows fans had seen in years. From singles like the strutting groove of the title track to the throwback doo-wop samples on 'The Influence' and the catchy, keyboard groove-driven 'World of Entertainment (WOE Is Me),' to deeper album tracks like the lyrical gymnastics of 'Jurass Finish First' and the thought-provoking 'Lausd,' Jurassic 5 consistently stepped to the plate and their fans responded in kind, nearly pushing the album to Gold status. Add the innovative DJ-and-sample workout which closes out the album, 'Swing Set,' and you have one of the 2000s' most unique and solid full-length platters."

 

PRICE: $28.50

CAT #: GLOSSY 021LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Celebrated new wave compilation from Japan reissued for the first time on Glossy Mistakes. A much-cherished gem from the 1980s underground Japanese music scene returns, as Soft Selection 84 is reissued by Glossy Mistakes for its 40th anniversary. Originally released on DIY label Soft, the compilation sees 13 tracks from nine acts spanning minimal, ambient, zolo and more for a beguiling listen. The result is a charming time capsule of eclectic creativity in which nothing sounds dated. Take La Sellrose Can Can, whose two-party jams predate Kero Kero Bonito's hyperpop by decades. In addition, an impeccable remastering from the original master tapes adds to the "could have been recorded yesterday" feel of the collection. Soft Selection 84 also includes the eccentric Picky Picnic. One of the few featured artists with recordings beyond the anthology, the trio is an essential act for those curious about Japanese art pop of the era. There is also new wave introspection from Name, whose "Do We All Need Love" plays out as a sensual nod to John Lennon. In a similar vein is Cl?-Sick, the recording name of Goro Some, the compilation's original producer and founder of Soft. The record's rerelease comes with Some's blessing, along with his original artwork and photography. Ultimately, the listener is left tantalized by his selection and its bold excursions into no wave, synth pop, radioplay and bizzaro house. Most of the artists on this release would fade into obscurity, but the transient nature of the potential showcased has helped cement the compilation's reputation over the years. Soft Selection will be released on vinyl LP, with a remastering from the original master tapes. Also featuring Linolium, Sume ba, Pink Label, ReveR, and Classic Pearl.

 

PRICE: $14.50

CAT #: HPS 293CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Psychodrama is Tigers on Opium debut full length album. "Psychodrama" is a structured form of therapy in which a person dramatizes a personal problem or conflict, usually in front of a group of other therapy participants. The other participants usually take part in the drama, though each performance focuses on a single person's concerns. The goal of psychodrama therapy is to work together in a group to achieve a better understanding of past traumas and the influence they can create, and the members must feel willing to work together. Psychodrama explores various psychological and social experiences that have shaped our cultural evolution. Occultism, propaganda, atomic warfare, media consumption, religion, social unrest, nostalgia, mental struggle, pop culture, revolution, and change -- are all themes explored throughout the album.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: HPS 293LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Psychodrama is Tigers on Opium debut full length album. "Psychodrama" is a structured form of therapy in which a person dramatizes a personal problem or conflict, usually in front of a group of other therapy participants. The other participants usually take part in the drama, though each performance focuses on a single person's concerns. The goal of psychodrama therapy is to work together in a group to achieve a better understanding of past traumas and the influence they can create, and the members must feel willing to work together. Psychodrama explores various psychological and social experiences that have shaped our cultural evolution. Occultism, propaganda, atomic warfare, media consumption, religion, social unrest, nostalgia, mental struggle, pop culture, revolution, and change -- are all themes explored throughout the album.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: HPS 293LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Yellow color vinyl. Psychodrama is Tigers on Opium debut full length album. "Psychodrama" is a structured form of therapy in which a person dramatizes a personal problem or conflict, usually in front of a group of other therapy participants. The other participants usually take part in the drama, though each performance focuses on a single person's concerns. The goal of psychodrama therapy is to work together in a group to achieve a better understanding of past traumas and the influence they can create, and the members must feel willing to work together. Psychodrama explores various psychological and social experiences that have shaped our cultural evolution. Occultism, propaganda, atomic warfare, media consumption, religion, social unrest, nostalgia, mental struggle, pop culture, revolution, and change -- are all themes explored throughout the album.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HPS 293ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Blue/black/red striped vinyl. Psychodrama is Tigers on Opium debut full length album. "Psychodrama" is a structured form of therapy in which a person dramatizes a personal problem or conflict, usually in front of a group of other therapy participants. The other participants usually take part in the drama, though each performance focuses on a single person's concerns. The goal of psychodrama therapy is to work together in a group to achieve a better understanding of past traumas and the influence they can create, and the members must feel willing to work together. Psychodrama explores various psychological and social experiences that have shaped our cultural evolution. Occultism, propaganda, atomic warfare, media consumption, religion, social unrest, nostalgia, mental struggle, pop culture, revolution, and change -- are all themes explored throughout the album.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: HPS 295LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. New super-band featuring desert rock legends Mario Lalli, Brant Bjork, Sean Wheeler, and Ryan G?t. The first release from this band of pioneering desert rock musicians captures the band and its purest form exercising the desert born ethic and approach of rock improvisation, psychedelic and flowing, heavy and explorative. The foundation of Mario Lalli's grooving heavy bass lines and meditative themes with an intuitive guitar work alongside Brant Bjork and the percussion of Ryan G?t, which sets the scene for Sean Wheeler's poems and songs capturing the dark and beautiful stories and images of life in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. This is a representation of desert rock in its purest form. A very special live performance in Gold Coast Australia. Mario Lalli & The Rubber Snake Charmers began in 2010 with a focus on live psychedelic rock improvisation and sonic experimentation curated by desert rock pioneer Mario Lalli, featuring likeminded musicians from all walks of the musical spectrum. Anchored by Lalli's heavy grooving and morphing bass lines, this is a heavy meditation on rhythms, drones, grooves and riffs. Sonically becoming a canvas where each participant is encouraged to create fine lines or splatter and explode into chaos -- wherever it goes it goes.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: HPS 295LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Violet color vinyl. New super-band featuring desert rock legends Mario Lalli, Brant Bjork, Sean Wheeler, and Ryan G?t. The first release from this band of pioneering desert rock musicians captures the band and its purest form exercising the desert born ethic and approach of rock improvisation, psychedelic and flowing, heavy and explorative. The foundation of Mario Lalli's grooving heavy bass lines and meditative themes with an intuitive guitar work alongside Brant Bjork and the percussion of Ryan G?t, which sets the scene for Sean Wheeler's poems and songs capturing the dark and beautiful stories and images of life in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. This is a representation of desert rock in its purest form. A very special live performance in Gold Coast Australia. Mario Lalli & The Rubber Snake Charmers began in 2010 with a focus on live psychedelic rock improvisation and sonic experimentation curated by desert rock pioneer Mario Lalli, featuring likeminded musicians from all walks of the musical spectrum. Anchored by Lalli's heavy grooving and morphing bass lines, this is a heavy meditation on rhythms, drones, grooves and riffs. Sonically becoming a canvas where each participant is encouraged to create fine lines or splatter and explode into chaos -- wherever it goes it goes.

