…..news letter #673 – mouseman…..

The new releases are finally starting to roll in and there’s some big ones coming out next week, but don’t let those distract you from the killer stuff in this week. I’m sending this out a couple days early as I will be away from the shop, but Nora and James will be around so stop in, say hi and grab some wax!

…..pick of the week…..

Red Noise: Sarcelles-Locheres (Souffle Continu) LP
Souffle Continu Records presents the first official vinyl reissue of Sarcelles-Lochères by Red Noise, originally released in 1970. This LP inaugurates Souffle Continu’s series of ten reissues from the catalog of the cult French label Futura Records, fully licensed by Futura founder Gérard Terronè. Red Noise were founded in May of 1968 by Patrick Vian (son of Boris Vian), who would go on to release Bruits et Temps Analogues (STAUB 126CD) in 1976. Red Noise developed their own unique blend of free jazz and rock with highly political and satirical lyrics. The highlight of their sole full-length release is the 18-minute closer, “Sarcelles c’Est l’Avenir,” which charts an epic journey into proto-noise territories that prefigure the sonic experimentation of the decades to come. Presented in a gatefold sleeve with obi strip and matte finish. Limited to 1000 copies: 700 on black vinyl.

File Under: Jazz Rock, Free Jazz, Experimental, Futura
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…..new arrivals…..
afrikan

Afrikan Sciences: Circuitous (PAN) LP
At the nexus of Afrofuturism, science fiction, transcendental free jazz, and future hip hop, this new work from Eric Douglas Porter casts itself and its creator in a liminal zone most recognizably charted by astral traveller Sun Ra. Circuitous follows nearly a decade of releases for Deepblak — the Oakland-rooted imprint of frequent collaborator Aybee — and shares common blood with both the elevated consciousness of late ’80s club culture and contemporary west coast beat scene. Built around Porter’s signature polyrhythms and complex melodies, the album’s 14 tracks demonstrate an unorthodox agility honed over a long history of live improvised sets combining multiple turntables, upright bass, and a command center of digital tablets and controllers. Each track maps the artist’s own movements, tracing paths of flight, highway trajectories through tunnels and over bridges, and rides through rough and gated neighborhoods. If familiar on the surface, deeper or repeated listenings to Circuitous reveal the dynamic multiplicity within. Circuitous is a free and unbound body of work — one that defies easy classification yet translates fluidly across multiple environments — presented on double LP in order to fully realize the scope of Afrikan Sciences’ sonic palette. The album was mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering and features artwork by Louis Reith and Bill Kouligas.
File Under: Electronic, Future Hip Hop, Free Jazz
arthurArthur: Dreams & Images (Light in the Attic) LP/CD
The pantheon of performers known by but one name is full of superstars. Arthur–the nom de plume of singer-songwriter Arthur Lee Harper–is not one of them, but this gentle singer-songwriter and his wan, string-drenched, loved-up, psych-folk was probably never likely to be suitable for mass consumption. Released on Lee Hazlewood’s LHI label, the haunting Dreams And Images is the first of two albums from the Melbourne, Florida-born singer-songwriter. LHI was a broad church, taking in everything from soul to country, and Arthur found a home, a producer, and a champion in Hazlewood, who described him as “A man who will someday be a child again… A reason to cry and be unafraid… A bird with eighth-notes for wings.” Though his lonely, intimate music, shy demeanor, and stutter might not have suggested a man of great ambition, Arthur moved to Hollywood chasing the music industry dream. He suffered hardships to do so, living hand-to-mouth in a YMCA hostel with two like-minded individuals: Mark Lindsey Buckingham and Stephen John Kalinich, whose A World Of Peace Must Come has been reissued by Light In The Attic. “Arthur was a peace person. He was all about peace, love, and harmony,” remembers Kalinich in the brand new, extensive liner notes for Dreams And Images. “He was a person that believed you could change the world. We thought we would be some of the ones to usher in peace.” While Kalinich and Buckingham were signed by the Beach Boys’ Brother Records, Arthur allied with Hazlewood, having knocked on the door of the label’s Sunset Boulevard HQ and auditioned on the spot. Entering the studio with Hazlewood, Donnie Owens, Tom Thacker, and arranger Don Randi, who brought baroque pop grandeur to the songs, Arthur let his music do the talking. “He stuttered and had a hard time getting his ideas out, so he would sing me the parts he had in mind,” remembers Randi. A mixture of things conspired to make sure few people heard Arthur, including a packed release schedule at LHI, followed by the withdrawal of their major label funding and a lack of foundation on which to market the album. After the 1970 follow-up album, Love Is The Revolution, Arthur bowed out of the business, immersing himself in Christianity, family, and a career working first as a rocket engineer and, latterly, a teacher. “I never stopped writing or recording,” he later said. “I recorded in studios, friends’ houses, and live. I just recorded music with my friends or by myself when I felt inspired. For me, singing and songwriting is like breathing; I just do it.” On January 10th, 2002, Arthur’s wife Lora died in a car crash. He tragically passed away of a heart attack the same night. Now, with this reissue of his great, lost album, Arthur’s fragile heart can finally be enjoyed by all.

