Holy moly, it just doesn’t stop! Between all the new arrivals and all the boxes of records I bought in the last week, we are practically bursting at the seams around here! Stop in for a dig….
…..picks of the week…..
Tribo Massahi: Estrlando Embaixandor (Goma Gringo) LP
Originally released in 1972 in very limited numbers. A trip of an album rich in percussive energy and African chant – made in Brazil! The sounds of continents colliding in a young, funky & soul fueled 70s ….this is one is on full burn from start to finish ! This the only album by Massáhi Tribe and it became notorious for it’s unique sound and the almost complete lack of information about its creators. Check! The Label says: ’ This is a sound made in Brazil. All the members are Brazilians. But the goal is to show the young African music, with all his distinctions that features the origin of the black continent’s music. In this record we launch several curious things. Starting from a rhythmic draw, based on the camel steps that match the division 4/4, on the same line of YÁ YÁ YÁ and SOUL MUSIC, which was given the name of OGA, this, because in Lagos, Nigeria’s capital, is an intimate treatment among friends. There, a man feels good when compared to a OGA (camel). Purposely and proudly we launch this new and different LP, not only dedicated to all record collectors in the world but also to all party lovers, nights in club, and even for who’s loving, because on both sides, there aren’t intervals. It’s a contagious and crazy rhythm.” This is how, in 1971, Embaixador and Maestro João Negrão described the record on his back cover. These words did not aged a bit. We are very happy and proud to announce, 44 years later, the first 100% official reissue of this genuine work that became legendary and considered as the “Holy Grail” of Brazilian music among collectors around the world.’
File Under: Brazil, Psych, Afro-Psych, Grails
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OST: Blue Ruin (Blackest Rainbow) LP
Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin premiered at 2013 Cannes Film Festival to great critical acclaim and won the FIPRESCI Prize. It gained distribution and opened in the US to April 2014 to a great response from critics and audiences. This revenge thriller focuses largely on the consequences of revenge, and the main act of revenge you expect will be the focus of the film happens early on and it spirals progressively into even darker and grim territory, dramatically enhanced by the score by brothers, Brooke and Will Blair. The relationship between composers and director has been long standing, having all known each other since they were kids, with Jeremy and the film’s Macon Blair, who plays lead protagonist Dwight, working on films for quite sometime. Macon, also happens to be the elder sibling to Brooke and Will. Brooke and Will composed music to most Jeremy’s previous work, and Macon also starred in some of this output. Being so familiar with one another personally, Jeremy’s horror and 80s inspired early work, and his love of Carpenter’s music, the brothers settled a synth based score, which feels remarkably organic, and at times even almost classical. Minimal tones gliding through one another, with the tense and melancholic themes of the film, percussion seemed like it would detract from the tone of the film. However at times there is a slight percussion sound, which was created from a sample of Macon’s heartbeat, that was unexpectedly captured on set by his lavalier mic on set. Editor Julia Bloch sent them a short file, which was manipulated into a “drum”. It seemed appropriate to incorporate Dwights’ actual life force, his heartbeat into the score. The intensity of this picture is driven home through the power of this score. Blue Ruin will be pressed in an edition of 400 copies. Housed in a UV gloss finished sleeve. 150 copies available on blue vinyl with a rust haze effect, and 300 copies on blue vinyl with a rust splatter effect.
File Under: OST, Ambient, Bleak
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…..new arrivals…..
Joshua Abrams: Magnetoception (Eremite) LP
On Magnetoception, Joshua Abrams is back exploring new contexts for the guimbri, the three-stringed north African bass lute at the heart of his Eremite recordings Natural Information (2010) and Represencing (2012). The artist’s first large-scale work on vinyl, Magnetoception began as a commission by Eremite for Abrams to make a double LP based in extended performances by an ensemble of Abrams, guitarists Emmett Kelly and Jeff Parker, and drummer Hamid Drake. The group recorded the nucleus of Magnetoception live to two-track, circled around vintage Neumanns and a woodstove in a Berwyn, Illinois attic in February 2013. Over the next year at his Chicago studio, Parlor One, Abrams added solo pieces for harp and clarinet, along with Lisa Alvarado’s harmonium, Ben Boye’s autoharp, and percussion embellishments by Drake. Abrams’s compositions are a fascinating nexus of ideas from non-western traditional musics, minimalism, and jazz designed to catalyze his musicians toward a single group-mind organism of sound. On his 2012 album Represencing Abrams presented his music in capsule-length pieces realized by duo and trio groupings drawn from a pool of a dozen musicians. Magnetoception presents one ensemble methodically unfolding his compositions over longer durations. The performances intricately layer rhythm, melody, and drone into sonic textiles of extraordinary expressive breadth, by turns dense or spacious, repetitive or indeterminate, clattering or placid. In addition to his masterful contributions on trap kit, tabla, conga, and frame drums, Hamid Drake acts as a direct link to the visionary music of Don Cherry, one of Abrams’s essential artistic models. Magnetoception is the fullest measure yet of Joshua Abrams’s sound world. It sounds like no other music being made today. Presented in a heavyweight Stoughton “laserdisc” gatefold sleeve; mastered by Helge Sten at Sten Audio Virus Lab, Oslo, Norway; vinyl cut at Sterling by Steve Fallone and manufactured by RTI. Edition of 875 vinyl copies.
File Under: Jazz, Avant Garde, World
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Amanaz: Africa (Now Again) 2CD
Now available on 2CD! “Issued in 1975, this is the articulation of Zambia’s Zamrock ethos. While other albums — Rikki Ililonga’s Zambia, WITCH’s Lazy Bones!! — are competitors, it’s hard to best this album as it covers each major quadrant of the Zamrock whole: it came from the mines, its musicians were anti-colonial freedom fighters, it envelops Zambian folk music traditions, and it rocks — hard. Amanaz were serious, and they made a serious stab at an album. They titled their album Africa, according to original band member Keith Kabwe, ‘because of how it was shared and how its inhabitants were butchered and enslaved, its resources stolen… all the atrocities slave drivers committed.’ Thus, their ‘Kale,’ a blues sung in Nyanja, that traced the continent’s arc from slavery to Zambia’s independence closes the album. Kabwe and rhythm guitarist John Kanyepa have a winsome softness to their vocals, which sit politely aside the feral growl of drummer Watson Baldwin Lungu, bassist Jerry Mausala, and bandleader/lead guitarist Isaac Mpofu. Africa’s vibe ranges from anxious (‘Amanaz’) to escapist (‘Easy Street’) to straight-up pissed-off. On the ‘History of Man,’ his voice whiskey-burned, his distorted guitar buzzing like swarming hornets, Mpofu indicts his species. There’s a darkness to Africa not found on any other Zamrock records, and a melancholy drifts throughout, specifically on Mpofu’s more restrained ‘Khala My Friend,’ which stands as an effective, bleak situation for the Zambian everyman, the average citizen of a struggling, new nation, who might have had relatives in conflict-torn countries on the horizon, who might have been struggling to find his next meal, who might have seen a bleaker future than his president promised. Then there’s the clear Velvet Underground-influence on the nostalgic ‘Sunday Morning,’ which, as Kabwe recalls, was the first song written for the album, back in 1968, when Velvet Undergound and Nico was a new release — and the underground funk of ‘Making the Scene.’ The album also tackles traditional Zambian music and early-’60s rock — punctuated, of course, by Kanyepa’s wah-wah and Mpofu’s fuzz guitars. But every time Amanaz get too deep, too violent, they come back with an accessible song and woo their listener back to the groove. ‘Green Apple’ is a civil song, featuring Kanyepa’s sighing guitar. It is a perfectly arranged album, from the dichotomy of Mpofu’s and Kanyepa’s lead and rhythm guitars, to the vocal harmonies, to the rhythm section’s sense of space and time, which allows Africa’s funk to build. Inexplicably, Africa was given two separate mixes and two separate presses: one version is dry, with the vocals and drums mixed loud, the other slathered in reverb, with the vocals and drums disappearing into the mix, and with the guitar solos mixed much louder. We’ve presented them both here as they each have their appeal: it’s up to the listener to pick the one he or she prefers. This is a highpoint of the Zamrock scene and we hope that this can be seen as its definitive reissue.”