 

PRICE: $37.50

CAT #: HPS 295ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Yellow/green/magenta color vinyl. New super-band featuring desert rock legends Mario Lalli, Brant Bjork, Sean Wheeler, and Ryan G?t. The first release from this band of pioneering desert rock musicians captures the band and its purest form exercising the desert born ethic and approach of rock improvisation, psychedelic and flowing, heavy and explorative. The foundation of Mario Lalli's grooving heavy bass lines and meditative themes with an intuitive guitar work alongside Brant Bjork and the percussion of Ryan G?t, which sets the scene for Sean Wheeler's poems and songs capturing the dark and beautiful stories and images of life in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. This is a representation of desert rock in its purest form. A very special live performance in Gold Coast Australia. Mario Lalli & The Rubber Snake Charmers began in 2010 with a focus on live psychedelic rock improvisation and sonic experimentation curated by desert rock pioneer Mario Lalli, featuring likeminded musicians from all walks of the musical spectrum. Anchored by Lalli's heavy grooving and morphing bass lines, this is a heavy meditation on rhythms, drones, grooves and riffs. Sonically becoming a canvas where each participant is encouraged to create fine lines or splatter and explode into chaos -- wherever it goes it goes.

 

PRICE: $22.50

CAT #: HPS 296LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Dabbing (LIVE) Rosin in Europe is Bongzilla's brand new live album. All the songs were recorded during their "Dabbing Across Europe & UK Tour" in Spring-Summer 2023. Mixed and mastered by Shane Trimble at Sletner Sound.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: HPS 296LTD-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Red color vinyl. Dabbing (LIVE) Rosin in Europe is Bongzilla's brand new live album. All the songs were recorded during their "Dabbing Across Europe & UK Tour" in Spring-Summer 2023. Mixed and mastered by Shane Trimble at Sletner Sound.

 

PRICE: $38.50

CAT #: HPS 296ULTRA-LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

LP version. Green/pink splatter vinyl. Dabbing (LIVE) Rosin in Europe is Bongzilla's brand new live album. All the songs were recorded during their "Dabbing Across Europe & UK Tour" in Spring-Summer 2023. Mixed and mastered by Shane Trimble at Sletner Sound.

 

PRICE: $29.50

CAT #: GR 155HLP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

2024 restock; gatefold 180 gram vinyl reissue, originally released in 1965. Featuring John Coltrane (tenor sax), McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass) and Elvin Jones (drums). "...A Love Supreme remains a remarkable, challenging listen...It's the definitive version of a definitive moment..." -- Mojo

 

PRICE: $23.50

CAT #: INCIENSO 026LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Restocked! Jonny From Space is the moniker of Miami-based producer, DJ, and co-founder of Impacto, Jonathan Trujillo. After two EPs on Omnidisc and a few more self-released, Incienso presents his debut solo LP, back then I didn't but now I do. Loping drum loops, warbling synth lines, sun-streaked pads and voice amble into the depths of the humid world Jonny's music inhabits, where tempos shift and often float off into the ether altogether. In the words of JFS himself -- this album is "built 2 chill."