File Under: Psych-folk, LHI, Lee Hazlewood
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bishopSir Richard Bishop/Bill Orcutt: Road Stories (Kali) (Unrock) LP
The first installment in Unrock’s new string wringer Saraswati Series presents two of today’s most extraordinary guitar maniacs captured on location. While Bill Orcutt, “Re-inventor of the Blues,” falls from abstraction into acoustic hardcore serenade on his wooden 4-string guitar, the Kali-inspired Sir Richard Bishop improvises elegantly and calmly through a feverish 17-minute variation of “Zurvan.” Limited edition of 700 numbered copies. 180 gram vinyl, ncludes a solid cardboard info sheet.

File Under: Guitar Soli, Sun City Girls
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bloomKath Bloom: Pass Through Here (Chapter Music) LP
Pass Through Here is the first album from Connecticut folk icon Kath Bloom since 2010’s Thin Thin Line, which was released on Mark Kozelek’s Caldo Verde Records. Since she began performing in the late 1970s, Bloom has become renowned for her ’80s private press recordings with avant-garde guitarist Loren Connors, particularly her signature tune “Come Here,” which was featured in Richard Linklater’s film Before Sunrise (1995), and has come to be revered around the world for her devastatingly emotional songwriting. Devendra Banhart called her “one of the most beautiful singers ever,” and Stephen M. Deusner, reviewing 2010’sThin Thin Line for Pitchfork, wrote, “she can snap a heart like a twig.” Chapter Music brought Bloom’s work to a renewed audience with the solo compilation Finally in 2005 and the studio album Terror in 2008, as well as reissues of four of her six albums with Connors as double CD set. Then in 2009, Chapter released the celebrated tribute album Loving Takes This Course, featuring covers of Bloom’s work by the likes of Banhart, Kozelek, Bill Callahan, and Josephine Foster. For Pass Through Here, Bloom travelled far from her Connecticut home to record in California with a coterie of freewheeling west coast folk rock types, including engineer Jeff Hassay and fellow performer Levi Strom. It’s a distinctive new sound for Bloom, uplifted by floating synthesizers and disembodied choruses, while retaining the direct simplicity and power for which she is loved. Bloom faces turbulence head-on in “Criminal Side,” while “Let the Music Come” condenses her 60-something years of music-making into two incredibly affecting minutes. “Bubble Bath” is Kath at her most idiosyncratic and touching, while “Shirt Off Song” is an anthem to the wayward men in her life. Recorded in just a few takes, her vocals are raw and honest, but the overall impression is as masterful as it is ramshackle. For Kath Bloom, music has never been about finesse, but always about feeling. Pass Through Here is emotional, uplifting, haunting, and heartwarming songwriting from a master of the craft.

File Under: Folk
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cast

Cast Five: Popsound N.1 (Sonor) LP
Sonor Music Editions presents a reissue of The Cast Five’s highly collectible Popsound N. 1, originally released in 1971 on Flirt Records, the Italian label responsible for Paese Sotto Inchiesta (1971) by Peymont/Braen and Underground Mood (1972). This is obscure library music by a studio group composed of Ernesto Nicelli, Stellio Subelli, and Pasquale Castiglione. Tons of psychedelic grooves, including those on “Diatomea” and “Gospel 71”, and killer breakbeats on “Speedball Experience.” Generally, the whole record features some of the best b-boy breaks to be found on a library LP. This reissue is pressed on 180-gram vinyl and housed in a heavy cardboard sleeve replicating the original edition. Limited to 500 copies
File Under: Library, Italian, Psych
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contents