File Under: Psych, Zamrock, Africa
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Oren Ambarchi: Sleepwalker’s Conviction (Black Truffle) LP
“Sleepwalker’s Conviction documents a 2014 performance by Oren Ambarchi in collaboration with a 20-piece ensemble conducted by Ilan Volkov and featuring members of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Speak Percussion. Foregoing the rhythmic propulsion and distortion-saturated harmonics that have featured in much of Ambarchi’s recent work, the LP’s single 40-minute piece inhabits a hushed, almost static space of extended tones, percussive shimmer, and creaking strings. Rather than adopting the position of a soloist, Ambarchi allows his sub-bass guitar tones and swirling Leslie textures to blend seamlessly with the ensemble, made up of double basses, horns, and percussion. The group sound has a near-cavernous depth, as waves of low beating tones and distant percussive textures gently wash over one another, coalescing into an undulating mass. Steering clear of bombast and new music clichés, the result is a work of meditative beauty that touches on the haunted ambience of late Luigi Nono, the submerged sonics of Bryars’s The Sinking of the Titanic, and the melancholy rituals of Christoph Heemann and Andrew Chalk’s Mirror, while remaining unmistakably marked by the singular sensibility Ambarchi has developed over countless performances and recordings” –Francis Plagne. Design by Stephen O’Malley with cover artwork by crys cole. Vinyl cut made by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Edition of 300.
File Under: Electronic, Modern Classical
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Robbie Basho: Falconer’s Arm Vol. 1 (No Label) LP
First reissue of Robbie Basho’s The Falconer’s Arm, Vol. 1, originally released by John Fahey’s Takoma label in 1967. The Falconer’s Arm pair of LPs (this record and the simultaneously reissued Vol. 2 (C 1018LP)) is widely considered Basho’s best work; monumental pieces of folk guitar invention from the pioneer, fusing the drones of Indian raga with flamenco and traditional folk. Fully remastered with excellent sound. Limited edition pressing of 500 copies.
File Under: Folk, Guitar Soli
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Robbie Basho: Falconer’s Arm Vol. 2 (No Label) LP
First reissue of Robbie Basho’s The Falconer’s Arm, Vol. 2, originally released by John Fahey’s Takoma label in 1967. The Falconer’s Arm pair of LPs (this record and the simultaneously reissued Vol. 1 (C 1017LP)) is widely considered Basho’s best work; monumental pieces of folk guitar invention from the pioneer, with guitar lines in unusual tunings influenced by both blues and Indian music. Fully remastered with excellent sound. Limited edition pressing of 500 copies.
File Under: Folk, Guitar Soli
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Bazar: Drabantbyrock (Sommor) LP
Bazar was one of the hardest-working progressive bands from Scandinavia. This is the first reissue of their killer second album from 1974. Wah-wah-fuelled guitar action, organ, flute, melodic vocals, and radical lyrics. Drabantbyrock combines heavy numbers, West Coast guitar jams, and dreamy moments, featuring the superb guitar playing of Bent Patey. Kick-ass psychedelic/progressive hard rock from Norway, highly recommended for those into Swedish hard rock bands such as November. 24-bit remastering. Includes insert with liner notes by Klemen Breznikar (It’s Psychedelic Baby!) and photos. Features original artwork in gatefold sleeve.
File Under: Psych, Prog
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Marcel Bontempi: Witches, Spiders, Frogs & Holes: Demos & Recordings 2009-2014 (Stag-o-Lee) LP+7”
Witches, Spiders, Frogs & Holes contains the solo output from 2009 to 2014 of the artist known as Marcel Bontempi. Unearthed from record bins all over Europe and the dusty archives of little-known specialty labels from as far afield as Frankfurt and Beverungen to Málaga and painstakingly gathered, this is the most comprehensive collection of this twisted genius’s recordings. Born Marcel Sala Kelkel sometime in the early 1970s to a German mother and a Catalan father, Marcel was encouraged by his father, an accomplished sculptor in his own right, to doodle, draw, and paint for most of his waking hours, though it wasn’t long before this simply wasn’t enough and the young Marcel discovered music. Soon his affair with the devil’s music began. Around 1994 Marcel formed the band that would eventually become The Montesas, who have since released quite a few records and are still active at the time of this release. In 2013 and 2014 Marcel explored his own personal take on “hillbilly” and “rootsy” styles and formed another combo under the moniker Dr. Bontempi’s Snake Oil Company, with releases on Squoodge Records. Throughout the years of playing or singing in bands, Marcel has recorded solo material, from rockabilly and harmonious doo-wop to R&B, taking well known classics and warping them to his own vision or borrowing an obscure hillbilly song and adding a mambo, salsa, or beat influence to the mix, making it something unique. This album showcases just a small fraction of his recordings made over the years. They cross genres and styles, some originals, some cover versions. Some from as far back as the ’40s and into the ’50s and ’60s, all bearing the unmistakable sound and imprint of Mr. Bontempi. Includes seven previously unreleased tracks.
File Under: Experimental, Minimalism, Garage
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Thomas Brinkmann: What You Hear (Editions Mego) LP
Thomas Brinkmann is renowned for audio works that hover among forms such as techno, minimalism, and ambient. Alongside such pioneering works as Klick (2000), Studio 1 – Variationen (1997), and 2012’s duo with Oren Ambarchi, The Mortimer Trap, with What You Hear (Is What You Hear) Brinkmann moves further to separate his art, not only from descriptive musical terms that oppress creative output, but also from the notion of an author in the act of creation. The 11 tracks on display form a series of self-perpetuating rhythms that exist more as sound structures than as any kind of traditional sound forms. Any associations, emotions, and reactions are purely in the reasoning of the listener as the artist makes a strong and deliberate move away from intent. This is a strident development in the conceptual thinking of Brinkmann’s solid career, one that places the listener simultaneously inside and outside objective parameters. Dedicated to Zbigniew Karwkowski. Design by Stephen O’Malley.
File Under: Electronic, Abstract, Minimalism
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Peter Brotzmann/Fred Van Hove/Han Bennink: FMP 0130 (Cien Fuegos) LP
Cien Fuegos presents a reissue of an untitled LP by Peter Brötzmann, Fred van Hove, and Han Bennink, originally released on FMP in 1973. Peter Brötzmann: clarinet; alto, tenor, baritone, bass saxophones. Fred van Hove: celesta, piano. Han Bennink: drums, khene, rhythm-box, selfmade clarinet, gachi, oe-oe, voice, tins, homemade junk, elong, dhung, kaffir piano, dhung-dkar. Recorded by Dietram Köster on February 25, 1973, Bremen. Photographs by Dagmar Gebers and Krista Brötzmann; design by Peter Brötzmann.