 

PRICE: $17.50

CAT #: K7 437EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Suchi's bouncy, airy productions are so organically deft that they almost belie the complexity that exists within. The Oslo-born, London-bred, Delhi-influenced DJ and producer found herself in a period of creative stagnation, while attempting to rediscover her own voice through production. After going back to the drawing board again and again she resolved to let go of overthinking, eschew the process, and let experimentation lead the way, revisiting some simmering sketches and work in new ways. Ghungroo EP is the result of this reset, and rediscovers Suchi's sense of playfulness through different production styles. It's pressed on eco-friendly vinyl, PVR free and 100% recycled. "Ghungroo" is an homage to Suchi's early years, and named for the small metallic bells strung around the ankles of classical Indian dancers. The track is equal parts cosmic, bassy and wavy, with a downwards bassline that plumbs the depths of low frequencies. The memory of early music passions emerges as the same melodic loop undresses and redresses in different guises -- between breezy pads, glowing chimes and euphoric bells. "Bla?merke" means bruise in Suchi's native Norwegian tongue, and it leads heavily with double-time polyrhythmic drums, ravey rhythms and percussive bubbles popping. Triplets of synth stabs are artfully deployed with reverb and warped, stretched pads, bringing a whimsical twist to a track that is otherwise a tough-edged stomper. "Bottlepop" loosens up the tempo for a funky house framework, foregrounded by a big melodic synth riff. The track's hookiness is enhanced by its old-school school feel, with distorted whistles and evocative pads. "Bla?merke" is then given a rework by Sam Goku who was chosen for his euphoric, dusty-sounding club tracks that hit hard; in his care the remix provides exactly that, via throbbing, shimmering, deep trippiness. Pressed on eco-friendly vinyl -- PVR free and 100% recycled, 60% energy saving.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: KEPLARREV 017LP

FILE UNDER: EXPERIMENTAL

2003 album by Tujiko Noriko on vinyl for the first time, featuring new artwork. Edition of 500 copies with black poly-lined inners, and download featuring eight tracks. Keplar presents the first-ever vinyl edition of the 2003 album From Tokyo to Naiagara by Tujiko Noriko. This reissue with new artwork by Joji Koyama is an abridged version of the album as Tomlab label owner Tom Steinle and producer Aki Onda had originally intended to publish it alongside the original CD version. Written by the France-based Tujiko while she still lived in Japan, From Tokyo to Naiagara followed up on her two seminal Mego albums and marked a turning point in both the artist's career and personal life. Tujiko worked primarily with a Yamaha synthesizer and an MPC sampler while also incorporating contributions by other musicians such as Onda, Riow Arai, and Sakana Hosomi into the pieces. Sometimes approaching an IDM and clicks'n'cuts-style production or working with trip-hop and hip-hop beats while using conventional song structures in the most unconventional of ways, the album showcases her multifaceted influences and skills as a singer and musician to full effect. Tujiko describes producing it in close collaboration with Onda, who would relocate to New York City shortly after, as "quite Tokyo and very local." This music is looking back while moving forward. It is probably no surprise that its reissue too evokes tender memories of Onda and Steinle in Tujiko, while also reminding her of what lies ahead. Influenced in equal parts by the experience of strolling through previously unknown Tokyoite back alleys and thinking about the paths not (yet) taken, From Tokyo to Naiagara is precisely that: the perfect travel companion for a journey that leads its listeners from past to future.

 

PRICE: $12.00

CAT #: MAGGOT 016

FILE UNDER: Misc

"On the cover: This is a really packed, special issue of Maggot Brain, with the feature cover story a comprehensive interview by celebrated writer Sasha Frere-Jones with essayist Lucy Sante (who's written for every issue of MB since the start), on the occasion of her awesome memoir about transitioning, I Heard Her Call My Name. Inside: Phill Niblock: A tribute to the genius musician, filmmaker, label head, and generous promoter of ecstatic sound, by Steve Silverstein. Tresa Leigh: An in-depth feature on the star of Efficient Space's beloved Ghost Riders compilation! Really a beautiful, untold story. Dredd Foole: As his legacy is revealed through Corbett vs Dempsey's archival series, Foole talks to Six Organs of Admittance's Ben Chasny about the role of his band the Din in the Boston underground. Plus, sidebars from Christina Carter, Kris Price, and Phil Milstein. Loopsel: Mike McGonigal on some of the most elusive, beautiful contemporary music, straight out of Gothenburg. Sleater-Kinney: 30 vital years of uncompromising music, by none other than Audrey Golden!"