Contents Are: Through You (Machu Picchu) LP+7”
“Rumours of a limited demo LP pressing from this renowned Iowa garagey-folk rock band remained unconfirmed until a copy popped up at a 2005 Austin Record Show. Curiosity grew into excitement as the album turned out to feature 13 band originals in a terrific melodic Beatles ‘65-66 style with a sprinkling of Byrds on top. In other words, an ideal sound for a ’lost’ 60s album, reminiscent of the Beauregard Ajax recordings from L.A. Drawing inspiration from the Beatles is usually an indication of both taste and cojones, and the Contents Are deliver a string of skillfully arranged 3-minute gems from the point where beat and folk rock turn into melodic psychedelia.” – Patrick Lundborg, The Acid Archives. The Contents Are’s debut album was originally issued in 1967 in an edition of just 100 copies. Hailing from Quad City, Iowa, these four young men recorded one incredible song after another, their ambitions well beyond that of the typical group at the time.This record, more rumoured than heard, lives at a wild nexus in American culture, simultaneously expansive and reflective, searching for answers in society through music and art. The great German label Shadoks first reissued this legendary set almost ten years ago, and we’re very happy to bring you a new deluxe edition of “Through You”, this time with the very special addition of the band’s two non-album 45s, originally released on the ROK label (these two singles are seeing their first ever reissue on vinyl; previously only available as CD bonus tracks, and well worth rediscovery). Let this record turn you on to new horizons.
File Under: Psych, Folk, Private Press
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imarc4Peppino De Luca/I Marc 4: L’Uomo (Sonor) LP
Originally released by Italian promotional label Pegaso, the 1971 soundtrack to the film L’uomo dagli occhi di ghiaccio (The Man with Icy Eyes) was pressed on very few copies, like all Pegaso editions, becoming a truly sought-after gem among record collectors. Trombonist and arranger Giuseppe “Peppino” de Luca, who died shortly after its release, wrote this magnificent score, ripping off Hugo Montenegro’s main theme from the 1968 film Lady in Cement. The music is played by I Marc 4 (Maurizio Majorana on bass, Carlo Pes on guitar, Antonello Vannucchi on organ) featuring de Luca on trumpet and Vincenzo Restuccia on drums. Magnificent vocals by the scatting queen Edda Dell’Orso with Alessandro Alessandroni’s I Cantori Moderni choir. Includes A3 poster. Limited to 500 copies.

File Under: Library, Italian, OST
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imarc

I Marc 4: GLP 1004 (Sonor) LP
Sonor Music Editions presents a reissue of the first of cult library music group I Marc 4’s self-titled albums, originally released in October of 1970 on Nelson Records (catalog number GLP 1004). This is probably the toughest and most psychedelic Nelson release from I Marc 4. A killer blend of down-tempo funk, atmospherics, psych, lounge, and bossa nova. Includes such fantastic tracks as “Distorsion-Mind” and “The Trip”, both heavy psych with screaming organ, and “Compression,” which features mellow, laid-back acoustic guitar and a fat, raw drum break, plus other rare and raw tracks with sounds samples and loops. This reissue is pressed on 180-gram vinyl and housed in a heavy cardboard sleeve replicating the original edition. Limited to 500 copies.
File Under: Library, Italian, Psych, Lounge
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kurzmaanChristof Kurzmann: Then & Now (Trost) LP
Christof Kurzmann, Austrian musician and composer, curator, label-founder (Charhizma), co-founder of the legendary Viennese bar for electronic music (Rhiz) with many releases/bands/projects over the years, turns 50. A perfect time for a big multi-variant collection of his unreleased work: solos, duos, special collaborations, groups, for instance with B. Fleischmann, Ken Vandermark, Robert Wyatt, Mats Gustafsson,Tony Buck, and many more. From electronica to avant-garde and improvisation to political chansons.