File Under: Free Jazz
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Clark-Hutchinson: A = MH2 (Sunbeam) LP+CD
As virtuoso musicians and members of Sam Gopal’s Dream, Andy Clark and Mick Hutchinson were well known to regulars at legendary London clubs such as UFO and Middle Earth when they decided to branch out as a duo. Recorded in two intense overnight sessions in May 1969, A=MH2 is a scorching blend of jazz, raga, blues, and psychedelia that has long been regarded one of the key recordings to have emerged from the UK psychedelic underground. It’s presented here as a single LP with two CDs: one of A=MH2, the other containing their March 1969 recording debut, a previously unreleased collection of acid blues that features some equally stunning musicianship. The sleeve comes complete with a large-format eight-page booklet containing detailed notes and previously unpublished photos, making it the most comprehensive edition of this groundbreaking music ever assembled. Digitally remastered.
File Under: Folk, Raga, Psych, Blues
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Charles Cohen: Brother I Prove You Wrong (Morphine) LP
Composer, improviser, and Buchla Music Easel master Charles Cohen returns to Morphine with a suite of material recorded in 2014. In keeping with the timbre spectrum of his semi-modular system, Brother I Prove You Wrong is built around pointillist analog tones — Cohen’s cosmic “beeps and boops” — that swarm and scatter in mesmeric patterns across four sides. Moving through surrealistic textural overlays and industrial miasma, the album’s nine tracks reveal a more introspective and personal side of the artist, following a retrospective LP trilogy released via Morphine in 2013 (The Middle Distance, Group Motion, Music for Dance and Theater). Those assembled works, dating back to the late ’70s, quickly became essential listening and brought Cohen — at the time largely unknown outside Philadelphia’s experimental circuit — to critical renown. Brother I Prove You Wrong was recorded in Berlin in September 2014 using the Buchla Music Easel, with production help and support from Rabih Beaini. Mastered by Neel and curated and designed by Tank Boys; cover art by Nathalie du Pasquier.
File Under: Electronic, Buchla, Ambient, IDM
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Darkel: Man of Sorrow (Prototyp) LP
Darkel is the solo project of Jean-Benoît Dunckel, half of the French duo AIR with Nicolas Godin. His self-titled solo debut as Darkel was released in 2006, at the same time as Charlotte Gainsbourg’s album 5:55, which Dunckel and Godin produced. As well as participating in mythical soundtracks with AIR (The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003), Marie Antoinette (2006), Quartier Lointain (2010), Pioneer (2013)…), Dunckel composed the scores for Bee (2011), Je m’appelle Hmmm… (2013), and Cyprien (2009), always with an organic electronic spirit. His soundtrack for Alanté Kavaïté’s 2015 film The Summer of Sangaile will be released in 2015.
File Under: Electronic, Downtempo, Air
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Dawn of Midi: Dysnomia (Erased Tapes) LP
Clear vinyl double LP version. Includes download code. Limited to 500 copies. Channeled madness — the sound Dawn of Midi spent years shaping culminates in their most mesmerizing work yet. With Dysnomia, the Brooklyn-based group abandons improvisation in favor of composition, utilizing sophisticated rhythmic structures from North- and West-African folk traditions to weave a sonic tapestry of trance-inducing grooves. “We didn’t want to create anything cerebral,” says pianist Amino Belyamani, “we wanted something visceral, something that would awaken our instinctive dance impulses.” The manner by which a trio of solely acoustic instruments ends up sounding like electronic music has to do with the unconventional ways the group play their instruments on Dysnomia. The record comes to life in the trio’s critically acclaimed live shows, a test of endurance and trust that involves performing their hand-looped acoustic minimalism note for note, just as the compositions were recorded. Dawn of Midi’s sets are as energetic and rhythmic as a seamlessly mixed DJ set, mesmerizing fans in the same way the group’s favorite experimental and electronic acts have for decades. The album was recorded to two-inch tape at Waterfront Studios in Hudson, New York, a former church that was purchased and transformed into an analog recording playground by the great engineer Henry Hirsch. Rusty Santos then mixed the album to make sure it would hit as hard as the group’s favorite electronic albums do in spite of being entirely acoustic. “We wanted to make a record that sounded both musically futuristic and sonically vintage,” explains bassist Aakaash Israni, “and since the album never saw a proper international release, it is very exciting to see what might happen when more people are exposed to it. And to be aligned with Erased Tapes, whose enthusiasm for the music they release has done a lot for exposing unique instrumental and electronic music, makes it that much more interesting.” Swiss artist Fabian Oefner created the cover image by placing paint on a spinning drill bit and firing it at a canvas, then capturing it with high-speed photography. Formed in 2007, the band happened upon their name after drummer Qasim Naqvi casually uttered the phrase in reference to the improvised music the trio was making at the time; they had no idea that years later they would make an album like Dysnomia that would make their name appear fateful.
File Under: Jazz, Minimal, Experimental
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Dettinger: Intershop (Kompakt) LP
Late RSD! After rereleasing the sold-out Kompakt classics Triumph by Jürgen Paape and The Field’s From Here We Go Sublime for past Record Store Days, Kompakt now directs its attention to another almost mystical release from days of yore. Just like The Field’s iconic debut album, Dettinger’s 1999 full-length milestone Intershop has never seen a vinyl release — a much-deplored oversight now rectified. Restored to breathtaking beauty, the newly mastered Intershop is one of the label’s most renowned pre-millennium offerings, a surprise best-seller and a style-defining predecessor of the then-nascent pop ambient genre. A massive fan favorite, it was originally released on CD only and held seven masterfully crafted cuts introducing the listener to a new blueprint for electronic music. Wayfaring somewhere between field recordings, pop stylings, and dreamy textures, sonics like these were simply unheard of. The tracks latch onto early ambient experiments from artists like Wolfgang Voigt, but take a different path to pop epiphany. Dettinger carved out a niche on his own that was soon to become the breeding ground for a whole generation of ambient-minded artists. Also, Intershop has been utterly sold out for a while now — another perfectly good reason to return to this masterpiece with a fresh set of ears. Let’s lounge like it’s 1999!
File Under: Electronic, Ambient, Techno
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Eek: Kahraba (Nashazphone) LP
Kahraba is the debut studio album of Islam Chipsy’s EEK. Recorded in late 2014 in downtown Cairo, it contains four tracks perfectly representing Chipsy’s wild and inimitable artistic spectrum, ranging from the frenzied sound signature technique that brought him his fame (“Trinity” and “Kahraba”) to the band’s individual maneuverings of typical Egyptian standards such as the Northeastern Nile delta “Simsimiyya” in “El-Bawaba” or Upper Egypt’s traditional “Mouled Saidi” in “Mouled El-Ghoul.”
File Under: Electronic, Egypt, Techno, Left Field
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Foot Hair: s/t (Box Records) LP
An absolute must for fans of Brainbombs, Upsidedown Cross, Kilslug, Drunks With Guns, etc. Box Records is proud to present the debut album by Newcastle-based noise-mongers Foot Hair, featuring members of HaiKai No Ku and Obey. Their self-titled debut album reduces sonics from the likes of Brainbombs and Upsidedown Cross into an unforgiving mash of dirge. It’s simple, raw, and extremely powerful stuff. Rarely do bands manage to create such a cacophony of hedonistic terror while simultaneously projecting a sense of abject absolute apathy and nihilism. Foul, frightening, and completely cathartic, this is one of the most nailed-on noise rock records out there — Box Records practically begged the band to let them release it. Not to be missed! T.H. (bass), P.M. (guitar), S.B. (vocals), T.H. (drums), M.A. (guitar). Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Sam Grant, Blank Studios, Newcastle.