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: MGART 302CD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Originally released in 2005. Music for the silent movie Schloss Vogel?d (The haunted castle) by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, produced in 1921. Recorded live on October 31st and November 1st 2003 at the Staatstheater Braunschweig, Kleines Haus, Germany.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: NA 5160LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. "Paternoster, that UFO of a rock album released unceremoniously on a custom-pressed CBS Austria long player in 1972, is the stuff of legend. It's been known to the rock collecting elite since the 1980s, when it was first rediscovered, and it quickly became one of those rock records, the records you hear about only if you know someone who knows someone with a copy, much like Damon's Song of a Gypsy. Paternoster is a terrifying album, a collection of songs that traverses the sublime, and thus necessitates a bowel-loosening acceptance of beauty too complicated to merely admire, bowing under the weight of a tremendous atmosphere, accentuated by Gothic organs and scorching fuzz guitar, punctuated by wailing vocals detailing visceral, Bosch-like images, and carried by enveloping bass and syncopated, mixed-well-too-loud-and-thankfully-so drums. Includes download card for WAV files of the entire album and a digital version of the booklet with the story of this mysterious album, told for the first time, in English and German."

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: NA 5184LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress; LP version; includes download card. "Kraut-jazz-rock produced by JJ Whitefield (Poets of Rhythm/Whitefield Brothers). The long-standing band's third album. Featuring Marja Burchard (Embryo). It's been over ten years since Karl Hector and the Malcouns' Sahara Swing saw release on Now-Again in 2008. The album swung with influences from across the African diaspora and set the stage for a cult, but influential following. Hermes designer Christophe Lemaire picked tracks from Karl Hector and The Malcouns as amongst his favorites in the Now-Again catalog, and included them on his Where Are You From anthology. Festival promoters intrigued by the possibility of resurrecting the careers of once forgotten African mavericks -- from Ghana's Ebo Taylor to the progenitors of Zambia's Zamrock scene -- brought Hector and crew across Europe playing festivals for ecstatic fans. Producer JJ Whitefield even founded an Afro-Rock band, Johnny!, with Taylor's son Henry. Unstraight Ahead, their sophomore release from 2014, found the band exploring territories even outside of the expansive scope of Sahara Swing: West African sounds of Ghana and Mali met the East African sounds of Mulatu Astatke's Ethiopian jazz, tied together with the groove heavy experimentalism of The Malcouns' 70s Krautrock godfathers: Can, of course, but also more obscure and equally adventurous groups like Agitation Free, Ibliss and Tomorrow's Gift. 'We look to Middle Eastern funk and psychedelic fusions, and to various ethnic records for sound and phrasing,' Whitefield stated at the time of Unstraight Ahead's release. 'We're trying to combine the global experimentalism of Krautrock with the backbeat of funk.' Non Ex Orbis, the band's third studio album, digs deeper into the Krautrock history embedded deep in the soil of their native Munich - three of the most influential bands of the 1970s experimental German rock scene sprung from there: Amon D??l, Popol Vuh and Embryo. Influenced by these musical heroes, Whitefield shapes a sound that takes the experimental approach of the classic Krautrock era and slides between beat-heavy drone and spacey, prog-rock suites. Marja Burchard, daughter of Embryo mastermind Christian Burchard, fronts the group on keyboard, vibraphone and other-worldly vocals. Al Markovic joins longstanding Malcoun Zdenko Curilija to round out the ensemble. Non Ex Orbis, read by Whitefield and the band as Out Of This World, symbolizes an innocent way of composing and improvising music, free from the influences of our contemporary environment, preserving a childlike way of hearing sounds in their unfiltered purity."

 

PRICE: $15.50

CAT #: PCR 012EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Polycarp boss Simon Ferdinand delivers the cinematic electronica Six Months EP, recorded across this time period and influenced by travels to Sicily, Baltimore and Zanzibar. Hamburg, Germany's Polycarp is the brainchild of Simon Ferdinand and has been active as a platform for the music of Simon under his own name, Basch and their music together as Bonn, as well as further notable artists such as Tilman and Johannes Albert. Here, Ferdinand returns to the imprint with another solo sonic adventure, traversing through a range of emotions and influences with elements of glitch, ambient, electro, breaks, EBM and more instilled within the project. "Broken" leads the release and sets the tone through an amalgamation of hazy, glitched out jazz loops obscured and processed throughout. Title-track "Six Months" then shifts towards a more ethereal deep house aesthetic with cossetting textures, stuttering synth chords, elongated bass drones and jazzy organic drums. "In The Lab" follows next and sees Basch join forces with Simon to create a haunting slice of broken beat deepness fueled by murky low-end pulsations, saturated drums and gritty stab sequences. First up on the flip-side is "The Beginning," shifting gears towards classic electro tropes with boomy 808's, unfurling arpeggios and twitchy resonant synth bleeps before "Santa Marina" rounds out the release with a contemporary electronica feel, fusing fluttering square wave bass lines, crisp amen breaks and intricately intertwined textural elements.