File Under: Electronic, Avant-Garde, Improv

mahog

Mahogany Brain: With (Junk-Saucepan) When (Spoon-Trigger) (Souffle Continu) LP
Souffle Continu Records presents the first official vinyl reissue of With (Junk-Saucepan) When (Spoon-Trigger), Mahogany Brain’s 1971 debut album. This LP is the second in Souffle Continu’s series of ten reissues from the catalog of the cult French label Futura Records, fully licensed by Futura founder Gérard Terronè. Mahogany Brain was led by street poet and underground filmmaker Michel Bulteau and Patrick Geoffrois, and shared a raw aesthetic with The Velvet Underground fully realized on this album’s savage and unhinged songs, built upon distorted guitars and crude lyrics. Presented in a gatefold sleeve with obi strip and matte finish. Limited to 1000 copies: 700 on black vinyl.
File Under: Psych, Freakout, Futura, Experimental
blueOST: Blue Valentine (MVD) LP
First time on vinyl for the soundtrack of the acclaimed film, Blue Valentine, with music by Grizzly Bear. Numbered edition of 2000 pressed on blue vinyl.

File Under: OST
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candyman
OST: Candyman (One Way Static) LP
One Way Static Records is really proud to be bring you their latest release where we had the chance to work with two icons in their own respective fields! Today we present to you the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Clive Barker’s 1992 ‘Candyman’ composed & performed by Philip Glass. Clive Barker who wrote the story for Candyman is a multi talented artist, painter, director & producer. The extent of his work is endless. Spawning Nightbreed, Hellraiser, Lord Of Illusions and the Books Of Blood just to name a few. Philip Glass also needs no introduction. Considered one of the most influential composers of the last century his works are featured in a multitude of movies like Koyaanisqatsi, Hamburger Hill, The Truman Show, etc. Mr. Glass was nominated for and won several Golden Globes, Bafta & Academy Awards.
File Under: Horror OST
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class

OST: Class of Nuke Em High (Ship to Shore) LP
The Ship to Shore Phonograph Company is proud to announce the release of The Class of Nuke ’Em High Original Soundtrack and finally give this classic unreleased soundtrack a proper release! With artwork by Godmachine and liner notes by director Lloyd Kaufman and Nuke ’Em High theme song composer Ethan Hurt, this is a release that we are sure fans of horror cinema will go nuclear for!

File Under: OST, Troma
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dance
OST: Dance of Reality (Real Gone) LP
“The release in 2014 of The Dance of Reality marked the triumphant return, after a 23-year hiatus, of Alejandro Jodorowsky, the visionary Chilean filmmaker behind cult classics El Topo and The Holy Mountain. In the radiantly visceral autobiographical film, a young Jodorowsky (played by his son, Brontis) is confronted by a collection of compelling characters that contribute to his burgeoning surreal consciousness. Adding to the autobiographical nature of the work, the film was shot in Tocopilla, a coastal town on the edge of the Chilean desert, where the filmmaker was born in 1929. Blending his personal history with metaphor, mythology, and poetry, The Dance of Reality reflects Jodorowsky’s philosophy that reality is not objective but rather a ‘dance’ created by our own imaginations. Jodorowsky’s films have always placed a special emphasis on music — his soundtracks rank as among the most daring and fascinating in film history — and for The Dance of Reality, Jodorowsky tapped his own son Adan Jodorowsky (aka ‘Adanowsky’), whose work as a composer and performer (with Devendra Banhart among others) has won him an international following in his own right. Adanowsky’s score is alternately lush and comical, blending brooding string passages with hypnotically repeating piano figures that create a mood that is at times foreboding, at times wistful and, as is always the case with a score to a Jodorowsky film, surreal. As part of its continuing association with ABKCO Music & Records, Inc., Real Gone Music is proud to present the complete soundtrack to The Dance of Reality on LP, mastered by Joe Yannece and with lacquer cutting by Carl Rowatti at Trutone Mastering. The album jacket includes a number of production stills from the film. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s tradition of remarkable film soundtracks lives on with The Dance of Reality.”
File Under: OST, Jodorowsky
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knick

OST: The Knick (Milan) LP
The acclaimed soundtrack to The Knick is finally being released on vinyl! Illustrator Kilian Eng designed the whole layout for the release. This release features additional music from the show not available on the CD and digital release! THE KNICK is the new exciting TV series by writer/director Steven Soderbergh (HBO’s Behind the Candelabra, Side Effects…). Cinemax is to premiere The Knick on August 8. Starring Clive Owen and set in New York 1900, the show centers on Knickerbocker Hospital and the groundbreaking surgeons, nurses and staff, who push the bounds of medicine in a time of astonishingly high mortality rates and zero antibiotics. The soundtrack features a fantastic score by acclaimed composer Cliff Martinez (Drive, Springbreakers, Only God Forgives, Solaris).