File Under: Noise Rock, Punk
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Derek Gripper: One Night on Earth: Music from the Strings of Mali (Matsuli Music) LP
“Matsuli Music presents an album of kora interpretations that astonished John Williams into saying he thought it was ‘absolutely impossible until I heard Derek Gripper do it.’ When Kora maestro Toumani Diabate heard these recordings he disbelievingly asked his host and producer Lucy Duran to confirm that she had actually seen one guitarist play this music on just one guitar. Recorded at an all-night session Gripper’s guitar magically conjures anew this centuries-old African musical heritage. One Night on Earth: Music from the Strings of Mali captures Gripper’s extraordinary six-string interpretation of Toumani Diabate’s 21-string Kora compositions. Gripper’s ‘guitar has found the Kora-playing spirit, he captures the magic bound up in the way it is played,’ says Williams, who has invited Gripper back a second time to collaborate in ‘The John Williams Series’ at the Globe Theatre, London, in June 2015. For more than ten years Derek Gripper has produced some of South Africa’s most extraordinary musical works, fusing the country’s disparate creative traditions with styles from around the world. His music draws on European classical traditions, avant-garde Brazilian works, Malian kora works, Cape Town’s folk styles such as goema and vastrap, and Indian classical music, all the while synthesising them into a style uniquely his own. Tim Panting writing in the Classical Guitar Magazine describes this as ‘…one of the most atmospheric recordings of guitar music, of any kind, that I have heard.’ And in music journalist Richard Haslop’s words ‘Anybody wondering why one would want to hear a South African guitarist play this music when the incomparable original recordings are available, need only listen to this album.’ Originally only available on CD, Matsuli Music is proud to be releasing this breakthrough album on heavyweight vinyl in a deluxe limited edition with accompanying sleeve-notes from Derek Gripper.”
File Under: Guitar, Folk, Worlk, Kora
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Alicia Bay Laurel: Music From Living on the Earth (Em) LP
Alicia Bay Laurel is well known as the writer and illustrator of one of the classic books of the back-to-the-earth movement, the 1970 hand-written guide to living the good life, Living On the Earth. She is also an accomplished singer, songwriter, and guitarist, the latter skill honed by studying with John Fahey. The songs on Music from Living On the Earth were composed concurrently with the writing of the book, permeated by the sun and soil of the commune life. Bright and earthy paeans to the natural world, featuring ABL’s pure, strong, and uplifting voice atop her fluid, confident, and deft steel-string acoustic guitar fingerpicking, her style showing that she learned well from Fahey. She also collaborated with San Francisco Tape Music Center co-founder Ramon Sender Barayón, who contributes the 40-voice choral arrangement for the closing track. Although these songs were written as the ’60s became the ’70s, Music from Living On the Earth was actually recorded in 2000, first issued as a self-produced CD, and reissued on CD by EM Records in 2006. This 2015 15th anniversary edition is its first appearance on vinyl, and includes liner notes by the artist as well as English and Japanese lyrics, allowing listeners to again hear ABL’s blues, jazz, and Indian music influences meld with folk roots to glorious effect.
File Under: Psych Folk, Guitar, Blues
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Francisco Lopez: Untitled #300 (Taiga) LP
Pressing of 300 copies on crystal-clear 200-gram virgin vinyl packaged in a custom letterpress jacket printed, die-cut, and hand-assembled at Studio On Fire in Minneapolis, with particular care taken to retain the fine detail of the cover’s microscopic type. “Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene. For more than 30 years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion” –Pedro Higueras, Sonom Studios. “UNTITLED#300 is an LP based on multi-track field recordings I did in 2011 of a large colony of seagulls in a group of small islands right in front of the Moroccan-Algerian border, together with hydrophone and contact mic recordings of sea creatures underwater from the same location (side A and B of the LP, respectively). Being interested in going beyond a traditional ‘soundscape’ perspective, I’ve played freely with mixing and editing, in an unorthodox way, different multi-channel recordings I did. Side A (‘abovewater’) is the large seagull colony. In side B (‘underwater’) what you hear is predominantly millions of very small shrimp-like crustaceans, dolphin sonar (the beating pattern of the first section), and occasional fish (the ‘frog-like’ calls)” –Francisco López. Original environmental sound matter recorded in the Chafarinas Islands off the coast of Morocco, summer 2011. Edited, mixed, and mastered at mobile messor, The Hague, the Netherlands, summer 2012. Field work carried out with the collaboration and support of the SIGEIN-Chafarinas research group (Integral Ecological Management System of the Chafarinas Islands), directed by Francisco J. Acosta (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain) and coordinated by Javier Zapata (Spanish National Park Service).
File Under: Ambient, Field Recording, Experimental
Richard Marks: Never Satisfied: The Complete Works 1968-1983 (Now Again) LP
“2-LP with a 20 page booklet with full annotation, extensive liner notes and essays and never-before-published photos. Download card included. Seven years in the making, Never Satisfied is our collection of legendary soul and funk singles by Atlanta guitarist/singer/songwriter Richard Marks. This 21-track anthology follows Marks’s stylistic development, from his earliest work for the legendary Tuska label, from 1968 until approximately 1972, through his more mature releases on the Shout label and smaller regional labels like Note, Free Spirit, and RSC. It also includes two tracks never released in any form, found on reels Marks had maintained in his Atlanta home. Marks’s story is that of an unsung soul and funk hero; a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter whose number was in Al Green’s, Barry White’s, and Eddie Kendricks’s rolodexes, but whose talents have only been heard in sporadic bursts since his 45s were released and disappeared into Atlanta’s urban expanse. This is the story of a father and husband who managed to keep his family together as he gigged the third shift six nights a week. The story of a man who wished for more and whose talent is overdue for reassessment. He and his music are unknown to the majority, but to an obsessive minority, he is a lightning rod, that singular point at which numerous Southern soul and funk musicians converged and exploded, spreading wondrous music in all directions. Marks’s impeccable run of 7″ singles, released largely on tiny, local labels, are the stuff of legend, and are hen’s-teeth-rare. Marks died of cancer in May of 2006, never having issued an album, either in the ’60s and ’70s, when many of his peers were able to find a way to issue an LP, or in anthology form in his later years. He never granted an interview. Given the caliber of his recordings and the near-complete lack of information available about him before the issue of this anthology, Marks stands out as the most mysterious talent to originate from Atlanta, a city that birthed no shortage of genius, from acclaimed worldwide (the Mighty Hannibal), obscure yet celebrated (Lee Moses), and local, but well documented (Tommy Stewart).”
File Under: Soul, Funk
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Micachu: Feeling Romantic Feeling Tropical Feeling III (Demdike Stare) LP
Mica Levi more or less owned 2014 with the release of that astonishing soundtrack to Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, followed by this hour-long album-cum-mixtape for Demdike Stare’s DDS imprint, which was released at the end of the year and sold out in a flash. It has now been reworked for this vinyl edition, and given a full remaster by Matt Colton. Levi is an artist who basically seems to channel attention deficit into exploring and re-shaping a myriad of musical ideas and directions without bound — sometimes all at once. She’s an artist who has by her mid-20s merged the disciplines of codeine-laced, cough syrup-drankin’ early ’90s Houston hip hop legend DJ Screw with the rarified sound of London Sinfonietta on her incredible Chopped & Screwed album (2011), got Matthew Herbert to produce her brilliant 2009 debut Jewellery, and acquired Björk as a fan in the process. She’s produced a bunch of killer, off-beat pop tracks for up-and-comer Tirzah and supplied an impromptu 30-minute Boiler Room set that’s still one of the best they’ve ever put up. And yeah, that’s before that Under the Skin soundtrack that showcased another side to her production altogether — all discordant, intense, Ligeti-influenced strings, muffled percussion, and frozen drones that came off like a feverishly-dreamt collaboration between David Lynch and Nate Young. When asked about the score and working with someone as high-profile as Jonathan Glazer she told Pitchfork “He’s a nice bloke — I certainly didn’t think he was a wanker.” Which basically tells you that you ain’t dealing with the ordinary or conventional when it comes to anything Micachu is involved with. And this hour-long session is perhaps her best work yet. More or less split into three seamless segments referenced in the title, it journeys out from tense, concrete-fuelled strings to brilliantly ramshackle tape beats and odd pop edits, spooled through her singular, totally inimitable box of tricks. One is hard-pressed to think of any contemporary artists who have as broad and limitless an ability to continuously re-contextualize the familiar into something that feels never-before-heard — even going back as far back as Prince or Arthur Russell to reference anyone who has really managed to tap into as many diverse musical disciplines with this much originality. And if you think that’s a bit far-fetched — give this a listen and knock yourself out.