 

PRICE: $28.00

CAT #: PP 091LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Public Possession presents this album by babyxxan. In-Tran-Situ was conceived during an extensive time of travel. The artist was on a journey to explore mountains, lands, and monuments of the world. On this road that led through water, air and over earth -- music was a constant companion. Alike the elements the sounds presented on the album are very much alive, with many textures at times dense and vibrant, then again full of space with lots of room to breathe -- always in some sort of trance, following a natural flow. Public Possession found the music to be deep, enriching and full of surprises, just like life itself.

 

PRICE: $22.00

CAT #: RRS 121LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 repress. Adventurous southern California punk trio Agent Orange was the first band to mix surf rock with punk. The group was formed in1979 in Placentia, a small town close to Fullerton and Anaheim, by front man Mike Palm on guitar and lead vocals, Steve Soto on bass, and Scott Miller on drums. That early line-up recorded the classic version of "Bloodstains" in 1979 as a demo produced by Daniel R. van Patten (of the group Berlin). A year later it was included on the seminal Rodney On The Roq compilation album released by Posh Boy Records. Meanwhile, James Levesque had replaced Steve Soto (Adolescents) and the new line-up released their own self-produced and self-released 7" EP in 1980. A year later, the group signed with Robbie Fields' Posh Boy Records for their debut LP, Living In Darkness, co-produced by Fields and former Simpletones guitarist, Jay Lansford. The album was recorded at Brian Elliot's store front studio in North Hollywood (a few years before Elliot struck gold writing Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach"). A milestone in California punk rock history. Includes five bonus tracks. Black vinyl.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: RR 384LP

FILE UNDER: WORLD

One of the most beloved of reggae vocalists, Dennis Brown was more popular than Marley in his native land and rated "the Crown Prince" overseas for his excellence. Lovers Paradise is an intriguing compilation of the early 1990s, gathering work for Bunny Lee and colleagues. Along with a retitled "Have You Ever," and "Wild Fire" in the guise of the title track, there is a mix of agreeable love ballads, including Dennis's takes on Carlton and the Shoes' immortal "Love Me Forever," and originals such as "Woman I Tell You No Lie" and the devotional "Wolga Nagga Fire," plus there's a hot cut of "Sleng Teng" too. D Brown fans take note!

 

PRICE: $20.00

CAT #: RR 008EP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

LA-based DJ duo Guruku is back with their second release. The title track "Mesmerized" has a throwback feel to the likes of The Gap Band, Prince, and D-Train. With a loose format, Rojai's vocal builds the dubbed-out drums and heavy synth line that rises to an electrifying release with dirty hypnotic pads smothering a delicious bassline. Italy's Giovanni Damico lays down a heavy bass textured to perfection with tasty vocoders throughout. Daniel T. (Cosmic Kids/DFA) takes rhythmic cues from B'more's Unruly Records while keeping close to his West Coast roots with a G-funk synth line riding high. "What It Takes" starts with a melodic, percussive Moog line that breaks into a full production of Rhodes, live bass, and early '80s drums. Rojai delivers a heartfelt love letter letting the one know they can stand the test of time. Rayko vs Wvp mix keeps the boogie alive with a cascading bass line for the dancefloor. RIYL: Star Creature, Dam Funk, Ray Mang, and The Gap Band.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SAMIZDAT 001LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad musical genre that emerged in 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians moved away from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, adopting instead a broader, more experimental approach that included a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-rock influences. Inspired by punk's energy and DIY ethos, but determined to break with rock clich?s, artists experimented with styles such as funk, electronic music, jazz and dance music; dub and disco production techniques; and ideas from art and politics, including critical theory, modernist art, film and literature. These communities have produced independent record labels, visual art, multimedia performances and fanzines. These three compilations are by no means "Best Of" or collections of chart hits. They are compilations that endeavor (and they do a good job) to take a wide-ranging look at the UK and American post-punk scene in the years from 1978 to 1984, but here almost everything stops in 1981, giving space to bands and artists that almost always didn't make it beyond the 45rpm mark. A representation of the true "Outside of Everything" of the era. Features Blue Trapeze, Bound & Gagged, Cardboards, Chemicals Made From Dirt, The Adults, Collective Horizontal, Colours, Commercials, Crash Action Winners, Dry Rib, The Czechs, and The Different I's.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SAMIZDAT 002LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad musical genre that emerged in 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians moved away from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, adopting instead a broader, more experimental approach that included a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-rock influences. Inspired by punk's energy and DIY ethos, but determined to break with rock clich?s, artists experimented with styles such as funk, electronic music, jazz and dance music; dub and disco production techniques; and ideas from art and politics, including critical theory, modernist art, film and literature. These communities have produced independent record labels, visual art, multimedia performances and fanzines. These three compilations are by no means "Best Of" or collections of chart hits. They are compilations that endeavor (and they do a good job) to take a wide-ranging look at the UK and American post-punk scene in the years from 1978 to 1984, but here almost everything stops in 1981, giving space to bands and artists that almost always didn't make it beyond the 45rpm mark. A representation of the true "Outside of Everything" of the era. Features Acid Drops, Anorexia, Art Failure, Bloated Toads, The Bouncing Czechs, The Arnold, Reacta, The Record Players, Reptile Ranch, School Meals, Stepping Talk, Stolen Power, and Strutz.