File Under: OST, Soundtrack, Electronic, Drive
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sauvageOST: La Planete Sauvage (Superior Viaduct) LP
Animated sci-fi masterpiece La Planète Sauvage (a.k.a. Fantastic Planet), winner at Cannes Film Festival in 1973, is a bizarre and beautiful film. Towering blue-skinned figures, tiny humanoids in the midst of revolt, and drug-induced Tantric sex transport viewers to a truly magical setting. Composer Alain Goraguer creates an equally hypnotic score from a palette of effects-laden guitars, flutes, Fender Rhodes and strings. While the lush arrangements are reminiscent of Goraguer’s collaborations with Serge Gainsbourg in the 1960s, space-age synth flourishes suggest a more psychedelic era. Moody vignettes flow together in tense, slow-paced funk rhythms and Baroque textures. It comes as no surprise that La Planète Sauvage has been cited as an influence on contemporary artists such as French duo Air and American hip-hop producers J Dilla and Madlib. Gorgeous, interplanetary soundscapes resemble the surreal meeting point between Pink Floyd’s Obscured by Clouds and Broadcast’s Future Crayon. This long out-of-print vinyl release features the original soundtrack recording and newly designed artwork. Recommended for fans of Ennio Morricone, Basil Kirchin and David Axelrod.File Under: OST, Classics, Animation
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lungs

Evan Parker/Derek Bailey/Peter Brotzmann: Topography of the Lungs (Otoroku) LP
Otoroku caps off the 2014 celebrations of saxophonist Evan Parker’s 70th birthday with a vinyl reissue of The Topography of the Lungs, by Parker, guitarist Derek Bailey, and percussionist Han Bennink — Parker’s first recording as a leader. Originally released in 1970, this was the first LP issued by Incus, the label that Parker founded with Bailey and drummer Tony Oxley. This reissue has been produced from an original vinyl pressing from Parker’s archives, carefully transcribed and restored by Andreas (Lupo) Lubich at Calyx Mastering, Berlin.
File Under: Free Jazz, Skronk
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pesCarlo Pes: Un Uomo Dalla Pelle Dura (Sonor) LP
Sonor Music Editions presents a reissue of the 1972 soundtrack to the film Un uomo dalla pelle dura (The Boxer), originally released on Italian promotional label Pegaso. The score was composed by I Marc 4 guitarist Carlo Pes, who most likely recorded it with the other members of I Marc 4. The amazing jazz-funk track “Tough Guy” is the main theme of the record, appearing in three different versions. The album also features the tense, dramatic “Morte di un Hippie,” Hammond organ improvisations, guitar, and flute on the lounge track “Relaxing in New Mexico,” and bossa nova jazz piano on “Joinin’ the Swimming Pool.” Includes two A3 posters. Limited to 500 copies.

File Under: OST, Library, Italian
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radian