File Under: Electronic, Experimental
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Steve Moore: The Guest (Death Waltz) LP
Death Waltz Recording Company has yet another ace up our sleeve with the soundtrack to one of 2014’s best action films, Adam Wingard’s The Guest, with a musical score by Steve Moore. Critically acclaimed, the “guest” in question is David, a young man who lands on the doorstep of the Peterson family claiming to be a comrade of their son, who was killed while on tour in Afghanistan,. But while David appears to a model citizen, the family daughter discovers several clues that make her wonder “Just who is this man?” Just like the film is a throwback to 80s thrillers like The Terminator, Steve Moore’s score belongs in another time, another place. Homaging rather than emulating, the music feels not only absolutely authentic but also fits the film like a glove. Great synth melodies are plentiful, the electronics swell with mystery and intrigue, and the sense of the robotic electro music has is perfect for the character of David. It’s an intense journey but not one without reward – don’t be afraid to let The Guest into your home and onto your turntable. Death Waltz is excited to offer this gorgeous vinyl package with artwork by Alan Hynes, offering the first collectible to fans of The Guest – a film that has already solidified a spot as a cult classic that lovingly subverts the action genre with the precision and confidence of its titular character. “The score, by Steve Moore (of the band Zombi), also drives the movie along with style. It’s pure, catchy synthesizer heaven. A throwback to the 70s and 80s but with the feeling of Drive and Grand Theft Auto from the equipment used by John Carpenter. It tells the audience while what we are seeing might seem dramatic, it’s supposed to be fun.” – Slashfilm “Moore’s music is probably going to be one of my favorite scores of the year. It’s so 80s, but in the best way possible.” – Collider
File Under: OST, Electronic, Synth, Zombi
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Oppenheimer Analysis: New Mexico (Minimal Wave) LP
“Minimal Wave proudly presents a newly remastered deluxe double album of archival material by pioneering ’80s minimal electronic duo Oppenheimer Analysis. Oppenheimer Analysis was formed in London, England, in 1982 by Andy Oppenheimer and Martin Lloyd. Their first meeting though was at the 1979 World Science Fiction Convention in Brighton. They quickly became good friends, sharing an interest in the work of David Bowie, electronic music, and early synthesizer bands such as the Human League and Soft Cell. They also shared a love of old science fiction movies and 1950s graphics and comic book imagery, and a fascination with post-World War II propaganda, the politics and aesthetics of the Cold War, and the social impact of the atomic bomb. Over the next few years Andy and Martin frequented the growing club scene, including Studio 21 on Oxford Street, and became involved in the developing Futurist and New Romantic style sub-cultures. During this period Martin recorded as Analysis, both alone and with David Rome of Drinking Electricity. They released their first single, Surface Tension/Connections on David’s Survival label in 1981. In 1982, Oppenheimer Analysis began writing and recording together at Feedback Studio in Battersea, and performed several times at The Bell, Islington, the 1983 World David Bowie Convention in Hammersmith, the Starzone Birthday Party at Camden Palace, the 1984 European Science Fiction Convention in Brighton, and other live venues. Their first demo tape and 12-song New Mexico cassette were sold at gigs and by mail-order, and were reviewed in Melody Maker, Sounds, and Soundmaker. For the years to follow, Oppenheimer Analysis became recognized among electro-music aficionados as a pioneering duo that influenced countless other bands during the club and home-recording era of the early 1980s and beyond. Their cassettes became massively collectible. In 2005 they re-formed with the release of a self-titled four-song 12″ EP of selections from the New Mexico cassette, including ‘Cold War’ and ‘The Devil’s Dancers.’ This marked the first release on Minimal Wave. Now in 2015, we’re happy to present the entire New Mexico collection, newly remastered and cut to vinyl for the first time ever, to celebrate our 10-year anniversary. This first edition of 1000 copies is pressed on deluxe ‘nuclear’ style black-and-white 160-gram vinyl and housed in a glossy gatefold silver-and-black printed sleeve, featuring all the song lyrics on the inside of the sleeve.”
File Under: Electronic, Minimal
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OST: Death Line (Spinney) LP
The film Death Line, an eerie horror story set in the London Underground, directed by Gary Sherman and starring Donald Pleasence and Christopher Lee, was released in 1972 in the UK (and as Raw Meat in the US). In 2001, Spinney Records released Wil Malone’s original soundtrack, an amalgamation of groovy rhythm and blues with fantastic squelching synths intended to be truly horrible. Wil Malone has been composing and arranging music since the 1960s. Initially, he was a member of the UK psych combo Orange Bicycle, which had a number of singles on Columbia and Parlophone between 1967 and 1971 and an eponymous album in 1970. Since that time he has been responsible for some of the most sublime string and brass arrangements to come out of the UK. The strings on Massive Attack’s “Unfinished Sympathy” were his work (of which he is particularly proud) as was The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” (with a little help from Andrew Oldham!). He has also worked with artists as diverse as Depeche Mode, U.N.K.L.E., Black Sabbath, Paul Weller, Kylie Minogue, and London Grammar.
File Under: OST, Horror
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OST: Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (Death Waltz) LP
Available for the first time on ever on Vinyl, Michael Perilstein’s (The Deadly Spawn) score to one of the most absurd horror films ever put to celluloid. Part Noir, part sexploitation comedy, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers is a cult classic with a truly killer soundtrack that is just as goofy as the film it underscores. Complete with a collection of bonus cues newly recorded by Perilstein. Featuring original artwork by We Buy Your Kids, and all new liner notes by the composer.
File Under: OST, Horror, Cult
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OST: Killer Nun (Death Waltz) LP
Death Waltz Recording Company is proud to present yet another soundtrack from the video nasty age, guaranteed* to cause you harm and go out and murder and rape others, this time in the name of the lord. Corrupting your mind this time is Alessandro Alessandroni’s score to Giulio Berruti’s nunsploitation classic KILLER NUN (aka SUOR OMICIDI). Anita Ekberg stars as Sister Gertrude, a member of the sisterhood who descends into shocking depths of homosexuality and drug addiction while shocking her little town. But while she’s undoubtedly deranged, is she guilty of murder? Like the film, Alessandroni’s musical score is a strange one, opening with a religious choir and heavy piano notes. You might think that’s pretty standard for a movie like this, so Alessandroni starts messing with you by injecting some proto-hip hop beats with flutes and synth melodies. Things get stranger the further you get in as we have dissonant electronics that sound like chiptunes, funk beats, chilled electric guitar, and interludes of operatic vocals. And then there’s the amazing downbeat guitar piece that sounds straight out of a spaghetti western. It’s mad and it shouldn’t work – but you can probably say that about a movie called KILLER NUN anyway. This ain’t your normal convent!