 

PRICE: $24.00

CAT #: SAMIZDAT 003LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad musical genre that emerged in 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians moved away from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, adopting instead a broader, more experimental approach that included a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-rock influences. Inspired by punk's energy and DIY ethos, but determined to break with rock clich?s, artists experimented with styles such as funk, electronic music, jazz and dance music; dub and disco production techniques; and ideas from art and politics, including critical theory, modernist art, film and literature. These communities have produced independent record labels, visual art, multimedia performances and fanzines. These three compilations are by no means "Best Of" or collections of chart hits. They are compilations that endeavor (and they do a good job) to take a wide-ranging look at the UK and American post-punk scene in the years from 1978 to 1984, but here almost everything stops in 1981, giving space to bands and artists that almost always didn't make it beyond the 45rpm mark. A representation of the true "Outside of Everything" of the era. Features Take It, The Sods, Trance, Walking Floors, Schizoid, X-Defektors, and Zeitgeist.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: FFL 085CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

To abandon animals for music -- and avant-garde jazz at that -- could seeming shocking to some people. However, it is exactly what Manuel Villarroel did, as he was a vet for three years before leaving his native Chili for Europe and a career in music. And though the animals may have suffered, the world of music can be grateful. Born in 1944, Manuel Villarroel lent an ear to the best pianists from North America: Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner, then Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and Cecil Taylor. Manuel left Santiago in September 1970 to participate in the Contemporary Music Workshop in Berlin. To pursue his musical career, he rapidly decided to remain in Europe. The following year in Paris, Manuel began a quartet with saxophonist Jef Sicard (who would also play with his brother Patricio, in the Dharma Quintet). But the group would rapidly expand: Villarroel and Sicard added G?rard Copp?r? (saxophone), William Treve (trombone), Fran?ois M?chali (bass) and Jean-Louis M?chali (drums). And with the arrival of Sonny Grey, a Jamaican trumpeter heard ten years earlier with Daniel Humair, the Matchi-Oul Septet was complete. Complete and ready: on May 8th, 1971, Matchi-Oul was in the studio for G?rard Terron?s' Futura label. The septet recorded seven of the pianist's compositions. A succession of tracks which flow magically from one to the next: from the first drum strokes to the last deep notes of the bass, the successive waves roll over the piano and whistle through the wind instruments. And when they all come together it gives even greater force to Villarroel's beautiful songs. Terremoto is a masterpiece of collective expression.

 

PRICE: $13.50

CAT #: FFL 086CD

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

Before coming to Europe, in 1970, pianist Manuel Villarroel was a vet in his native Chili. A few years later, as leader of the Machi Oul Big Band, he returned to the animal kingdom. A very specific kind of animal, for sure, the Quetzalcoatl, also known as the "Feathered Serpent." What is behind this title (also the name of one of the three original compositions on this album released on the Palm label in 1976), is first and foremost a sort of homecoming. After discovering the jazz of Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane, Villarroel was taken by the free jazz which was all the rage at the time in America and Europe, and this would inspire the first version of his Machi Oul, project. This was a septet, with which the pianist would record, in 1971, the tremendous Terremoto (re-released by Souffle Continu). After this masterstroke, Villarroel was invited to record with Perception (Perception & Friends) and with Baikida Carroll (Orange Fish Tears). While these were notable contributions, Villarroel was already looking into other combinations. "I had to deal personally with my situation as an expatriate, without disavowing it. I tried not to betray my roots, I tried to translate into my music what was essential to me, to reflect my origins -- Latin America, its musical and above all human feelings -- while remaining faithful to jazz, which is the mode of expression of the musicians in the group." This then is the "homecoming," which would incite Manuel Villarroel to compose what he would call "structured free music." In January 1972, the pianist enlarged his formation to reach the size of a real big band: the septet became the Machi Oul Big Band. Three years later in January 1975, with producer Jef Gilson at the helm, fifteen musicians including those from the old septet (Jef Sicard, Fran?ois and Jean-Louis M?chali, G?rard Copp?r?) worked on a rare form of jazz.