Radian/Howe Gelb: Verses (Radian) LP
“A seemingly curious collaboration. A wrangling and grappling, a confrontation, a quarrel. A checking-out, a weighing of compromises. The Viennese trio Radian has recorded an album with songwriter Howe Gelb from Tucson, Arizona. Here the situation is different: Radian Verses Howe Gelb is primarily a Radian release. In four sessions that were rather freely dispersed over time, Howe Gelb, usually devoting himself to a cosmopolitan rethinking of Americana and desert country in his day job, fed acoustic contributions into the microphone for Radian: piano, guitar, above all: voice — sometimes as a reaction to material prepared by Radian, sometimes pulled liberally and unexpectedly from his own vast and tangled pool of ideas. The tones of Howe Gelb provided further material for Radian: They were dissected, dissolved, reoriented, mutated and made to fit into their own world. Radian Verses Howe Gelb is the first Radian release with guitarist Martin Siewert, who joined the band in 2011 and here also is responsible for processing and sound treatment. As usual, drummerMartin Brandlmayr was in charge of the selection and arrangement of sounds, and John Norman of the bass. As always with Radian, this record resembles a particularly carefully and cautiously-assembled collage: sounds, tones, noises — the tracks are busy. They are teeming, quavering, vibrating. As before, the kinds of things that Brandlmayr, Norman and Siewert scrape and tease out of their machines and instruments make up an exuberant buffet of ideas and strangeness. The way the sounds are arranged here however creates an aura of fragility, a lean design. The tones appear to be artfully suspended in space, and you can feel the air flowing between them. You can hear Howe Gelb croaking and whining in the process of disintegration, and the entanglement and fusion with this highly-focused free music. The categories and genres crumble away ? whether it’s exploring jazz, intricate tinker-electronics, dub, growling, hissing, bubbling, rock, a lot of things wondrously permeate this music, one that is indeed rather post-everything.” –Philipp L’Heritier; Howe Gelb (voice, guitars, piano); Martin Brandlmayr (drums, vibraphone, electronics, synths, editing and arrangement); Martin Siewert (guitars, lap-, and pedal steel, electronics, synths, processings); John Norman (bass).
File Under: Jazz, Electronic, Dub
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firstSchlippenbach Trio: First Recordings (Trost) LP
Found in the archives of FMP! The very first — never released — recordings of the Schlippenbach Trio: Alexander von Schlippenbach (piano); Evan Parker (tenor and soprano saxophone); Paul Lovens(drums). Recorded by an unknown engineer on April 2nd, 1972 during the Workshop Freie Musik at the Acadamy of the Arts, Berlin.

File Under: Free Jazz
seasrchSearch Party: Montgomery Chapel (Lion) LP
Search Party was the brainchild of (then Reverend) Nicholas Freund. Having left Wisconsin to join a burgeoning West Coast religious scene, Freund made his way to San Francisco in 1968 to lay down this sole effort with some of his students. The result is a spooky trip that’s equal parts acid-soaked mind expansion and God. Laced with haunting vocals and dreamlike passages, sinister farfisa, blasts of fuzz guitar and downer lyrics, Montgomery Chapel is psychedelic music at its most evocative and thanks to its depth and sense of anxiety, most truly spiritual. The ominous nine-minute drifter ‘So Many Things Have Got Me Down,’ for example, tackles the difficulties of an unfulfilled married life, depression and spiritual apathy, all while riding a stripped down, grooving beat. If you can imagine a lo-fi United States of America/Jefferson Airplane hybrid, you have an idea of how cool this band sounds. Only 600 copies were pressed and issued on the custom Century label; they’ve become holy grails of collectors. Artists as disparate as Current 93’s David Tibet and Sonic Boom have heaped praise on it. We’re thrilled to give this lost classic a proper reissue. Audio restoration by Anders Peterson. Insert is packed with info thanks to Nick Freund, who was gracious enough to delve into his memory, scrapbook, and photo albums to help us flesh out the portrait of one of the most potent—and perhaps most unlikely—psychedelic groups to ever record an album.

File Under: Psych, Soul, Xian
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SD44-Mock8.inddShindig! #44 Mag
The Damned: Punk pioneers in dark psychedelia shocker! The Rockingbirds: British country-rockers back on the road. Neighb’rhood Child’n: Overlooked West Coast psychedelic folk-rockers. Xian Rock: The strange world of underground Jesus freak music. Plus: Cool Christmas Records, Jim Noir, Fairport Convention, White Hills.

File Under: Psych, Magazine
visitorVisitors: s/t (Lion) LP
Visitors was the brain-child of French producer/composer/genius, and enfant terrible Jean-Pierre Massiera. In 1974, he recruited a group of nineteen musicians (most notably jazz violinist Didier Lockwood, who made an indelible mark on Magma’s 1975 live album), to record his latest compositions. Massiera had been impressed by violin-fronted jazz-rock acts such as the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Jean-Luc Ponty. He decided that his new psychedelic nightmare should be a concept album on the theme of extra-terrestrial contact. It is a truly startling mix of prog, psych, fusion and zeuhl elements, with complex arrangements and grandiose vocals. Massiera kept the basics: keyboards (Hammond organ and mini-Moog), guitar, and rhythm section. That said, he also insisted on a type of vocal polyphony, with voices singing in unison or performing call-and-response echo effects in the style of Vanilla Fudge. To push it further, Massiera peppered the album with special effects. Samplers were non-existent, which meant that he had to transfer location-recorded “found sounds” onto the master-tape by hand! The Visitors album which resulted from this musical alchemy is a dark and doom-laden psyched-out masterpiece: other-worldly, with outer space violins, burning guitar leads, layers of lysergic organ, and twisted choral voices creeping up on you from behind the shadows. It’s hardly surprising that it has attained cult status around the world!