File Under: OST, Exploitation, Alessandroni
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OST: Nightsatan & The Loops of Doom (Death Waltz) LP
NIGHTSATAN caught the ear of the attentive laser metal enthusiast with their debut album, Midnight Laser Warrior, in 2010, and now the trio debut as movie stars in Nightsatan And The Loops Of Doom. The movie draws inspiration from the very same source the band does: ’80s post-apocalyptic science fiction. The synth trio NIGHTSATAN hail from the doomy city of Turku, Finland, and they place themselves in the post-apocalyptic laser metal genre. In the beginning, the synth warrior Wolf Rami envisioned the band’s music as “the soundtrack to Miami Vice meets heavy metal.” During their career, the band’s sound has extended to both ends of that spectrum, and the synth-metal riffs of the early material have given way for a more progressive and atmospheric approach. Given the international cult fame gained with the already quite cinematic debut album – with kudos given by the likes of Monocle, Empire, and Popvoyage – and live shows in their native Finland and Sweden, it is fitting that the trio’s next step is a movie soundtrack. Directed by Chrzu, better known as the director of animated films such as Curse of the Remote Island (2008), Nightsatan and the Loops of Doom is a proud tribute to vintage Italian post-apocalyptic sci-fi. It is a very unusual short epic, full of sex, violence, and general sense of wonder. The soundtrack album is a considerably more epic and measured affair than its predecessor. Recorded and produced by the band’s second keyboard wizard Mazathoth, the album features full-length versions of all tracks from the movie.
File Under: OST, Laser Metal
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Pye Corner Audio: s/t (Death Waltz) 10″
Death Waltz Recording Company are proud to unleash a new offering in our Originals line, this time from the acclaimed Head Technician of Pye Corner Audio taking you on a sonic journey through yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Mystery abounds; the hiss and buzz of old machinery envelops you – the voyage has begun and you have awoken from cryogenic slumber. Welcome to 2080. A doom-laden synthesiser riff takes control and guides you with unerring precision, the inevitably incredible beat providing weight and heft along the way. Electronic screeches echo in the darkness, suddenly silenced. Of course John Carpenter and Tangerine Dream come to mind, but PYE goes beyond those influence and transcends them, creating its own frame of reference. Dystopian, foreboding, dissonant, like an unearthed soundtrack to a great piece of science fiction, one that you yourself can imagine. Just strap yourself in, close your eyes, and let your mind wander, intertwined with the terror and the colour of space that is Pye Corner Audio.
File Under: Electronic, Synth
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Retribution Body: Aokigahar (Type) LP
Boston, Massachusetts-based Matthew Azevedo is a world-class technician, and by day engineers architectural acoustic simulations, teaches students about musical acoustics at Berklee College of Music, and occasionally finds time to master the odd record. It’s this rare set of skills that can be heard on Aokigahara, an album made up of two long slabs of low-frequency drone. Aokigahara’s focus on bass isn’t necessarily anything new — it positions itself alongside tomes such as Earth’s seismic Earth 2 (1993) and Sunn O)))’s soupy ØØ Void (2000) — yet Azevedo manages to inject something very different into the mix. Unlike many contemporary drone records, the album is an acoustic recording made in a concert hall, something which adds a certain magic that’s impossible to recreate using software trickery. Azevedo’s use of the space is the record’s power, and occasionally you find yourself focusing not on the booming sub-bass but the airy flutter around it, or the echoing distortion that rips through like thunder. This is not a record to listen to on laptop speakers or through your flimsy, white Apple headphones. To experience its literal punch to the gut you need to make sure you’ve got the right gear to hand — a good subwoofer is highly recommended.
File Under: Drone, Ambient
Vito Ricci: I Was Crossing (Music From Memory) LP
On the leading edge of NYC’s underground music scene, Vito Ricci produced only a handful of self-released cassettes and one LP between 1983 and 1985, with most of his work recorded for experimental theater and performance art pieces. Taking their label name from Ricci’s only LP, Music From Memory brings together a compilation of works by one of the unsung heroes of New York’s downtown music scene. Starting out as a percussionist, Ricci’s early musical journey led him to improvised and experimental jazz; working alongside such luminary musicians as Rashied Ali, Byard Lancaster, Peter Zummo, and Yousef Yancey. He quickly became involved in the avant-garde scene with spoken word performances, film scores for independent movies, and even performances with punk bands at venues such as CBGB’s and the Mudd Club, and his compositions drew on all of these influences while channeling them through his experiments with synthesizers and drum computers. Drawing comparisons with New York’s downtown no-wave scene, Vito’s compositions blend his unique use of intricate percussion with a wide sphere of musical influences to create a world of hypnotizing ambient, meditative minimal-synth, dubbed-out electronic funk, and even left-field boogie. With most of Vito Ricci’s music remaining previously unreleased, the compilation I Was Crossing A Bridge unveils Ricci’s unique and visionary take on electronic music.
File Under: Electronic, Experimental, Techno
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Stark Reality: Discovers Hoagy Carmichael’s Music Shop (Now Again) 3LP
The Stark Reality’s legendary album, …Discovers Hoagy Carmichael’s Music Shop, is a funky, jazzy, fuzz-toned cult classic, consists of very original interpretations of a children’s album written by Hoagy Carmichael and was originally released on Ahmad Jamal’s boutique label, AJP Records. For years, the album made the rounds in underground hip-hop circles (being sampled along the way by the likes of Large Professor, J-Live, Madlib, and Black Eyed Peas), trading hands for ridiculous sums on the second-hand market — even after it saw a reissue on Now Again as part of the Acting, Thinking, Feeling 6xLP boxset which gathered other recently discovered, previously unreleased material from the band’s career. Now, …Discovers Hoagy Carmichael’s Music Shop is available on vinyl for the very first time since its initial 1970 release in a deluxe 3-LP release including 56 page booklet with never before seen photos, extensive liner notes by Egon of Now Again Records with commentary by AJP founder Ahmad Jamal and annotation and an interview with Monty Stark, the band’s frontman. “The music of the Stark Reality is as playful as it is wild… as fantastic as it is frazzled.” – Rolling Stone. “One of the most prized ‘funk’ artifacts of all time, Stark’s project allies Hendrix-stoned guitars, heavily-fuzzed vibraphone and Bitches Brew rhythms” – Mojo Magazine.
File Under: Psych, Funk, Jazz, Children’s
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The Stone Roses: s/t (Modern Classics) LP
Some albums hold the blueprint for something bigger than can be contained on twelve inches of vinyl; the self-titled debut album by The Stone Roses is one of them. Despite clocking in at less than fifty minutes long, it’s a record that shaped the next two-and-a-half decades of British music. Released in 1989, The Stone Roses was a fusion of rock music and the nascent rave scene in the group’s native Manchester. For a period of a few years, the industrial English city that gave us Joy Division, The Fall, and The Smiths was home to a drug-fuelled, club-based scene that earned the town a new nickname–Madchester. Falling squarely in that point of transition, The Stone Roses created guitar music that made people dance, fostering the baggy scene that paved the way to Britpop and Manchester’s next mega band, Oasis. The Stone Roses were the full package: they had the tough demeanor and insular mentality of any group of friends from a rugged city, they had a unique look comprised of bucket hats, Adidas sportswear, baggy jeans, and oversized T-shirts, and they talked a mean fight in interviews. But musically they were groaning with talent–Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfied (bass) and Alan ‘Reni’ Wren (drums) made complex rhythms seem effortless, guitarist John Squire could give his beloved Jimmy Page a run for his money, and frontman Ian Brown balanced punk sensibility and hippy mentality. In the UK, the album is the stuff of legend, its cover still seen on T-shirts in any given gig venue. Around the world, its influence was less tangible, most likely due to the fact that the group was hamstrung by a legal wrangle with the Silvertone label following the album’s release. Musically, it’s a mix of the grandiose and the intimate, containing songs so forceful and emotive they’ve become terrace anthems (“This Is The One” is Manchester United’s walk-on music) alongside introspective tracks like the anti-monarchy madrigal “Elizabeth My Dear.” In “Waterfall,” there are cascading guitar lines that describe its title like musical onomatopoeia, and in “Made Of Stone” and “She Bangs The Drum,” there are perfect pop songs too. Most significantly, there are songs in which the band etch their own myth in earth-rumbling basslines and grandiose statements: “I Wanna Be Adored,” which opens the album, and “I Am The Resurrection,” which closes. Reissued on Light In The Attic on deluxe double-vinyl, this is your chance to discover the album for the first time or to own it in its most beautiful presentation yet.