 

PRICE: $30.50

CAT #: FFL 086LP

FILE UNDER: JAZZ

LP version. Before coming to Europe, in 1970, pianist Manuel Villarroel was a vet in his native Chili. A few years later, as leader of the Machi Oul Big Band, he returned to the animal kingdom. A very specific kind of animal, for sure, the Quetzalcoatl, also known as the "Feathered Serpent." What is behind this title (also the name of one of the three original compositions on this album released on the Palm label in 1976), is first and foremost a sort of homecoming. After discovering the jazz of Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane, Villarroel was taken by the free jazz which was all the rage at the time in America and Europe, and this would inspire the first version of his Machi Oul, project. This was a septet, with which the pianist would record, in 1971, the tremendous Terremoto (re-released by Souffle Continu). After this masterstroke, Villarroel was invited to record with Perception (Perception & Friends) and with Baikida Carroll (Orange Fish Tears). While these were notable contributions, Villarroel was already looking into other combinations. "I had to deal personally with my situation as an expatriate, without disavowing it. I tried not to betray my roots, I tried to translate into my music what was essential to me, to reflect my origins -- Latin America, its musical and above all human feelings -- while remaining faithful to jazz, which is the mode of expression of the musicians in the group." This then is the "homecoming," which would incite Manuel Villarroel to compose what he would call "structured free music." In January 1972, the pianist enlarged his formation to reach the size of a real big band: the septet became the Machi Oul Big Band. Three years later in January 1975, with producer Jef Gilson at the helm, fifteen musicians including those from the old septet (Jef Sicard, Fran?ois and Jean-Louis M?chali, G?rard Copp?r?) worked on a rare form of jazz.

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: SUBSOUND 129LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

An-N?r, "light" in Arabic, is The Black Flamingo's first album. Six tracks that go feature obsessive rhythms, lysergic journeys, and stoner blows. "An-N?r" is also the title of the single, a long trip of black holes and solidarity with Palestinian people. The album was recorded in Rome, in the "cinque quarti" studio, under the patient supervision of Lorenzo. The Black Flamingo is a stoner-psych instrumental trio, with vibes skirting around space and desert and rotten attitude. The band formed in Rome by Erio Destratis (guru and housekeeper), Tiziano Giammichele (Camion, Cielo Drive), and Mattia Lolli (the Whirlings).

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: SUBSOUND 129LTD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Color vinyl version. An-N?r, "light" in Arabic, is The Black Flamingo's first album. Six tracks that go feature obsessive rhythms, lysergic journeys, and stoner blows. "An-N?r" is also the title of the single, a long trip of black holes and solidarity with Palestinian people. The album was recorded in Rome, in the "cinque quarti" studio, under the patient supervision of Lorenzo. The Black Flamingo is a stoner-psych instrumental trio, with vibes skirting around space and desert and rotten attitude. The band formed in Rome by Erio Destratis (guru and housekeeper), Tiziano Giammichele (Camion, Cielo Drive), and Mattia Lolli (the Whirlings).

 

PRICE: $26.00

CAT #: SUBSOUND 138LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Traum are Luca Ciffo (Fuzz Orchestra), Lorenzo Stecconi (Lento), Luca T. Mai (Zu), and Paolo Mongardi (Zeus!). Traum's first album is the result of almost a month of living together in an old farmhouse, playing, improvising and sharing lives and musical passions. Through a state of presence and mutual listening, the eight tracks that make up this multifaceted album were born: music takes on different forms, guiding the listeners on a journey within themselves. The album is the spontaneous fruit of an impulse to communicate and explore today's reality musically, both internally and externally.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: SUBSOUND 138LTD

FILE UNDER: ROCK

Color vinyl version. Traum are Luca Ciffo (Fuzz Orchestra), Lorenzo Stecconi (Lento), Luca T. Mai (Zu), and Paolo Mongardi (Zeus!). Traum's first album is the result of almost a month of living together in an old farmhouse, playing, improvising and sharing lives and musical passions. Through a state of presence and mutual listening, the eight tracks that make up this multifaceted album were born: music takes on different forms, guiding the listeners on a journey within themselves. The album is the spontaneous fruit of an impulse to communicate and explore today's reality musically, both internally and externally.

 

PRICE: $32.00

CAT #: TAL 030LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

Yuko Kureyama returns to TAL with the album Heart Fresh, her first ever full-length release under her Kopy moniker. All tracks for the album were recorded in Tokyo in June 2023 at the famous live house Ochiai Soup. For the recordings of the ten tracks, Ochiai Soup was swiftly converted into a recording studio as the intimate atmosphere of the club and its perfect room acoustics gave Kopy the chance to record her music like in a live situation. Amazingly Kopy's instrumentation on Heart Fresh consists only of a Jomox x Base 09 rhythm machine and an Elektron Digitakt mini sampler. In the hands of Kopy this fairly basic and common gear creates an unmistakably intuitive and original approach to drum programming, which is recognizably her very own. Heart Fresh seems even more focused, urgent, and ambitious than its predecessors, the Paredo EP, the Eternal EP (TAL 024EP, 2021), and the split album Super Mild (TAL 015CD, 2019). Nothing on Heart Fresh is subdued. The entire production is resonating with its peculiar frequencies, it is wonderfully evocative, open hearted, full of life and intelligence. The album opens with "Night Sarkas" with quirky snare rolls played against slashing, nervy chunks of melody. Samples of organ and chimes evoke a rollercoaster spinning out of tune and synch. "Hole Hole" is a beat driven and melody free short story for bass drum, snare and hi hat with constantly changing bpm's. "TIR TONE" marks the arrival of annunciatory rhythm patterns and a lovely sprinkling of distorted synths. The album's final track "Moonlight Pool" is the perfect closer for an album of taut, free-wheeling figurations of meter and tone, a nod to classical ambient music as well as to contemporary more experimental digressions. However, the album's most startling and unexpected moments come when Kopy follows her futuristic inclinations and matches them with dissonant excoriations that shuttle the mind into a completely different place where all kinds of different activities seem to follow their own individual compasses.