File Under: Psych, Insanity, JP Massiera
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cyberneticVarious: Cybernetic Serendipity Music(Vinyl Factory) LP
Reissue of the Institute of Contemporary Art’s groundbreaking compilation Cybernetic Serendipity Music, originally released in 1968 to coincide with their exhibition “Cybernetic Serendipity,” which proved to be a landmark in the history of audio/visual art, and the first exhibition of its kind in the UK devoted to the relationship between music and early computers. Both unique and extraordinarily influential, Cybernetic Serendipity Music captured a nascent scene on the cusp of a synth-led electronic revolution and was the only compilation of its kind to bring together the musicians, composers and inventors pushing the boundaries of early computer music on one record, a good six years before Kraftwerk’s Autobahn changed modern music forever. It documented a frontier spirit where pre-eminent composers John Cage and Iannis Xenakis rubbed shoulders with the likes of Peter Zinovieff, the founder of EMS and inventor of the game-changing VCS3 synthesizer, with music that was either composed by computers or, in Zinovieff’s case, even performed by them. With only a handful of copies pressed and exclusively available from the ICA at the original exhibition, Cybernetic Serendipity Music has long held Holy Grail status among collectors and enthusiasts of early electronics, with the original record, on the rare occasions it becomes available, often changing hands for upwards of £150. Now to mark their forthcoming archival exhibition of “Cybernetic Serendipity” in the Institute’s Fox Reading Room, The Vinyl Factory are teaming up with the ICA to reissue Cybernetic Serendipity Music on vinyl for the first time since 1968, faithfully reproducing the artwork — taken from one of Peter Zinovieff’s visual scores — housed in a Garrod & Lofthouse-style sleeve in an edition of 500 copies

File Under: Early Electronic, Experimental
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everywhereVarious: Everywhere Chainsaw Sound (Feed the Mind) LP
This reissue of Everywhere Chainsaw Sound, the legendary 1960s US garage psych compilation, is available on 180-gram vinyl in a strictly limited, hand-numbered edition of 500 copies. Featuring tracks from many legendary 45s, it is presented with remastered sound and includes the original insert and a deluxe, full-color, double-sided info sheet with detailed notes and rarely-seen pictures, making it an essential addition to any psych connoisseur’s record collection. “In a field full of weeds the earliest garage psych/punk compilations still possess a charm that endears them to collectors. Back in the early 1980s a number of now extremely rare compilations were briefly available via mail order. They almost immediately disappeared onto the shelves of a small but hardcore group of US ’60s rock fans. Everywhere Chainsaw Sound was one such compilation that originated in France and was produced in a microscopic numbered edition of only 100 copies. Housed in a plain white card sleeve with handmade artwork, it remains, even to this day, almost unknown by the majority of ’60s US garage psych collectors. Inspired by Elektra’s Nuggets LP, grey area compilations such as Pebbles, Boulders, and Acid Dreams created a demand for underground compilations that grew into the US garage rock reissue market that has since produced many thousands of records. An unceasing demand for music from probably the most exciting period of rock and roll has turned into a minor industry. Thankfully Everywhere Chainsaw Sound is once again available as a limited edition high quality vinyl reissue with improved sleeve notes and sound. You may have some of these recordings on other compilations but somehow the mystery excitement and sense of discovery that fuelled the first era of the garage rock revival is captured on this iconic compilation.” –Richard Allen, founder of The Freak Emporium, now writes for Shindig! Everywhere Chainsaw Sound includes tracks by Lincoln St. Exit, The Spiders, The K-Otics, The Scepters, The Reverbs,Strangers, Ken & the Fourth Dimension, The Guilloteens, Fe-Fi-Four Plus 2, Unchained Mynds, Kan Dells, The Spokesmen, The Original Dukes, Heros, The Monacles, The Music Explosion, and Electric Prunes.

File Under: Psych, Garage, Punk
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