File Under: Brit Rock
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The Stone Roses: Turns to Stone (Modern Classics) LP
You can tell a lot about a band by the songs they leave off their albums. Manchester’s Stone Roses released just two albums–the self-titled 1989 debut and, five years later, the follow-up, Second Coming. But those albums tell only part of the story. The missing bits can be found on Turns Into Stone, originally released in 1992 and scooping up early singles and B-sides that didn’t appear on the debut album. The album’s provenance speaks nothing of its quality: here can be found some of the greatest songs the four-piece ever recorded, from their poppets single, “Elephant Stone,” to the towering “One Love” and the anthemic “Fools Gold,” the track on which their hybrid of atmospheric indie and acid house found its most perfect balance. It’s the track that allowed the group’s rhythm section of Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfied (bass) and Alan ‘Reni’ Wren (drums) to shine and the one that gave them cred beyond the indie scene–Run DMC sampled it on 1990’s “What’s It All About?” Quite why The Stone Roses chose not to put these songs on an album is a mystery, but Turns Into Stone itself was controversial at the time. In a protracted battle with record label Silvertone, the band were unable to release any new material for several years due to an injunction against them, and Turns Into Stone was released without input from the band–unlike the majority of their releases, it boasts no cover art from the guitarist, painter and sculptor John Squire. The title is taken from the closing line in “One Love”–“What goes up must come down/Turns into dust or turns into stone.” The lyric proved prescient for The Stone Roses who split acrimoniously following the divisive Second Coming and a poorly received performance at the UK’s influential Reading Festival. It took eighteen years for the group to reunite, and when they did, they played to 220,000 people in three nights at Manchester’s Heaton Park. For a time, relations between the band did indeed turn to dust. The band’s legacy, which lives on in those three albums, is rock solid.
File Under: Brit Rock
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Sun Ra: Heliocentric Worlds Volume 1 (ESP) LP
50 Anniversary edition on Esperanto green colored vinyl; #’d edition of 1000 copies. The astonishing sessions that went light years beyond “free jazz” improvisation to create a music of deeply felt, explosive and gentle gesture made from sound itself without reference to previous notions of melody or harmony are now reissued on 180 gram vinyl with Sun Ra’s original, self-created cover art. Recorded by Richard Alderson on April 20, 1965, this set of tunes finds Sun Ra breaking ground by using synthesizers and having the Arkestra musicians double on percussion. Remastered on 180 gram vinyl.
File Under: Free Jazz, Improv
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Sun Ra: Heliocentric Worlds Volume 2 (ESP) LP
50 Anniversary edition on “Esperanto Green” colored vinyl; #’d edition of 1000 copies. Volume two of Sun Ra’s classic Heliocentric recordings from the 1960s. The astonishing sessions that went light years beyond “free jazz” improvisation to create a music of deeply-felt, explosive and gentle gesture made from sound itself without reference to previous notions of melody or harmony are now reissued on 180 gram vinyl with Sun Ra’s original, self-created cover art. Recorded by Richard Alderson on April 20, 1965, this set of tunes finds Sun Ra breaking ground by using synthesizers and having the Arkestra musicians double on percussion. More explorations of outer space by the spokesman for the space age. Manufactured in the U.S. by the original label. Digitally re-mastered.
File Under: Free Jazz, Improv
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VHS Head: Persistence of Vision (Skam) LP
Picking up from and advancing on his well-received 2010 debut full-length offering Trademark Ribbons of Gold, VHS Head continues in his exploration of emotive sketchbook electronics, cutting up and sampling reams and reams of old school VHS tapes to create a baffling, arresting and nostalgic trip into the world of twisted, lo-fi, tape-compressed electronica. VHS Head perverts all manners of sound sources, both musical and not, in a melting pot of deranged creativity, wrangling melodies out of disparate snatches of sounds and welding the results over a variety of differing percussive beds and beats ranging from the pastoral lushness of “Angels Never Sleep” or “Do You Understand” travelling through the gamut of styles, all the way through to barbed, hyperactive, glitched-out IDM-inspired workouts such as the glitch-funk of opener “Enter the Devil.” Children of the ’80s will undoubtedly recognize snatches of sounds from their childhood on this record along with the comforting, fuzzy warmth of the obsolete format that is VHS tape. It contains snatches of quizshow-esque excess, sleazy softcore porn twangs and salutations, crazed kids’ TV themes, liberal smatterings of video nasty nastiness and an ’80s bad hair, power-rock, noirish edge that at points recalls the feel, tone and subdued menace of Twin Peaks and its ilk. It is a record for 2014, referencing the hazy days when we were all growing up — a compendium of time and place for the MTV generation and beyond.
File Under: Electronic, IDM
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Various: Des Jeunes Gens Modernes: Post Punk, Cold Wave et Culture Novo en France, 1978-1983 Volume 2 (Born Bad) LP
The long-awaited follow-up to Des Jeunes Gens Mödernes, with five killer previously unreleased tracks. Volume 2 continues to explore the vaults of French post-punk, electropop, and no wave. Between the late ’70s and mid ’80s, in the wake of punk wave and in parallel to other types of music like disco, funk, ska, and reggae, a prolific and chaotic music scene began to develop in France, combining the energy of rock and the nihilism of punk with electronic experimentation. The period was not, on the whole, one of optimism and joy, played out as it was against a background of economic crisis and the cold war. A whole section of France’s youth found itself confronted by the contradictions of the times it was living in: young people were torn between the sensation of living on the edge of an abyss and hope for the dawning of a new world; they were deprived of tangible ideological landmarks but resistant to the post-hippy utopias of the previous generation. In search of an identity, they recognized themselves in the dark lyrics, the cold synthetic music, and the laid-back attitude of the new groups bursting up all over the country, as much in the provinces as in Paris. Des Jeunes Gens Mödernes (Modern Young Men) reactivates this French post-punk/novo diskö/new- and cold-wave scene, highlighting a cross-section of the specific creative diversity of this scene. The new wave drew upon artistic avant-garde movements from the past (Constructivism, Futurism, symbolism, Dadaism, socialist realism, and so on), as well as literature (Romanticism, science fiction, etc.), cinema (new wave, German expressionist cinema), and the latest technological advances (electronic, robotic, nuclear). Drawing on traditional culture as well as the underground subcultures to which various magazines and fanzines gave voice (American countercultures; endless references to William S. Burroughs, for example; pop art, etc.), the new wave embraced all areas of creativity together, and built bridges between the different artistic disciplines (music, visual art, design, literature, cinema…) to an extent never before seen. Digipak CD includes 32-page booklet. Includes tracks by ADN Ckrystall, X Ray Pop, Eli & Jacno, Les Fils De Joie, Les Stagiaires, Medikao, La Bande Au Col Roule, Radio Romance, A.R.T, KaS Product, Frantz Kultur & Les Krames, Meca Rythm, and Perspective Nevski.