 

PRICE: $29.00

CAT #: WWSLP 044LP

FILE UNDER: ELECTRONIC

2024 restock; Wewantsounds present a reissue of Ziad Rahbani's cult album, Bennesbeh Labokra...Chou? released in Lebanon only and mixing Arabic music with jazz, bossa nova, and other western influences. Curated by Lebanese-born music expert Mario Choueiry from Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the album is reissued on vinyl for the first time since 1978. When Ziad Rahbani released Bennesbeh Labokra... Chou? he was only 22 years old. He had started to make an impression on the Lebanese cultural scene a few years before, while still a teenager, composing and releasing albums under his own name. Born into an illustrious musical family -- his mother is the legendary Lebanese Diva Fairuz and his father, Assi Rahbani, was a renowned composer and part of one of the most famous Lebanese groups, The Rahbani Brothers -- Ziad quickly gained exposure as a gifted composer and producer. When his father fell ill in the mid '70s, he took over as Fairuz's producer which led to a fruitful collaboration starting with the 1979 album Wahdon. Highly influenced by other genres of music, Rahbani had started bringing modern western influences to traditional Arabic music. 1978 saw the release of two key albums by the young musician, the disco 12" Abu Ali which went on to become one of the most sought-after Arabic albums on the international DJ scene and Bennesbeh Labokra... Chou?. A soundtrack to Rahbani's eponymous play, the album gathers all the musical interludes heard during the play, a social diatribe about the Beirut society underlining the difficulties of living in the tense social and political climate of the Lebanese civil war. Written by and starring Rahbani, the play follows the everyday life and problems of a young couple running a cafe in the heart of Beirut. The play underlying Rahbani's leftist sensitivity was an immense success and the album was released the same year (the complete play was also released over three LPs). Bennesbeh Labokra... Chou? is a skillful blend of Arabic music and bossa nova, groove with funky beats, and jazz. It's interesting to hear an early version of "Al Bosta" which would grace Fairuz's 1979 album Wahdon in a faster, funkier version. With a knack for cinematic orchestrations reminiscent of Lalo Schifrin, Rahbani also brings more complex arrangements to the album. Gatefold sleeve. Remastered audio. Two-page insert with a new introduction by Choueiry.

 

PRICE: $31.50

CAT #: WWSLP 074LP

FILE UNDER: ROCK

2024 restock; LP version. Wewantsounds announce an extensive reissue program of Meiko Kaji's first five albums released in Japan between 1972 and 1974 on Teichiku Records. The program, in partnership with Teichiku and Meiko Kaji, will see her first five albums reissued on vinyl for the first time ever in their original Japanese artwork and remastered audio. Famous for her early '70s exploitation movies (Lady Snowblood, the Female Prisoner Scorpion and Stray Cat Rock series) revered by Quentin Tarantino, Meiko Kaji was also a singer releasing albums to tie in with her movie career. These albums are a fascinating mix of Japanese pop and groove with superb funky cinematic orchestrations as displayed in Hajiki Uta. A cult icon on the international film scene, Japanese actress Meiko Kaji, born in Tokyo, has been put into the spotlight internationally by Quentin Tarantino when he heavily based his Kill Bill film on the 1973 revenge genre film Lady Snowblood. By the time she appeared in it, she had already made almost fifty feature films (she began her career in 1965) and she was one of the most famous exploitation actresses in Japan doubling as a sex symbol. This gave the studios the idea of getting her to start a singing career and release music closely associated with the films she starred in often singing the theme songs. Thus, she began releasing records at the dawn of the '70s, recording several 7" singles and five albums for Teichiku which have become sought-after and almost as cult as her films. Drawing on her film roles, the music on these albums were an uber-cool mix of kayokyoku (Japanese pop), traditional enka music, acid folk, and funky beats arranged by the best producers of the time in a cinematic way that could sound like Ennio Morricone or Jean-Claude Vannier. The album featured two film songs, namely "Urami Bushi" used for Female Prisoner Scorpion, and "Onna No Jumon" featured in Female Prisoner Scorpion - Jailhouse 41, which have been composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi who also composed the score for these films. Reissued with original artwork. Features new liner notes by Hashim Kotaro Bharoocha who has interviewed Meiko for the occasion. LP version comes in gatefold sleeve; OBI strip and insert.