File Under: Post Punk, Cold Wave
Various: Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten (Dust-to-Digital) CD
Specially priced in our listening post! On April 17, 1975, Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge and Cambodian rock and roll was no more. Its star musicians were targeted and killed, record collections were destroyed, clubs were closed, and Western-style music-making, dancing, and clothes were outlawed. The deaths of approximately two million Cambodians and the horrors of the Killing Fields have been well-documented; add to this John Pirozzi’s fascinating tale of Cambodia’s vibrant pop music scene, beginning in the 1950s and ’60s, influenced by France’s Johnny Hallyday and Britain’s Cliff Richard and the Shadows. The filmmaker has assembled rare archival footage, punctuating it with telling interviews with the few surviving musicians. Cambodian culture has long been synonymous with a love for the arts. Pirozzi’s 2014 film Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten pays homage to the country’s rock legends who paid for their creativity with their lives. Through the eyes, words, and songs of its popular music stars of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll examines and unravels Cambodia’s recent tragic past. This soundtrack to Pirozzi’s important film, compiled by the director, is very cinematic in nature. The sequencing and newly-remastered audio transport the listener through the rock and roll history of Cambodia in a similar fashion as Pirozzi’s documentary film. It is both entertaining and essential to hear so many tracks that are available outside of Cambodia for the very first time. Includes tracks by The Royal University of Fine Arts, Sinn Sisamouth, Chhoun Malay, Huoy Meas, Baksey Cham Krong, Ros Serey Sothea, Pen Ran, Sieng Vannthy, Va Sovy, Drakkar, Pou Vannary, Yol Aularong, and Cheam Chansovannary.
File Under: Cambodia, Rock
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Various: Taboo Volume 1 (Stag-o-Lee) 10”
Stag-O-Lee inaugurates its Journey to the Centre of the Song series, dedicated to celebrating one song at a time in its many guises and interpretations, with Taboo. The classic “Tabu” was written by Margarita Lecuona (also responsible for “Babalu,” a classic as well), a cousin of the famous Cuban composer and pianist Ernesto Lecuona. “Tabú” (also recorded as “Tabou,” “Tabu,” and “Taboo”) is a jazz and popular music standard that was first recorded by Cuarteto Machín in 1934 and later made popular by the Lecuona Cuban Boys (included here) and others. The aforementioned guises and interpretations span genres, represented here by Charles Blackwell Orchestra’s upbeat surfstrumental shaker, the brassy exotic tones of Tito Rivera & His Cuban Orchestra, the Cumbian island sounds of Cyril Diaz & His Orchestra, Sylvie Mora’s silky-smooth popcorn rendition, and versions by The Shangaans, Caterina Valente, and Frankie Trumbauer’s Orchestra. Completing the record is Arthur Lyman’s crazy voodoo lounge version that evokes visions of palm trees and sun-drenched white sand. Sit back and enter the intoxicating world of… “Taboo.”
File Under: Surf, Exotica
Various: Tropical Disco Hustle Vol. 2 (Cultures Of Soul) LP
“Cultures of Soul is proud to release the highly anticipated follow-up to the widely successful Tropical Disco Hustle, an album full of rare disco tunes that exude a Caribbean flavor. This album takes us back to Trinidad and Jamaica and sends us on a few new adventures in St. Lucia and Guadeloupe. Three tracks by Wild Fire including ‘The Dealer,’ as well as two other classic disco tracks, ‘Dance With Me’ and ‘Try Making Love,’ can be heard on this new compilation. The album also features two killer disco workouts by the Tru Tones, ‘Dancing’ and ‘Let’s Party,’ with the latter having been heavily influenced by the Jacksons. Both tracks are rare and in demand by DJs and record collectors alike. Also featured here is an excellent cover of Chanson’s ‘Don’t Hold Back’ by reggae legend Derrick Harriott, and the under-the-radar, African-influenced disco tune ‘Caribean People’ by Camille Hildevert. This album was compiled and researched by Deano Sounds, with edits by french DJ-extraordinary Waxist Selecta and legendary UK disco DJ Al Kent.”
File Under: Disco
Various: Wizzz! French Psychorama 1967-1970 Vol. 3 (Born Bad) LP
Includes six-page booklet. One, two, three… hold your breath for 40 minutes for a peregrination through a special kind of pop music “made in France” between 1967 and 1970, a mix of ribaldry, flashes of brilliance, and adventurous twists on familiar sounds. We will plunge into French-style pop, unapologetic and defiant; blue-white-and-red pop that does not take itself seriously, not out of line with its “yé-yé” contemporaries, who were themselves uninspired by the boring, commercial teenage music that dominated in France at that time. It is pop music fueled by creativity — though not always well-focused — with peculiar arrangements, inspired compositions, and precarious production… but oh so tasty! WIZZZ 3 spotlights French artists who dared to try, to experiment… Includes tracks by Dansez avec Moa, Bernard Chabert, Joanna, Pierre Paul Jacques, Evariste, Jean-Bernard de Libreville, Crischa, Long Chris, Nato, Papy, Fatty Nautty, Balthazar, Jane et Julie, Bruno Leys, and Marcel Artero.
File Under: Psych, French, Pop
…..Restocks…..
Antena: Camino Del Sol (Numero) LP
Arcade Fire: Funeral (Merge) LP
Arcade Fire: Neon Bible (Merge) LP
Albert Ayler: Spirits Rejoice (Esp) LP
Bad Guys: Bad Guynaecology (Riot Season) LP
Black Angels: Phosphene Dream (Blue Horizon) LP
Brian Jonestown Massacre: Musique de Film Imagine (A-Musik) LP
Brothers of the Sonic Cloth: s/t (Neurot) LP
Philip Cohran: On The Beach (Tizona) LP
Alessandro Cortini: Forse 3 (Important) LP
Cramps: Songs the Lord Taught Us (Vinylisssimo) LP
Cramps: Psychedelic Jungle (Vinylisssimo) LP
Elder: s/t (Headspin) LP
Elder: Dead Roots Stirring (Headspin) LP
Faith No More: The Real Thing (Music on Vinyl) LP
Jon Hassell/Brian Eno: 4th World: Possible Musics (Glitterbeat) LP
Jesus Lizard: Goat (Touch & Go) LP
Minor Threat: Out of Step (Dischord) LP
Minor Threat: s/t (Dischord) LP
Moondog: Viking of 6th Avenue (Honest Jon’s) LP
Nazoranai: Most Painful… (Idealogic Organ) LP
OST: The Holy Mountain (Real Gone) LP
Parker/Bailey/Bennink: Topography of Lungs (Otoroku) LP
Raconteurs: Broken Boy Soldiers (Third Man) LP
Schlippenbach Trio: Pakistani Pomade (Cien Fuegos) LP
Ty Segal: Manipulator (Drag City) LP
Nina Simone: To Love Somebody (4 Men With Beards) LP
Sleep: Dopesmoker (Southern Lord) LP
Omar Souleyman: Haflat Gharb (Sublime Frequencies) LP
Spoon: A Series of Sneaks (Merge) LP
Spoon: Girls Can Tell (Merge) LP
Spoon: Kill The Moonlight (Merge) LP
Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge) LP
Spoon: Transference (Merge) LP
Sprawl: s/t (Trost) LP
Toro y Moi: What For? (Carpark) LP
Piero Umiliani: Tra Scienza (We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want) LP
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats: Mind Control (Rise Above) LP
Verckys & Orchestre Veve: Congolese Funk (Analog Africa) LP
Virgo: s/t (Rush Hour) LP
Warpig: s/t (Kreation) LP
Weakerthans: Reunion Tour (Anti) LP
White Stripes: Elephant (Third Man) LP
Various: Forge Your Own Chains (Now Again) LP